super fat female

We have a mature female axloltl (Trixie) in our preschool. We have had her about a year. One of our parents (a mom) brought her in and didn't give us much care info. She works in a biology lab at a univesity and i guess they have a bunch of them because one day she asked if any of the teachers wanted an axolotl and i had fallen in love with Trixie so i said yes. Trixie is white so i asked for a white one. I got a mature male.(2 months ago) his name is Axle. In having him i noticed that Trixie is rounder than him. In my research i found out that females usually are rounder, but two days ago she seemed fatter. her little legs almost don't touch the ground. a week prior she had a 100% water change in her tank. she is still active and eating. i don't have any pictures, but i will get one if it will help to figure out what is wrong with her. while trying to find out what is wrong with trixe(on this site) i found out that axle is skinny. they both eat pellets. Trixe eats way more than Axle. She eats like five pellets a day. Am i over feeding her? She catches them in her mouth. Axle only eats like three a day. He jumps up to get his food.(it is really cute) I am worried about trixie's roundness, but i also wounder should Axle be eating something more that pellets? I had the mother who braught Trixe check her out and she said she had never seen an axololt that round before, but she also said she did have eggs in her. She didn't know why she was so round though. You would think she would be more informative since she is a biologist that works with axolotls, but she isn't much help. This site is the most informative for me, so i hope someone might know what is going on with trixie. I'm going to get a picture tomarrow because i am sure that would help peolple help me help her.

I'm not a smart one but from me there could be 2 possibilities here. You said they eat pellets well what substrate do you use for Trixie's tank? If its gravel there's a possibility she had injested some thus caused bloating. The other could be shes pregnant & is about to lay some eggs either on a plastic plant or anything you have in her tank. I'm unsure how long when they are pregant it takes for them to then begin laying eggs. Someone with more knowledge I'm sure can help you more.

So i got some pictures of trixie and i tryed to upload them, but it said they were not the right size so i will have to get some help and try again later.

Still haven't gotten those pictures uploaded.don't know how. trixie acts normal besided her fatty belly. it is kind of cute when she walks, which she does fairly often. it is like a waddle. she still eats normally. she eats pellets. i haven't gotten much feedback on what could be wrong with her. has this not happened to anyone? no fatty axies out there. maybe she is obese. well i'm just checking in i will get those pictures uploaded soon and maybe i will get more advice.

so i think i might have gotten this picture thing figured out we'll see. wish me luck

i did figure out the picture thing so here is another. maybe i will get some more feedback now.

Personally I think she has swallowed some of that gravel. To me she looks like a balloon thats been filled with air then had some stones thrown in and the stones have sunk to the bottom. I hope she can swim up to get air if she needs to. If it was me I would be spending the next hour or so getting that gravel out. Then its just a waiting game as to whether she will pass the stones.
A spell in the fridge may help.

I suspect you'll find the small stones are what are causing the problem. When axolotl feed the' suck' in their food like a vacuum and anything else near the food can potentially go in too. You need to remove all the stones from the tank, either leave the base clear or replace with sand. After that I am pretty sure you'll find stones reappearing in the tank ( which will need to be taken out) and a more slim line axolotl.

Hehe she is a wee plum one aint she.
Yeah I agree with bellabelloo,they stones are a bit of a hazard. I'd recomend sand for aesthetics or a bare tank florr for hygenine either way they two work well.

yeah she came with all that stuff(rocks). what kind of sand? i read on one of these post that maybe childrens play sand would do is that true? also she doesn't and has never swam to the top. i don't think she is an air breather srtaight water for that girl. my male at home doesn't go up for air either. he swims more than she does though. even befor trixie got fat i have never seen her swim. she is a bottom cruiser. and even fat she is sitll cruising. she has been super fat for a little over a month now, wouldn't she have passed a stone by now? how long does it take? thanks for all the feedback it is much apreciated

Stones can take months to pass depending on their size.
She could be passing stones and you dont notice because there are stones in there.
The only way to check is to remove what is already there and wait.
If she starts having a bouyancy problem removing her to the fridge will help.
As an adult she should only be eating 2-3 times a week and a couple of juicy earth worms would be better for her, they might also fatten Axle.

took all the rocks out. she still hasn't passed them. her rear end has floated up a few times. i hope that she gets through this. i saw another guy posted about a bloated axie and it looks the same as mine. ifeel bad for her. what does axie poop look like? what is a substrate?

a substrate is simply the stuff on the bottom of your tank.

eg- you had large pebbles

a substrate id suggest is sand.

its alot finer, so if your axie does swallow it, it will be able to poop it out.

plus, my own personal opinion, i think it looks better than pebbles.


are you feeding your axie still?... if you are... id stop.

if its constipated and you keep feeding it, then your just making it worse...

try leaving it for a couple of days and see what happens

Good Luck

Robbie :smile:

Hi toofunnyrainbow,

It can take months for an axie too pass all of the gravel. In the short term if you follow the fridging advice and stop feeding it for a while you should see results fairly quickly.

Good Luck

she passed a rock last week. there it was just sitting in her tank. she is doing much better. still a little bloated. maybe she ate more than one. how long should it take her to shrink back to normal?