Wierd not quite eating behaviour

Hi guys,

I have a bit of a strange one for you:

I'm probably just being paranoid but I'm a little worried about one of my axies.
firstly lets get the standards out of the way:
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 20
ph 7.8
temp 15 to 17degree C range
sand substrate

She's exhibiting no visible signs of stress (gills back, tail and dorsal cress straight and unkinked) or impaction, not visibly under weight yet

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for the last week or so Gretchen seems to have "gone off" eating though she displays the signs of being hungry such as snapping at the turkey baster when I remove poo and my fingers when in the tank. I've tried differently sourced of earthworms (both lobworms from wormsdirect and from my neighbours (untreated) garden).

She will generally take them into her mouth and then reject them. I've tried cutting them up but no matter how small she spits them out. Thinking it may be the worms having a bad taste or something I've been cutting a couple of worms up and feeding one half of each to Klaus first, if he swallows then give the other half to Gretchen but it doesn't appear to be that. I've also tried feeding her lean steak, bloodworms, pellets and blackworm but no joy.
Now I have a theory but I may be wrong; a couple of weeks ago I popped some (quarantined) cherry shrimp in the tank and both axies LOVED them. Last night one of the survivors from the cherry shrimp massacre came very close to Gretchen, she had a go at it but missed - is it possible that she enjoyed the cherry shrimp so much that nothing else is matching up?
tx

gaz

Hey Gaz
How big is she? And how often do you feed her?

Mel

Has she been passing waste recently?

yup she certainly has hence why i'm not to worried about impaction

melfly said:

Hey Gaz
How big is she? And how often do you feed her?

Mel

Click to expand...

Hi mel, she is between 8 to 9 inches long now and she is fed usually every other day one and a half medium sized worms

Hmmmm not sure.
You've tried her with different foods which is where i would suggest to start.
Have you tried live bloodworm?
She might just be wanting something different but wriggly.

Mel

yup, i was being paranoid it seems as she's just eaten a huge worm hehe, though it did that some coaxing thx again guys

Nice one! Glad she's ok! Mel