MereB
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Not sure if I should post this here or in the sick axies thread 
but decided here was better since it's really about the 'sand'. It's kind of long but please bare with me.
I had to have one of my 17cm axies put to sleep last week and an autopsy was done.
The finding were a little disturbing.
A little background on him first.
He was 9 1/2 months old and 17cm long. A beautiful little wild with extremely low expression of iridophors. A beautiful little critter.
I'd set up his tank (a 5x1x1.5) over 6 months ago and he had been living in it for almost as long.
The substrate was Black Tahitian moon sand which after more than a few members had raved about it here I though I'd give a try. I was a little surprised at how course and sharp feeling it was since it was sold as 'sand' I had expected it to be much softer but plenty of other axie lovers were raving about it and I'd spent $120 on it so I didn't think any more of it. It's supposed to be of an appropriate size for axies according to is package so I didn't bother sieving it at all. They also had live plants, rock cave hide, 'flower pot' hide and hollow log. He had heaps of his siblings as tank mates, without incident, up until the week before when I sold 11 of them to an aquarium store leaving this little one and one of his siblings.
I stupidly had brought the water I took them to the store in back home and had just poured it back into the tank when I remembered that they had used their own fishnets to catch them out of the foam box to add to the tank. Stupid stupid stupid! There could be any number of fish bugs lurking in the water off the nets but what is done is done. Their usual clean out was done a day earlier than usual as a result but there's noting new about a water change and vacuum.
So a few days after the water incident...
He'd taken to hanging around the top of the tank in the plants at the surface which I didn't think anything of since he wasn't showing signs of impaction or any other fish diseases and could happily sit on the bottom if you touched his head to scare him down. His one remaining tank mate was perfectly fine too.
A couple of days later he was looking a bit skinnier so I pulled him out for a little one on one TLC it's then that I noticed his belly was a bit red on the sides and bulging out on each side which it wasn't doing 2 days earlier. The 'lumps' on each side were slightly offset so you could draw a diagonal line across them. He was also refusing food which would certainly explain the weight loss. I have no idea how long it had been since he had eaten since I'd just been putting the pellets in the tank and letting them eat for the last few months.
The following day a small red sore had appeared on the bottom of his tummy, right where you'd expect a belly button to be if they had them
The next day the hole was a little larger and had blood & gloopy fleshy stuff poking out. Fearing some sort of parasitic or internal bacterial infection and out of concern for the other axie in the tank it was off the the vet.
Given the possibility of nasties from my stupid error with the water and the presence of another axie that could be infected I needed to know what was going on as I didn't want to spread this to the rest of my axies if it was contagious.
The vet though it was likely a blockage and an infection and it was beyond the point where we could help him given how weak he already was and that it had progressed so far.
We decided that euthenasia would be best at this stage so I left him in the vets capable hands.
So results are in. The problem was a 2mm pce of Tahitian moon sand that had perforated this poor little guys bowel in the small tube that connects to the stomach before it all heads to the intestines to be pooped out and all the leaking poop etc is what had caused the swelling and infection and it had eaten it's way through his abdomen resulting in the oozing hole and one VERY unhappy axie at the end.
Vet seemed to think that it all happened very quickly and that the perforation was a very recent thing. Just coincidence that it happened just after the possibly contaminated water was added.
Now this was probably a one in a million thing and it may never happen again but I'm thinking that maybe along with the size recommendations we all make for substrate that maybe we should include a warning about choosing products that don't feel sharp to the touch.
Below are some pics of the offender
It's only 2mm's but as you can maybe see it's quite sharp and it does feel very sharp when I roll it between my fingers. The other axie has since been removed from the tank I'm not taking the risk of it happening again.
but decided here was better since it's really about the 'sand'. It's kind of long but please bare with me.I had to have one of my 17cm axies put to sleep last week and an autopsy was done.
The finding were a little disturbing.
A little background on him first.
He was 9 1/2 months old and 17cm long. A beautiful little wild with extremely low expression of iridophors. A beautiful little critter.
I'd set up his tank (a 5x1x1.5) over 6 months ago and he had been living in it for almost as long.
The substrate was Black Tahitian moon sand which after more than a few members had raved about it here I though I'd give a try. I was a little surprised at how course and sharp feeling it was since it was sold as 'sand' I had expected it to be much softer but plenty of other axie lovers were raving about it and I'd spent $120 on it so I didn't think any more of it. It's supposed to be of an appropriate size for axies according to is package so I didn't bother sieving it at all. They also had live plants, rock cave hide, 'flower pot' hide and hollow log. He had heaps of his siblings as tank mates, without incident, up until the week before when I sold 11 of them to an aquarium store leaving this little one and one of his siblings.
I stupidly had brought the water I took them to the store in back home and had just poured it back into the tank when I remembered that they had used their own fishnets to catch them out of the foam box to add to the tank. Stupid stupid stupid! There could be any number of fish bugs lurking in the water off the nets but what is done is done. Their usual clean out was done a day earlier than usual as a result but there's noting new about a water change and vacuum.
So a few days after the water incident...
He'd taken to hanging around the top of the tank in the plants at the surface which I didn't think anything of since he wasn't showing signs of impaction or any other fish diseases and could happily sit on the bottom if you touched his head to scare him down. His one remaining tank mate was perfectly fine too.
A couple of days later he was looking a bit skinnier so I pulled him out for a little one on one TLC it's then that I noticed his belly was a bit red on the sides and bulging out on each side which it wasn't doing 2 days earlier. The 'lumps' on each side were slightly offset so you could draw a diagonal line across them. He was also refusing food which would certainly explain the weight loss. I have no idea how long it had been since he had eaten since I'd just been putting the pellets in the tank and letting them eat for the last few months.
The following day a small red sore had appeared on the bottom of his tummy, right where you'd expect a belly button to be if they had them
The next day the hole was a little larger and had blood & gloopy fleshy stuff poking out. Fearing some sort of parasitic or internal bacterial infection and out of concern for the other axie in the tank it was off the the vet.
Given the possibility of nasties from my stupid error with the water and the presence of another axie that could be infected I needed to know what was going on as I didn't want to spread this to the rest of my axies if it was contagious.
The vet though it was likely a blockage and an infection and it was beyond the point where we could help him given how weak he already was and that it had progressed so far.
We decided that euthenasia would be best at this stage so I left him in the vets capable hands.
So results are in. The problem was a 2mm pce of Tahitian moon sand that had perforated this poor little guys bowel in the small tube that connects to the stomach before it all heads to the intestines to be pooped out and all the leaking poop etc is what had caused the swelling and infection and it had eaten it's way through his abdomen resulting in the oozing hole and one VERY unhappy axie at the end.
Vet seemed to think that it all happened very quickly and that the perforation was a very recent thing. Just coincidence that it happened just after the possibly contaminated water was added.
Now this was probably a one in a million thing and it may never happen again but I'm thinking that maybe along with the size recommendations we all make for substrate that maybe we should include a warning about choosing products that don't feel sharp to the touch.
Below are some pics of the offender
It's only 2mm's but as you can maybe see it's quite sharp and it does feel very sharp when I roll it between my fingers. The other axie has since been removed from the tank I'm not taking the risk of it happening again.
