Did sand kill my Axolotl?!

[CousinLarry]

See this thread and how it went from happy to sad real quick

I rinsed the sand with fresh water.. I don't know what happened but it happened quick.

He looked like he had a bit more red in him and his butt looked red/sore. Could the sand have plugged him up?! He didn't even eat anything with the sand in there...

 

[allied123]

Was there sand in his poop? Are you sure you dechlorinated the watee (i've very nearly forgotten to do that several times, I'm not trying to be rude or condescending sorry)? was the new water much warmer than what he was in?

 

[CousinLarry]

I did not see sand in his poop.. It came out loose like normal.

And I am like 99.99% sure I dechlorinated it.

 

[allied123]

It doesn't sound like it was the sand then if there wasn't any in the poop... there have been some people with issues with Tahitian moon sand but that's not what you got. Was the sand very smooth to the touch? not abrasive at all right? (the tahitan sand was sharp and cut the axies up from the inside when they accidentally ingested some from what I understand) Did you check that the temperature was the same? (again sorry if that was a rude/ stupid question, please don't take it the wrong way!) I'm no expert, I really hope someone can say for 100% sure what happened to your poor beautiful axie

 

[Elise]

A common cause for sudden death is the presence of a chemical toxin or toxicant.
If the sand was the only change in the environment, it would seem rational to suspect it as the leading cause. However there may be other sources to look into, such as the container he was kept in while you worked on his tank, and also his food source. I noticed in your video you dropped a worm on the floor and immediately fed it to him. Floors tend to have cleaning residue.

Impaction, chlorinated water, warm water seem very unlikely to me in this circumstance.

 

[allied123]

That's what I thought but those were the only things coming to mind... I was just trying to brainstorm sorry I know someone else very recently had a sudden death of her 2 axolotls and she had no idea what happened either, her post was called 2 dead axies in 3 days! I don't think they came up with an answer but her situation was similar, maybe you could look through that and rule out some more possibilities?

 

[allied123]

Elsie do you think the sand could have had some toxin/chemical in it? I remember someone talking about running a magnet over the sand to see if it had some metals in it, would that be a possible cause of death? (sorry for the double post)