VERY skinny axie, recovering from fungus but just wont eat!

Hi guys,

I've had an axie for a couple of months now, and for the first month and a half she was fine and happy, but in the past couple of weeks she's come down with fungus. I've been salt bathing her and now the fungus is all gone, but its been over a week since she's eaten and shes very very skinny now. It has been warm in the tank (22-24) but I'm lowering the temperature with ice bricks.

I've tried blood worms, earthworms, feeder fish, axie pellets and he just wont eat anything.

I had the water checked for ammonia, nitrate etc. and its fine, I'm just not sure what else to do.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Josh,

Your axie may have been stressed by the warm temperature (fungus often occurs when temperature is too high) and this might be causing her not to eat. When you use icebricks, have you been keeping the temperature stable? If it is causing the temperature to fluctuate a lot, this is stressful so try to maintain the temperature below 20C if possible. Did you keep up the salt baths for about a week after all the fungus disappeared?

Also, you said you've been using feeder fish. Did you quarantine the fish for 30 days if you bought them from a pet store? If feeder fish aren't quarantined it's possible your axolotl could have picked up a disease from one of them. Is there any other signs of stress besides not eating in your axolotl? (growths/strange spots, curled tail or gills that point forward?)

Anyway, keep trying with the food in the mean time and I hope she starts eating soon for you!

If the temperature keeps warm i would pop him in the fridge, or move him to the coolest part of the home.
I have found that by leaving curtains closed and opening a window this keeps the temperature several degrees lower than in my rroms with the curtains open.
I would think it is a heat issue, and fridging may be the best course, as long as the fridge is above 5 degrees, you might find when he is more relaxed he will eat some food. Trying live food is the best option as this is more of a stimulant.

hi,my axie was the same very very thin. see my pic. to start feeding him i would offer half a worm for 5 min, for the first couple of times he would not eat it, i would leave it in the tank and i could tell that he was having little nibbles. this morning he ate two half worms. he is looking a lot better. i put a wet towel around his tank and put a fan on it and the water temp went down. i just keeped checking that the towel was wet. i have taken out the feeder fish and just going to feed him with worms. hope this helps

thanks all,

Will continue with ice bricks and salt baths and hope for the best. The ice bricks do seem to be keeping the temp stable, I just rotate them 3 times per day and have been able to maintain ~18 degrees, I'll try dropping it further though.

thanks again

I don't know how financial you are JoshBones but I found the iceblocks were a pain in the butt trying to swap & change them. An aquarium chiller by far does wonders. I leave the house & no longer worry about them in the tank or what temp its at.