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URGENT: I think my juvenile axolotl swallowed a pebble!

mialeonard

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Aug 5, 2016
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Thank you so much for clicking on my post! I feel horrible and desperately need help.

Last week, I adopted two 8 months old axolotls. Archibald is a 4 inches long leucistic, and Alistair is 3 inches long (apparently, he/she is that small because her previous owner didn't feed him/her properly.) Alistair also had all her arms and legs bitten off when I adopted her, so she's quite weak and has a hard time swimming around. I've been feeling really sad about her ever since the adoption.

When I got them, I didn't know that axolotls should never live in aquariums with regular fish gravel, so I installed them with pebbles that range from approximately 10 mm in length and 2 mm in width to 12 mm in length and 10 mm. Of course, as soon as I read that they could swallow them, I removed them all... Since yesterday, they're living without substrate. I feel so guilty and scared, and I believe they both swallowed at least one pebble.

I'm especially worried about Alistair, the smallest one, because she's already very weak and seems to be floating around in a rather strange way. She also didn't eat since yesterday morning. I noticed some redness in her stomach; could it be due to internal bleeding? I'm terrified. Archibald ate two huge crickets a few hours ago and swims around normally.

More information: I feed them crickets and bloodworms twice daily, I changed 1/3 of their water twice since I got them, I have a 50G pump and 2 filters and I tested their water for nitrite and PH and the levels are completely normal. I'm currently looking for a dechlorinator, so their water currently contains the amount of chlorine that normal tap water from Montreal contains. The temperature of the water is just below 24C, which I know is way too high; I'm currently looking for a chiller.

If you need any more information to give me a diagnostic, please ask me! Thank you so much. :(

PS. The first picture is Archibald's tummy; the second one is Alistair's.
 
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