Axolotl isn’t eating enough

[Lo12]

Hi all!! I am a fairly new axolotl mom, so im still learning about them. Anyway, me and my fiancé have two males. I started to notice that maybe they were fighting over the food and not eating enough. (Filaments were small and never growing back) so we started to feed our bigger axolotl (Winston) night crawlers again because he had stopped eating those awhile ago. We got him to eat those again, so he’s staring to look a lot healthier. Our other axolotl is smaller, and really skinny. Ever since we got him, we haven’t been able to get him to eat worms (we cut them in half incase they were too big, but he just wouldn’t eat it), and we also tried pellets, but he wouldn’t eat them either. We’ve been feeding him the frozen cubed blood worms, and he eats those fine. But, even though he’s gotten bigger, he hasn’t gained any weight since we got him, and his filaments haven’t started to grow back. Just looking for some advice as to how I can help my boys. I know they need to be feed separately, so that’s been working, I just want remi (he’s the skinny one) to eat more.

and as a side note if this is helpful info; the ph level in the tank is high currently, but we’re taking measures to fix that!!!

any help is appreciated!!

 

[AMurry24537]

Feeding separately sounds like a good idea. Just to get a better idea of the situation with Remi, is he attempting to eat the cut-up worms and just spitting it out or is he just ignoring it all together? If he's trying, but spitting it out, I'd try cutting them up even smaller. Otherwise, since he's willing to eat at least bloodworms, I would suggest trying out other food options. I personally use a combination of Canadian nightcrawlers and axolotl pellets from Invert Aquatics (available on Amazon) as food for mine, but I know others have had good results with some other common axolotl foods.

 

[Lo12]

When we first got him, he did try to eat the cut up worm but still spit it out. Just last night we held one in front of him but he didn’t take it at all. He eats the blood worms, and we tried putting pellets in there for added protein, but he wouldn’t eat them. Do you think if we cut up the worm into small pieces that might work better? (We had cut it in half before) or should we just find a different food source? I’m just trying to get him to gain some weight!!

 

[AMurry24537]

When I first got my guy (he was about 5 in), I had to cut up the big worms into 4 or sometimes even more pieces. Basically, I would start at half, and if he managed to get that down, great. If not, I would cut the piece in half again and so forth. You could also try red wigglers, but some axolotls don't like them. I've never use Repashy Grub Pies myself, but I know a lot of other people on here have used them in similar circumstances to yours.

 

[Lo12]

Yeah, we did try the red wrigglers with remi, but he didn’t like it. Winston is fine with those though. Remi is just picky but I’ll try cutting it up into more pieces!