Axie not eating

[Slinkee]

One of my axies hasn't eaten in almost a week, pellets or worms. I also noticednthese red worms in her tank. The only live foods I REMEMBER feeding her are black worms. Is that a a parasite? Is she maybe eating these?

 

[Smoxolotl]

If you have fed live blackworms before, that may be what that is. You could always find a way to get a closer look at it (magnifying glass, microscope, etc.) and make a closer identification on the worm in question. Have you noticed any obvious signs of fungal infection? The cloaca on your axolotl appears swollen. May be just the angle of the picture, but it looks big to me. What do you feed your axi mainly?

 

[Slinkee]

Hmmm, I hadn't noticed her cloaca being swollen but it is perhaps slightly. By no means protruding or bulbous though. I haven't seen any signs of fungal infection and she doesn't seem to have noticeably lost weight. She gets Hikari carnivore pellets and earthworms, lately favoring pellets over worms.

 

[HayleyK]

If you're just chucking in blackworms live, they will burrow in the sand.

 

[Boomsloth]

If you're just chucking in blackworms live, they will burrow in the sand.

I hated feeding live black worms for this reason. I use a bare bottom tank and figured that there'd be nowhere for the worms to go. They hid under and in every ornament, thermometer, and their food dish. I was just moving some of the plastic plants around and a blackworm fell out. Its been months since i've fed them black worms....
I've heard of fish owners who use gravel having to be cautious when feeding live black worms because it only takes one worm disappearing into the gravel for their to be a 100 waving worms months later.

 

[Smoxolotl]

I have a field of blackworms in my sand. Is this a problem? Doesn't seem to effect my parameters much. I do a thorough run through the sand with the gravel vacuum once a week and a partial water change, but can never get them all! I figured, if anything, the worms would provide stimulation for my axies as they love to root through the sand anyway.

 

[Lianne]

On another axie forum someone's lotties got in serious trouble when there was live food burrowing in the sand. The axies tried to eat them and they swallowed alot of sand and they got so constipated their gut came out through the cloaca. After a vet visit they're fine again but please be careful with chucking in live food!

 

[Skudo09]

On another axie forum someone's lotties got in serious trouble when there was live food burrowing in the sand. The axies tried to eat them and they swallowed alot of sand and they got so constipated their gut came out through the cloaca. After a vet visit they're fine again but please be careful with chucking in live food!

Wow that is a very serious case of prolapse :-/ sounds like the little guy is very lucky to be alive.

 

[Skudo09]

It might be a good idea to try and remove the worms from the sand (you may have to remove some sand in the process) to prevent her eating them.

Is she still not eating?

 

[Slinkee]

She still isn't eating, we haven't fed black worms since she was big enough for pellets, which must have been at least 9 months ago! But I guess if there were only a few it would have taken some time to build up a population. Maybe I'll renovate her tank this weekend and see what I find in the sand.

 

[Skudo09]

What are the water parameters - ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH and temperature? Has she been pooing normally? Any signs of floating?