Illness/Sickness: Axolotl not eating

[TeeJay]

Hey Guys I need some help
I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank with a sun sun hw-603b canister filter. There are two axolotls in the tank (which by the way are my pride and joy). One is a adult male wild type and the other is a adult female golden albino. I recently changed my substrate from Eco-complete live plant gravel to sand. Once I did that I fed them like usual that night after I was done. Ever since then the female hasn't eaten. The water stays around 65 degrees and she isnt showing any signs of heat stress. The water is perfect on all levels so I know that isn't causing it. The only weird thing is that she mostly just hangs out in my amazon sword that I have in the corner of my tank (see attached photo). I cant figure out what is causing her to not to want to eat. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[LSuzuki]

How long has it been?

I have heard that some female axolotls will lose their appetite when they are absorbing a batch of eggs. Hopefully, that is what it is.

If you have a male and a female, you will probably have eggs sooner or later. Even if you want eggs, you should consider how to separate them so she doesn't lay too often.

 

[TeeJay]

She hasnt eaten in 9 days. I do have a male and a female but I didnt think that a symptom of her being pregnant was her not eating. Is it?

 

[LSuzuki]

It isn't a symptom of being pregnant - they lay their eggs within a day or two after mating. But if they don't mate after some period of time, the females absorb the eggs, and I've read, sometimes lose their appetite for a bit. I don't know if 9 days is unreasonable or not - hopefully one of the more experienced breeders will chime in with more details. :happy:

 

[TeeJay]

Thanks for the info. I guess know all I need to know is how long she does lose her appetite for.

 

[LSuzuki]

Try posting in the "sick" or "breeding" sub-forums instead. The experts are more likely to notice a post there.

 

[TeeJay]

Ok I have been trying the night crawlers and cutting them up into about 1" pieces but she still isnt eating like normal. She might be getting a little bit bigger but I dont know if she is pregnant. I aslo have been noticing that there isnt much feces in the tank. Normally it would be pretty easy to spot since I have sand in the tank but there isnt much in the tank at all. Also my adult male wildtype isnt eating as much as well.So that got me to thinking that maybe they are having sand impaction. Is there any definite way of knowing if they have sand impaction and if they do how do iI treat it?????????