26 May 09:
Hello
I'm a bit concerned that Petrie has been eating less and less these past couple of weeks.
I'll list all the info I can:
Tank is around 2 and three quarter feet long by 15 inches wide. It is around 17 inches high. I believe it holds around 80 litres.
This tank is home to one axolotl, Petrie, aged around 10-11 months - he is roughly 8 inches long.
I have an internal filter, with a spray bar set up, so flow is minimal. There are half logs and whatnot for him to hide in. There are quite a lot of live plants. I have used sand as a substrate.
So far, so good, no risk of impaction :happy:.
Water tests are great - ammonia and nitrite are at 0, nitrate is at 5 and PH is 7.5. The water in the tank is left to stand for 24 hours and dechlorinator is added prior to putting in the tank.
The aquarium lighting is on for two hours a day - it is quite a low wattage, however, I was a bit concerned that it was still too bright for Petrie, as he would go and shelter in one of his hiding spots when it came on. Sooo, a couple of weeks ago, I turned the lights into a tropical purple, by using a coloured filter for theatre lights, and wrapping it round the bulbs. There is no risk of melting, as the filter is built for theatre lights, which are MUCH hotter and Petrie seems a lot more comfortable in this lighting.
I was feeding Petrie around 4-5 earthworms (1-2 inches long when in water...they seem to look longer in water!) every other day. These worms are aquired from a pesticide-free garden.
From reading a recent thread, I now believe I may have been feeding him a little too much and 3-4 worms every 2 days would have been better (for an 8 inch axie)? However recently, his interest in food seems to be waining. I'll give a run down of what he's scoffed the past fortnight:
Day 0: 6 worms
Day 2: 5 worms
Day 4: 6 worms
Day 6: 4 worms
Day 8: 2 worms
Day 10: 1 worm
Day 12: 3/4 of a cube of defrosted bloodworms
Day 14: A couple of small bites of defrosted bloodworms
Every day, I've offered him a nice, fresh, wiggling earthworm - when his appetite first started dropping, he would at first suck them up, then drop them and so on, until he scoffed it down - then the odd one started getting away (which I would clean up). Then, he stopped sucking them up and just stalked them like a hunter, but didn't actually try to consume. Now today, I dropped one in front of him and he turned around and walked away from it, seemingly repulsed by the sight of it!
And today (day 14) he would hardly touch the bloodworms either.
The only possible cause for this, by my reckoning, is the water temp - it's got a bit warmer these past few weeks and now gets to around 21oC - I am aware that this is higher than ideal, however, to my knowledge, as Petrie is the sole occupant of a reasonable sized tank, with ammonia and nitrite testing at zero, I believed this would be ok? But temp is the only thing I can think of as I seem to recall that loss in appetite is one of the first signs of temperature stress...
Additionally, one further thing throws me (and this is really odd) - he looks ABSOLUTELY FINE. Now, something must be causing his appetite to drop - but if it was illness or stress, I would expect this to show in his physical appearance - but he looks healthy, still plump, with uncurled tail tip and un-curled gills - also, his gills are quite pink, which surprised me, as he has not ate real food in so long! I would honestly believe someone else was feeding him, if I didn't live alone...
So, to summerise (so sorry for the painfully long post), I am scouring the internet for chillers (thus sacrificing the money I was going to spend on a holiday in September).
In the meantime, should I fridge Petrie? And can anyone shed any light on to what is wrong with my little monster?
Thanks Zoe x