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Tiny axolotl won't grow, dark belly?

Axolotlmom96

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Hi everyone,
I posted on another site about my axolotl Lemon who is around 7-9 months old, is still very tiny, barely shows interest in food and won't gain weight. I posted a picture of her and my much larger axolotl Poppy who's the same age and people commented their concern on her dark belly. What does everyone here think? Does her belly look normal? Any ideas what I can do to encourage her to eat/help her grow and gain weight?
Xfkn36f


This one is from a month ago:
Ncv2UYp


This one is from today:
Co6tdhU


Here's the original post I made for more details:
I've had my two axies Lemon and Poppy since June. They were born either in early March or early May. They were "rescues" so I don't know anything about their living conditions prior to their adoption but I'm thinking they weren't the best.
Anyways, both of them seem quite small to me for their age (7-9 months) but Lemon is especially tiny and doesn't seem to be growing much? When she came to us she had one leg missing so at first her size wasn't a worry, I figured she needed to expend all her energy on regenerating it.
Now, she's about 2.5 inches only and quite skinny. She doesn't show much interest in food- when both are fed 1 cube of bloodworms Poppy eats nearly the whole thing and appears eager for more whereas lemon eats only like 5 individual worms, which takes her forever and she has to be encouraged even just to do that. She's been this way ever since I've gotten her and I'm getting quite worried about it now that nothing's changed for so long.
I'm sure I left out some useful info but I didn't want this post to turn into an essay so hopefully someone can help me out and def feel free to ask if you need any info about them! Cheers
 

Axolotlmom96

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reposting the photos of my axies since I can't open them in my original post so assuming no one else can either.
The size difference between my two which are the same age (forgot to mention they eat separately, but at the same times and offered the same amount of food so aggression etc. are not issues):
https://imgur.com/a/Xfkn36f

Pic of Lemon and her dark little belly a month ago.
https://imgur.com/a/Ncv2UYp
At this time she had a little rip in her tail which seems to have healed mostly after fridging- see below,
thoughts on the state of her tail would be appreciated as well.

Pic of Lemon yesterday
https://imgur.com/a/Co6tdhU
(sand on her head is bc I had to chase her around with the net a little to get her to move into a better position for the photo lol)

Forgot to mention I'm also concerned about her gills which are very small and pale.
Any advice I can get on how to help her thrive would be Incredibly appreciated. I love her to bits and want to see her grow up into a chubby happy healthy lotl!

PS. do you think their size difference is becoming too much for them to be housed together? No problems at all so far, and they always seem to want to be near each other in the tank, I often find them like they are in the first photo or following each other around, but reading other people's posts has me concerned.
 
Last edited:

Hayleyy

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First I wanted to say that they are beautiful axolotls!
If you can I would separate them to avoid any accidental snacking on little Lemon. Depending on the size of your tank you might be able to get a divider. Axies are known to knock them down so you would need to secure it well.
Are there any other food types you have access to? Nightcrawlers (cut up) or even pellets might tempt her appetite.
I wonder if the dark belly might be ingested sand? Is she has eaten sand it may be repressing her appetite. Tub her for a few days and see if she passes any.
Also if you can test the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate it might help with the gills.
 
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