Ammonia won't disappear, axolotl won't eat

[JaneyG]

Hi all, I'm in real need of some help! We entered the world of axolotls in January and we made plenty of mistakes at the start, resulting in a task that hasn't been cycled properly, ammonia that won't disappear regardless of how many water changes and Seachem Prime doses we add and an axolotl that we haven't even actually seen eat.

At the start, we were so focused on keeping the water temp between 16-18° and feeding him that we ended up with lots of blood worms in the tank which we struggled cleaning up (we tried feeding worms and pellets too, nothing worked and we panicked!). By the time we realised the ammonia was high (between 0.5 and 1.0 ppm) we started 50% water changes every 2-3 days in consultation with pet store lady advice. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later when another pet store lady educated me on tank cycling and how building ammonia encourages the nitrate which in turns will then reduce ammonia.

So now, about 3 weeks later the ammonia is still about the same, nitrate is 0 and we've been daily Prime dosing and just typing up water when it evaporates a bit rather than water changes. I'm worried for our little guy as he's so skinny and has no appetite at all. I wish what I know now I knew 3 months ago.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[ArpTheAxolotl]

Hi all, I'm in real need of some help! We entered the world of axolotls in January and we made plenty of mistakes at the start, resulting in a task that hasn't been cycled properly, ammonia that won't disappear regardless of how many water changes and Seachem Prime doses we add and an axolotl that we haven't even actually seen eat.

At the start, we were so focused on keeping the water temp between 16-18° and feeding him that we ended up with lots of blood worms in the tank which we struggled cleaning up (we tried feeding worms and pellets too, nothing worked and we panicked!). By the time we realised the ammonia was high (between 0.5 and 1.0 ppm) we started 50% water changes every 2-3 days in consultation with pet store lady advice. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later when another pet store lady educated me on tank cycling and how building ammonia encourages the nitrate which in turns will then reduce ammonia.

So now, about 3 weeks later the ammonia is still about the same, nitrate is 0 and we've been daily Prime dosing and just typing up water when it evaporates a bit rather than water changes. I'm worried for our little guy as he's so skinny and has no appetite at all. I wish what I know now I knew 3 months ago.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Is he/she tubbed?

 

[JaneyG]

Is he/she tubbed?

No, not at the moment. Should that be my next step? And then cycle the tank?

 

[GulfCoastAxolotls]

Hi all, I'm in real need of some help! We entered the world of axolotls in January and we made plenty of mistakes at the start, resulting in a task that hasn't been cycled properly, ammonia that won't disappear regardless of how many water changes and Seachem Prime doses we add and an axolotl that we haven't even actually seen eat.

At the start, we were so focused on keeping the water temp between 16-18° and feeding him that we ended up with lots of blood worms in the tank which we struggled cleaning up (we tried feeding worms and pellets too, nothing worked and we panicked!). By the time we realised the ammonia was high (between 0.5 and 1.0 ppm) we started 50% water changes every 2-3 days in consultation with pet store lady advice. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later when another pet store lady educated me on tank cycling and how building ammonia encourages the nitrate which in turns will then reduce ammonia.

So now, about 3 weeks later the ammonia is still about the same, nitrate is 0 and we've been daily Prime dosing and just typing up water when it evaporates a bit rather than water changes. I'm worried for our little guy as he's so skinny and has no appetite at all. I wish what I know now I knew 3 months ago.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

You cant keep an axolotl in an uncycled tank and just let the ammonia rise. You will kill your axolotl. Prime helps to bind to the ammonia and convert into it's less toxic form of ammonium, but it's not a permanent fix and should NEVER be used in lieu of a water change. You have 2 choices here. You can either remove your axolotl from the tank and tub him, doing 100% water changes daily on the tub while the tank cycles. OR you can maintain stable water chemistry and keep your axolotl in the tank. Cycling will take longer that way. Sometimes up to a few months as opposed to 6-8 weeks, but it will get there. You cannot however, continue to do what you are doing. Stress from poor water chemistry and overdosing of prime is probably a main reason why he is not eating.

My suggestion at this point would be to tub him in fresh clean water (doing 100% changes daily) for at least the next week so you can hopefully get him to eat something. In that time, you can let the tank sit. Adding bacteria starter can help jump start your bacteria colonies. Microbelift Special Blend and Dr. Tim's One and Only are both good options.

 

[ArpTheAxolotl]

No, not at the moment. Should that be my next step? And then cycle the tank?

Yes you should tub him/her. But it looks like GulfCoastAxolotls told you first before I did. You should do what they told you, because I found it helpful when i did what they told me to do for my axolotl.

 

[JaneyG]

You cant keep an axolotl in an uncycled tank and just let the ammonia rise. You will kill your axolotl. Prime helps to bind to the ammonia and convert into it's less toxic form of ammonium, but it's not a permanent fix and should NEVER be used in lieu of a water change. You have 2 choices here. You can either remove your axolotl from the tank and tub him, doing 100% water changes daily on the tub while the tank cycles. OR you can maintain stable water chemistry and keep your axolotl in the tank. Cycling will take longer that way. Sometimes up to a few months as opposed to 6-8 weeks, but it will get there. You cannot however, continue to do what you are doing. Stress from poor water chemistry and overdosing of prime is probably a main reason why he is not eating.

My suggestion at this point would be to tub him in fresh clean water (doing 100% changes daily) for at least the next week so you can hopefully get him to eat something. In that time, you can let the tank sit. Adding bacteria starter can help jump start your bacteria colonies. Microbelift Special Blend and Dr. Tim's One and Only are both good options.

Thank you so much for your response, this gives me a direct plan about how to tackle the issue. I appreciate you going into lots of detail, it's made it much clearer to me.