A funny belly...

[bunny27]

Hi, my axolotl isn't necessarily sick, or maybe she is, but she has this pointy looking stomach. Is this normal?

And I've fed her two feeder Rosy Reds and an earthworm once every other day, during one week and she hasn't pooped, so I'm wondering how often do they poop or how long does it take for them to digest? I just don't want her to be constipated or feeding her too much.

Just in case the info is needed, she's in a 10 gallon tank, water parameters are good, she has a whisper filter and the temperature is about 68 degrees F.

I'm a first time axolotl owner and any help would be greatly appreciated . Thanks in advance.



Sorry for the quality.

 

[bunny27]

Sorry for the double post, but I just fed it an earthworm and her stomach was rounder and less like how it looked like in the pictures. I guess she just needed to eat .

 

[Darkmaverick]

Has your axie ever been kept on gravel? Sometimes ingested gravel can make the tummy appear oddly shaped. You can fridge your axie for about 2-3 weeks to help facilitate passage of the material if that is the case.

 

[bunny27]

No, I have never had her on gravel because of the information I've received about axies dying from impaction, but she has those big river rocks as seen in the photo. I recently fed a worm and her stomach became round instead of pointy, so I guess she just needed some food, but if she doesn't poo anytime soon, I'll stick her in the fridge. THANKS so much!!!

 

[kinkyoto]

='[
Your axolotl doesnt have good grip on the bottom of the tank.
it could stress her out. You didnt want to put at least some sand for substrate?
what i did with mines was, i used a layer of sand for the substrate and then
scattered those large river rocks around evenly.

 

[Bellabelloo]

My guys do not have any substrate and have no problems at
all moving around their tank.

 

[bunny27]

='[
Your axolotl doesnt have good grip on the bottom of the tank.
it could stress her out. You didnt want to put at least some sand for substrate?
what i did with mines was, i used a layer of sand for the substrate and then
scattered those large river rocks around evenly.

Yeah, I don't think she has trouble walking around. I kind of split the tank into 2/3 rock and the other 1/3 with no rocks. I want to have that clear floor for when I'm feeding her, especially bloodworms so I know where they are and I can clean it. Thanks for the advice. If I think she needs sand I'll definitely use your idea .

 

[bunny27]

UPDATE!

Has your axie ever been kept on gravel? Sometimes ingested gravel can make the tummy appear oddly shaped. You can fridge your axie for about 2-3 weeks to help facilitate passage of the material if that is the case.

Darkmaverick was right! My axololtl did ingest what appears to be a broken piece of marble, which was definitely the cause of that odd stomach. I've never had marble in my tank so I'm assuming she ate that when she was at the petstore. After she passed the marble piece she seemed to be in pain, opening her mouth and closing it and one of her leg wasn't moving and she was swimming kind of wobbly at the top of the water. After a few hours, she seems fine now and is moving the other leg. I hope that marble didn't damage her insides since it was kind of edgy and pointy.

Thanks everyone for your help! I recently moved her to a 20 gallon tank so hopefully she'll recover soon and swim like she did.