Illness/Sickness: Axolotl refusing to eat and acting strange

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I've had my two axolotls for 1 year, when I got them they were both a year old so they would be over 2 years now. My leucistic Axolotl has been acting strangely over the last 5 days. He is usually quite active, eats really well and swims up to your hand when I go to feed him. 5 days ago he started hiding in his cave a lot more than usual. He ate on the first day but it was harder to get him interested than usual. At this time he looked stressed with his gills arched up and they were bright red. Since then he has been really quiet, his gills are back to normal but he isn't swimming around and whenever I try to feed him he makes no response and then backs away. My other Axolotl is behaving completely normally and eating well, however, he seems to be coming up for air a bit more often than usual.

I had the water conditions checked at the pet store and there was no ammonia or nitrite and pH was 8. I wasn't able to check for nitrate but as the tank is a your old I'm assuming it has cycled. Temperature has been between 20-22 degrees Celsius. I know this is a bit warm but I've been using ice bottles to get the water to 20. They have been in water this temperature for the last 5 months with no effect so far.

I'm so worried about my beautiful axie. I don't know whether to fridge him or not, my fridge won't go any higher that 4degrees Celsius. Please help me if you can
 
Also, their diet is frozen bloodworms occasionally and live earthworms. I did by a new batch of earthworms recently and they were quite big. However, my other axie seems to have had no bad response to them.
 
This may have nothing to do with whatever is up with your axolotl, but nitrates build up over time. It is best for your axolotl to keep the nitrates under 40 ppm. How often and how much water are you changing?

I'm not sure what to advise about your axolotl, aside from checking the nitrates and seeing if you can drop the temperature more. Can you blow a fan across the water to see if that helps? Usually evaporative cooling will drop the tank temp by a degree or too, and every bit helps in the summer.
 
I just moved him into a smaller tub inside an esky/cool box with some ice in an effort to keep him cooler. The tub doesn't have a filter but I'll do daily water changes so hopefully this might improve the conditions for him a bit. Still no luck with eating, and this afternoon he wasn't reacting to anything, including when my other axie bumped right into him ;(
 
The separate container inside a coolbox with ice could lower the metabolism which will reduce the amount he eats. You might want to post the temperature of the new container.

Did you move both your Axolotls to the new container? Since you said you moved him first but then said he didn't react when your other Axolotl bumped into him?

The colder container might not help anything, though colder temperatures do benefit healing. You really want to focus on getting your main tank temp down to 16-18 degrees Celsius. If you had any kind of heat wave with your temp generally at 22 degrees Celsius you could easily spike over 24 which will cause stress and disease. Perhaps look at chillers if its not so easy to position fans to cool the surface of the water, ice water bottles are not a consistent way of keeping your water temp down and temp can fluctuate.

Also look at buying a liquid test kit to test your Ammonia, Nitrite, NitrAtes, and PH.
I, and many of users on this forum use this: Welcome to API Fishcare: FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT
Testing your water to make sure your Nitrogen Cycle is functioning properly is key to your Axolotls health. If you do have particularly high NitrAtes this could be the cause of your problems. How often do you perform water changes? and How much water do you change?

Be sure that if you put your Axolotl back in the original tank that you acclimatize him, since the sudden temperature change can be stressful and potentially cause thermal shock.
 
I just moved the unwell Axolotl into the new container, the other one is in the original tank. the temp is down to 18 degrees in the tub but I imagine it will get cooler. I have had minimal success with getting the bigger tank any cooler but I will get a fan and see if I can position it on top. I guess i was hoping that the tub would at least cool him down so he would get less stressed. Chillers in Australia are about $700 plus, which unfortunately I can't afford.

I do fortnightly water changes, typically about 30% at a time
 
Check your NitrAtes, since this could well be the problem.

Purchase the liquid test kit linked above, you can purchase it on Amazon.

I can see chillers on Amazon for as little at $280.

You'll want to read up on cycling to get a better understanding so you can always be in control of your Axolotls health:

Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling
Caudata Culture Articles - Water Quality
 
Thanks so much for all your help. The chiller you mentioned doesn't ship to Australia, but I'll keep looking for something. In the meantime the cool box is keeping my axie at 16degrees, still no interest in eating yet. I'll grab a water test kit this afternoon after work and post the readings
 
I got the liquid test kit. Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 0ppm and pH 7.6. The cool box is keeping him between 15 - 16 degrees Celsius. I'm looking out for chillers that I can get to where I live but it might take a bit. I'm hoping at least the cool box will keep him comfortable. No change as yet, he moves around if I put my hand near him but he is docile and has no interest in food still :(
 
If your test results are correct then your tank is not cycled.

Can you post some images of your tank and Axolotl?
 
I'm surprised there are no nitrates, the tank has been going for a year without a problem. I did a big water change about 4 days ago, which might be why it's low.
 

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Can you take multiple images from different angles of your Axolotl? Make sure the images are clear, since the ones you've posted are too dark
 
Given you did a huge water change, and nitrate tests are really weird sometimes (especially if you don't follow the instructions to the letter), the tank very well be cycled despite the 0 ppm nitrate. However, do keep an eye on it, since sometimes a big water change can also hide the fact that something hurt the cycle (or can hurt the cycle itself if done wrong).

Good luck!
 
Test your tank for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates and post the results. Be sure to follow the tests perfectly
 
Here are the results for the sick tub. The temperature has gone down to 13-14 degrees, I'm anticipating that the current heat wave will finish by the end of the week and then I hopefully won't need the cool box.e
 

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And here are the results for the main tank. This morning there was an increase in Nitrites, .25ppm. I did an emergency 50% water change and the results have stayed at this for the day. I did another partial change when I got home from work. Water temp in the main tank is 19 degrees. My brown axie (the one still in the main tank) has been active and coming up for air a lot, he is eating still but I feel like he is less eager than usual (i also may be overacting). My white axie in the sick tub is the same, no interest in food.
 

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The quarantine container needs water changes every day or two to make sure Ammonia doesn't build up, since this container is not cycling you are just making sure the water is clean and fresh for the Axolotl.

What made you think you needed to do an emergency 50% water change on the main tank? During cycling you want the Ammonia to build up to be converted to Nitrites, once Nitrites are present (like you have now) you will be testing everyday to see when the Nitrites convert to NitrAtes. Its this conversion from Ammonia > Nitrites > NitrAtes that your looking for, you just have to give it time for the bacteria to build up to feed on each toxin for them to be converted.

Your now at a mid stage cycle, aiming for your Nitrites to convert to NitrAtes, its when you get a reading of NitrAtes around 40PPM that you want to perform a 30% water change to reduce the NitrAtes, since the NitrAtes are the final part of the cycle they can only be removed by doing the water change.

It takes time for the bacteria in your tank to convert Ammonia and Nitrite, this is why the cycling process can take 3-6 weeks.

You ideally don't want your Axolotls in the main tank during cycling, because you need to get Ammonia high (around 4.0PPM) to allow your bacteria to build up, so this would be exposing your Axolotls to a high amount of Ammonia which is toxic.

You should keep your Axolotls in separate containers during cycling. Feed your tank a source of Ammonia such as fish flakes or pellets, or even a shrimp, since as these degrade Ammonia will be released, this will feed your cycle.

Read these links, you need to become as familiar with the cycle as you can:

Caudata Culture Articles - Water Quality
Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling

What food are you trying to feed your Axolotl in the quarantine container?
 
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