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Illness/Sickness: Not eaten in 3 weeks

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Plonk

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I have two axies in a custom 4ft tank, male and female. My female is a little piggy she swims to the top as soon as she sees me with their meal worms and eats 6 each day, she even tries to swim over to me when Im trying to feed the male.
Anyway my male wont eat not even snap at food, he hasnt eaten in 3 weeks, though he did eat a meal worm last night but when I tried again today he wasnt even snapping at the food. I have had my water tested and its where it should be, and the water temp is good too, 14degC. I dont know why he wont eat.
 
Jacquie

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Hi Plonk,

I agree with Tom. 14C while being well within the comfort range for the axolotls (I'm sure they're not complaining ;)), can be a bit cold to encourage appetite (there are exeptions to this rule as your greedy little one proves). Generally, the colder the water, the more the axolotl's appetite will decrease due to the slowed metabolism.

16-18C is ideal. Are you able to safely raise and maintain the tank temperature to this range?

On another note, mealworms while being a nice snack are not a suitable staple for axolotls and if these are serving as the axolotl's main diet, this can lead to major health problems further down the road. I would suggest switching to earthworm which contains all the nutrition an axolotl needs in one wriggling package.

Just so we can rule these out as the possible causes:

What substrate are you using?
Is there any water flow?
What type of test kit are you using?
 
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Plonk

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Jacquie said:
Hi Plonk,

I agree with Tom. 14C while being well within the comfort range for the axolotls (I'm sure they're not complaining ;)), can be a bit cold to encourage appetite (there are exeptions to this rule as your greedy little one proves). Generally, the colder the water, the more the axolotl's appetite will decrease due to the slowed metabolism.

16-18C is ideal. Are you able to safely raise and maintain the tank temperature to this range?

On another note, mealworms while being a nice snack are not a suitable staple for axolotls and if these are serving as the axolotl's main diet, this can lead to major health problems further down the road. I would suggest switching to earthworm which contains all the nutrition an axolotl needs in one wriggling package.

Just so we can rule these out as the possible causes:

What substrate are you using?
Is there any water flow?
What type of test kit are you using?
Click to expand...


I have small rocks that I was given by the breeder, he said they are a good size to have for the axies. I have a Jebo waterfall over the side filter that is on the min flow plus I have a Aquar World submersible air generator, this sits on the bottom of my tank and sucks air in from the outside and blows the air in tiny bubbles in my tank. I was told I needed this as my tank is so big.
I get my water tested at the aquarium every few weeks.

I dont understand why one of my axies is such a pig and the other wont touch the food. How long can he go without eating?
 
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Plonk

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tomkeogh said:
Perhaps increasing the temperature will help obviously not too warm 18 or 19 maybe this will help?
Click to expand...


I put the glass covers on the top of the tank on tuesday and it rose the water up to 20 and he still wont eat. :(
 
Mac Myers

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I'd be interested to know how long it would take an increase in Temp. to stimulate an increase in appetite in Axolotls. In most Reptiles I've kept it's about 72 Hours assuming them Temp change isn't too sudden.
 
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Hi Plonk,
Sorry to jump in here. It's just my axolotl hasn't eaten for 3 weeks either. I'm not sure what's wrong with her still.

I was wondering though, how is your little guy? Has he started eating yet?
 
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HitmanSougo13

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I am really curious to what happened here in the end with the axolotls not eating did anyone figure out why? Or is it a seasonal thing where they just lose their appetite?
 
melfly

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HitmanSougo13 said:
I am really curious to what happened here in the end with the axolotls not eating did anyone figure out why? Or is it a seasonal thing where they just lose their appetite?
Click to expand...

I dont think this is the case as my 3 16month old axies have never ever been off their food.
In fact i've never had an axie refuse to eat.
In my opinion there is usually an underlying issue.

Mel
 
big a little a

big a little a

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My axolotl started refusing food last summer and I too was sent into a panic.

Substrate, water parameters, diet of earthworms - all seemed perfe3ct - only thing I could think of was that in the heat, the tank had been getting up to around 21oC.

I got an aquarium chiller to combat this, but still, he was refusing earthworms. It actually turned out to be the most simple reason - he'd simply gone off earthworms, because I, brimming in the knowledge that earthworms are the healthiest diet around for axies, had been feeding him earthworms nearly every day! I believe that he had a few red wigglers in with his worms which put him off them altogether.

I fed him bloodworms and some pellets and whatnot and after a couple of months, he was back on the earthworms (with a few other bits mingled in for variety).

So, it may just be that axies, like humans, get bored of eating the same food day in, day out!

Zoe x
 
melfly

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I agree Zoe, it could be that they prefer a little variety.

Mel
 
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HitmanSougo13

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Sometimes I find that they don't like it when u stare at them eat. I know I was really nervous when my axo won't eat for a week, there is a saying that some animals can sense it when u r stressed. so I left him and a part of a deworm alone and he finally ate
 
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