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Axolotl Throwing up pellets:(

BasilBear

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Hi everyone!
I wanted to know if any of you guys would be able to me help with my axolotl, Bear. However, before I go into his currant issue I wanted to talk a little bit about Bear’s back story. I got him when he was 2 months old, his mom is a dwarf Axolotl, after I got him I read that dwarf Axolotls should never have babies, but I didn’t know this at the time. Could this be why Bear is having a hard time, because of his mom’s dwarfism? It also took me an extremely long time to cycle his aquarium (7 months!) during this time Bear was in a plastic tub, which I changed every day (and dechlorinated, of course). Towards the end of those seven months Bear went off of eating for a month. I figured out though that when he was in the aquarium for a short amount of time (because I thought the tank was cycled) I had tile as a substrate, I’m thinking that this tile probably wasn’t aquarium safe because when I took the tile out, did a couple of water changes, then put him back in the tank he was fine! Anyway that’s a little bit of his back story, I’m also so sorry that this is pretty long. Please hang in there with me!

Now for the currant problem, on April 4rth (of this year), I came to check on Bear and saw over 20 pellets on the tank’s floor. These pellets were pretty much whole. (Whole enough that I could count how many were there), that surprised me because I think that means that he’s probably not digesting them properly. He’s been eating and then throwing up for a while now (he will also poop occasionally). Before all of this he was on a diet of 6 or 7 Hikari carnivore sinking pellets a day, and he would poop once a week. Maybe this was too much food and it caused him to have a impaction? Anyway I JUST got him better around April 30th and he’s been having around 3 pellets a day. When he first started getting better I did around one pellet a day, but then I was able to quickly get it to 3 pellets. But I’ve noticed if I feed him more then one pellet at one time he’ll start throwing up again. I’m here now writing this message because I just made that mistake on May 11th. I gave him two pellets a couple of minutes apart, and the next day he threw up one pellet (possibly 3, sorry my notes are bit confusing haha). I didn’t feed for a couple of days and yesterday I saw he threw up again, (4.5 pellets this time), and I’m still not feeding him yet.
I’m kinda at a total loss of what to do now. I’m not even sure if he is throwing them up maybe he is for some weird reason pooping them out whole and his digestive system isn’t working right? Do you guys think I should feed him more or wait a little bit? He looks fine other then his tail has been slightly bent and his gills every once and a while will curl forward. I’m really worried about my baby boy, if any of you guys could give me advice I would really, REALLY appreciate it.

The last time I checked his levels was on April 21 first of this year (I can check them again now if you guys think his water levels might not be right)
PH 7.2, Ammonia .25 (or maybe 0 it was hard to tell), Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 40.

On a side note his tempature has been a little shaky, (varying frowm 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit). I am going to get that fixed soon though because I am installing a chiller that will moderate his temperature.

Okay, “phew” I think that’s it! Thank you all so much for reading this message and I hope you guys can help me and my baby. Thanks again!
 

JM29

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Hi,
I agree pellets can be helpful for feeding an axolotl when other food is scarse but I can't imagine feeding it only with pellets.
Moreover, uneaten (or undigested) pellets pollute the water.
I suggest you try living food, like earthworms for example.
 
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