I woke up this morning and checked on my axies as I do every morning, and found one of them laying on his side. I grabbed a net and poked him, and he was stiff. Checked the other two in the tank with him, and both of them were dead as well. Three 7" axolotls in a 20 gallon aquarium, bare bottom but with some fake plants and decorations to hide behind, and three potted aquarium plants. I've been keeping them like this since February (started out with a group of 5 and moved two others to another 20 gallon. Water changes haven't been quite as frequently as I like, but on the over-filtered tank, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are always perfectly fine (0, 0, and under 15). Water is hard well water for them (I bypass the softener to fill their tank) with chlorine injected to the entire plumbing system (then removed with Prime). This is the same water I use for three tanks of African clawed frogs, and three aquariums of fish (except I don't bypass the softener for the fish). I've never had a problem with this tank, or with any of the axolotls. All three of these guys are growing well (in February they were less than 2" and at death were all at least 7") on a diet of less than 10% HBH Pellets and 90% worms (red wrigglers and canadian crawlers normally, and in the last month and a half or so I switched to red worms/European drift worms/panfish worms).
The change? A new pack of worms. I can't guarantee this was the problem, but it certainly sounds like it to me. Night before last I fed them some of a new packet of panfish worms from Wal-Mart that I've had in the fridge for about two weeks. Yesterday I didn't feed them (I only feed every 2-3 days), but all three were active & moving around. The last worms they've been eating were bought at the same time, but this was the first time I fed them worms out of this container. This morning, all three were dead- their bellies were bloated, and their throats looked ready to pop open.
The part that confuses me is that my other two in a different aquarium ate these exact same worms, and they're perfectly fine. For the moment at least.
Any thoughts on anything else it could have been that would suddenly kill all three?
The change? A new pack of worms. I can't guarantee this was the problem, but it certainly sounds like it to me. Night before last I fed them some of a new packet of panfish worms from Wal-Mart that I've had in the fridge for about two weeks. Yesterday I didn't feed them (I only feed every 2-3 days), but all three were active & moving around. The last worms they've been eating were bought at the same time, but this was the first time I fed them worms out of this container. This morning, all three were dead- their bellies were bloated, and their throats looked ready to pop open.
The part that confuses me is that my other two in a different aquarium ate these exact same worms, and they're perfectly fine. For the moment at least.
Any thoughts on anything else it could have been that would suddenly kill all three?