Axolotls won't take food

[steve611]

Recently I had work and uni all day and forgot to leave a couple of ice bottles in my axolotl tank. Living in australia, they day got up to about 30 degrees and when I finally arrived home the tank was at about 28 degrees. I immediately put ice bottles in the tank and over the next two days I managed to bring it down to about 18 degrees.

Ever since then I've noticed my axolotls to be less and less vicious when eating there food. 2 weeks later and I'm at a point where they won't eat stray blood worm pieces from the bowl or on the sand of the tank, they only nibble at the bloodworm cube instead of demolishing it in one go as they used to do and they just cannot seem to digest earthworms. On the rare occasion where they will actually swallow the worm, ill usually find the worm regurgitated somewhere in tank a few minutes after.

Ì have been feeding them bloodworm frozen cubes and earthworms both from the garden and the store, for a fair few months now. The water parameters are fine and checked weekly. Twice. Temperature stays at around 18 to 20 degrees now. Substrate is play sand. Everything seems to be fine. They are probably around 11 to 12 months old so i really don't know what's wrong with them atm and am worried as one of them is getting noticeably skinnier because of this.

Is there anyway I can get them to accept earthworms again?

I just moved them to a bigger tank 2 days ago thinking they maybe just outgrew the other tank and were stressed out or something but I still get the same result... rejection of food.

 

[HayleyK]

One of mine had gone off food for a whole and used to take it like a shy puppy dog but she's snapping now. I just had to persist up to 3-4 times a day. The move to a new tank could also be stressing it out as well as that hot day we had. Crazy sydney weather huh? Boiling one day, raining and cold the next.

 

[auntiejude]

Axies can be upset about a temperature spike for weeks - my tank got up to 25 this summer, and one of my axies has only just got his appetite back in the last couple of weeks. Keep trying with the food.

I would recommend anyone who lives in a place where it regularly gets over 25C outside invests in a chiller unless you have an air conditioned house - it will save you a lot of trouble in the future. If you're getting 30C and it's still only spring, |I'd say it's a must.

 

[steve611]

Yeah that's sydney for you. Lol. Luckily I managed to keep the tank fluctuating around 20 degrees today as it was scorching hot today, just by freezing 3 empty 2 litre bottles and popping them into a tank. Im thinking of investing in a chiller now to make sure the little guys can be left at home w.o. the need of constant vigliance and ice bottles. Haha. Just one query, I've never actually seen a chiller before so I dont really know much about them... are they loud? And do they take up a lot of space?

Current situation is looking a little better. Managed to get them to consume about 1 frozen bloodworm cube each but still no luck with the earthworms. Which is odd cause I thought it would be the earthworms that get eagerly chomped up first.

 

[HayleyK]

Today was insane, luckily inside my house was rather cool, outside was terrible! I've never had any experience with a chiller, received my aquarium fan which is pretty quiet really. I've only seen chillers in pet stores for like 300 bucks minimum, I can't afford it


With the earthworms sometimes the fight and the secretions may put them off.. Try boiling the worm so they don't move and don't secrete that yucky stuff, I usually run them under cold water after. See if that works?

 

[Shizeric]

How many Axolotls do you have? How large is your tank?

 

[GreerDalrymple]

I said this on a different post to Hayley just before, I live in newcastle & my axie is living in the fridge until I get my chiller on Tuesday- mine is for a half full 4 foot tank so I can upload some pictures for you when I get it to show size & will let you know about the noise if you want.

Slows their metabolism right down so they don't need to eat nearly as much; could save them until you get a chiller if you decide to.
Good luck