Axolotls not eating

[kraig]

My two axolotls haven't been eating anything for about a week now. I've heard that they can go without food for weeks at a time, but I've been feeding mine every day, and they've always been hearty eaters. I normally feed them sinking pellets, which they used to search for with their noses. Now when they see food near them they don't even look at it.

I've checked the water and the PH/Nitrate/Ammonia levels seem fine (although the nitrate levels are a tad high). I did a partial water change several days ago.

So far I've put some aquarium salt into the tank, which seems to have made them healthier and more energetic than last week.

The water temp is around 23 degrees and I'm trying to get it lower. I have a heater set at 18 degrees.

Could they have some sort of disease? The black one seems to have some fungus on the back of its neck. And if it's fungus, what's the best treatment for them?

Or could they still be stressed from the high temps last week? It was around 40 degrees outside last week for a few days, and the tank would've increased in temperature too because of it. Could they have swallowed some gravel with their previous meals?

They're both around 25 cm, quite fat. But I'm getting really worried. It's not like them to not eat for a week.

 

[mik]

They are all good sizes and I would guess that them going off their food is related to the high temps.

Don't worry too much a week isn't a long time and if you can get the temp down it will certainly help. Try a fan blowing across the water surface and turn any tank lights off for the duration.

 

[cynthia]

Kraig you should probably treat the one with the fungus with salt baths.

See the "Salt Bath" thread for more info.

 

[kraig]

Thank you for all your advice.

I've moved them both from their 6 ft tank to a smaller 2 ft hospital tank. Their new tank is very bare except for a combined filter and submersible air pump. No lights, no plants, no ornaments, no gravel, no heater.

Mik, in their new tank I haven't put any lights on top of the tank. I'm putting a frozen bottle of water in their tank to cool it down, but it's only going down around 2 degrees or so. It's still around 21 degrees celcius for most of the day, so I'll try using a fan on top of the tank to blow the water.

Cynthia, I'll definitely take your advice and give the black one with the fungus a salt bath now. Actually I'll give them both a salt bath, in case the yellow axy caught some fungus recently from the black one. I've added a little aquarium salt to the hospital tank they're in now as well.

I changed some of their water this morning, and found three small (maybe 0.3 cm in length, height, and width) pieces of gravel. I'm assuming they accidently ingested it from their other tank during feeding, and just passed it out last night.

They still don't seem to be eating though. The yellow one ate one worm this morning, but only when I held it to his nose for a minute, and then didn't eat anything else afterwards, even when fed by mouth. They don't seem to go in search for food with their like they used to. The black one has had his head down and his tail up slightly for the whole day.

It's been a week and a half since they've eaten properly. I'll keep them in the hospital tank for a little while longer, for observation. Still worried about them both. I've had them for close to 18 months now and it's the first time they've been this way.

 

[mik]

Sounds like you would be wise to keep in smaller tank for a while longer. Chances are some more grvel may be passed...but note thay can hold onto it for quite some time.

Temperature is major improvement but the fan will help evenmore.

A worm every other day for now will soon get them started again. Don't try too much at once.

Good luck

 

[kraig]

The yellow seems to have improved quite a lot. His gills don't seem to move quite as quickly and drastically like they used to.

The black one (which looks identical to the the one in your pic) is floating a lot, and seems almost like he's having trouble staying on the ground. He always seems to be fighting to stay on the ground but his body floats up automatically. Any idea on why his body keeps floating? The water is only around 30 cm high, about the same height as the length of the axolotls.

I'm going out to buy the fan today, as well as sticking with the frozen water bottles I'm still using now.

Thanks again

 

[celia]

You may wish to have a look at the thread, if you haven't already, about my sick and floating axie. Your symptoms are sounding similar to what happened in my tank and I lost my baby a couple of weeks ago. I believe in the end temperature was the main problem and the other fungus etc were as a result of the temperature etc.

As you are in Sydney, there are actually two vets available (see post Axie Sydney Vets - Yella Fella Update) I have put their details there. Both are meant to be good. I took my yella fella to one of them but unfortunately it was way too late for him.

Someone also gave me a link in the sick axie thread to a do it yourself aquarium chiller. At first when I looked at this I almost freaked out but then I realised if you know anyone tool/building type minded, or you are yourself, then it might not be so difficult - the link for that is also under that thread. I'm hoping to do this before high summer hits. I don't think it's going to be a pretty summer for us Sydney siders that own axies (two years ago I would have been loving this weather, now I start to worry when it's over 25 outside and have to start taking action).

You should be able to get heaps of this info from the other threads on the "floating, not eating and swimming weird". I don't want to have to retype all the valuable information I received for the same problem.

Best of luck with this. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[leah]

I just bought one of these mini evaporative chillers on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20699&item=4342036337&rd=1

It's been raining for the last 3 days, so I've yet to see how well it'll cool the room on a really hot day, but so far it's great! The tank is back down to 16 degrees, and I've got a nice cool room to sleep in! For the price, I'm not sure how long it'll last, but if it makes it through the summer I'm happy. If your axolotls are in a small room, a similar cooling unit or moving them to an air conditioned room would probably help alot!

 

[kraig]

Thanks for the help, Celia and Leah. I've read through all the threads and what I gathered from those is that it seems like there are 3 main things with stress axolotls and cause disease:

1) High water temperature
2) High water pressure
3) Bad water quality

I'm still working on the first, the last two are okay at the moment. I keep the lid of their tank off, and that seems to help a bit too with water temps. And I'm using a small fan and using frozen water bottles in their tank. I'm able to keep it around 19-20 degrees so far, but trying to get it lower still.

I've lowered the water level to be so shallow as just to cover their bodies. Now they don't float as much.

They both seem to be improving a little, and my black axy's gills aren't tilted forward as much as before. The only thing which still worries me is that they're still not eating, and it's been about 2 weeks now. I try to feed them once a day but they totally shun their food, usually backing away from it.

You're right about the hot weather in Sydney, Celia. I think that's what kickstarted their disease in the first place - A few weeks ago when it was reaching 40+ degrees for a few days. They started getting sick after that week. I'm hoping this summer won't be so hot.

I'll also look into those mini evaporative chillers that Leah bought. It seems like an effective way to cool down the water temperature. Do you leave the chiller on all day, even when you're not at home? I had a look at the DIY one but it seems too complicated to build.

 

[leah]

Kraig- I turn it on around noon and leave it on until I go to bed. It hasn't been above 30 here for the last week, so I don't know how it'll work in hotter temperatures, but it's doing a great job right now! I can actually turn my aquarium light on again for the plants and not worry about the tank overheating! No more rotating bottles of ice all day either. The room I have my axolotls in is quite small, so the cooler is good for me, but if you have a larger room I'm not sure how it would work. It's only meant for an area of about 7 feet. There were a lot available in the local Trading Post here as well, bigger second hand air-con units in working order, most under 100$

A bigger tank is also an option if you can afford it, as more water takes longer to heat up, = more stable temperatures. This will be part of my reasoning sometime in the future when I tell my boyfriend I'd like a nice 125 gallon...