Beiser
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- Nov 11, 2020
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- Location
- Carbondale, IL
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- United States
I have 2 axies, a male and female. A few weeks ago, I rearranged their tank.
Months ago:
The previous owners had a floor of smooth gravel and I - being a new owner with not much experience or attachment to these guys - decided to simply cover it with some sand rather than removing the stones. The gravel hadn't caused any problems for the previous owners despite them being notoriously easy to swallow, and since then they've never posed a problem when they cropped up through the sand.
2 Weeks ago:
I'm rearranging their tank, and decided to use a net to collect the gravel and sift out the sand (In hindsight, I should have transferred them to a temporary tub or something of the sort, but I thought I could just be careful and move them to one side while I worked on the other so they didn't get covered in sand).
I didn't collect all the gravel in one go, so I left them to rest for a bit cause they looked stressed.
A day after rearranging:
I could tell the male wasn't moving. His cloaca seemed enlarged. My best guess was that he may have swallowed a rock that was protruding from the sand. It seemed odd that he would have done it NOW and not any time before or even when their whole floor was gravel, but that was my best guess. His mouth was agape and he didn't eat - wouldn't move a muscle. I thought he might be dead.
The female, on the other hand, is looking fine and dandy. I transferred her while I finished the tank, put her back in, and she's fine to this day.
It took me a little while to get everything set up, but eventually I had the stuff I needed to fridge him.
A week and half ago:
I fridged him with fresh, dechlorinated water and I'm replacing it daily with equally refrigerated water. He's getting a 10 minute salt bath every morning because I noticed some fungus on his gills and his tub is covered with a black shirt to avoid the light when I open the fridge. I read that I could simply keep him in there until he passed the small rock - I'm hoping that's all this is.
He hasn't moved once in the week and half he's been in there. His skin is starting to get flecks of grey (he's usually black) and I can feel his slime coat is gone in some places. I think that may be from the salt, so I'm looking into tea baths. But regardless of all that, and perhaps the most perplexing part of all this (and the reason I made an account to share because I couldn't find anything like this:
He's now seeping a clear, gelatinous fluid from his swollen cloaca. It seeps and seeps, a continuous strand with a remarkably strong bond to itself (I cut off excess with a pair of scissors). I don't believe I've misgendered him, as I've seen him release spermaphores.
If anyone could help me with even one of these problems, I'd be grateful.
I'll attach pictures soon.
Months ago:
The previous owners had a floor of smooth gravel and I - being a new owner with not much experience or attachment to these guys - decided to simply cover it with some sand rather than removing the stones. The gravel hadn't caused any problems for the previous owners despite them being notoriously easy to swallow, and since then they've never posed a problem when they cropped up through the sand.
2 Weeks ago:
I'm rearranging their tank, and decided to use a net to collect the gravel and sift out the sand (In hindsight, I should have transferred them to a temporary tub or something of the sort, but I thought I could just be careful and move them to one side while I worked on the other so they didn't get covered in sand).
I didn't collect all the gravel in one go, so I left them to rest for a bit cause they looked stressed.
A day after rearranging:
I could tell the male wasn't moving. His cloaca seemed enlarged. My best guess was that he may have swallowed a rock that was protruding from the sand. It seemed odd that he would have done it NOW and not any time before or even when their whole floor was gravel, but that was my best guess. His mouth was agape and he didn't eat - wouldn't move a muscle. I thought he might be dead.
The female, on the other hand, is looking fine and dandy. I transferred her while I finished the tank, put her back in, and she's fine to this day.
It took me a little while to get everything set up, but eventually I had the stuff I needed to fridge him.
A week and half ago:
I fridged him with fresh, dechlorinated water and I'm replacing it daily with equally refrigerated water. He's getting a 10 minute salt bath every morning because I noticed some fungus on his gills and his tub is covered with a black shirt to avoid the light when I open the fridge. I read that I could simply keep him in there until he passed the small rock - I'm hoping that's all this is.
He hasn't moved once in the week and half he's been in there. His skin is starting to get flecks of grey (he's usually black) and I can feel his slime coat is gone in some places. I think that may be from the salt, so I'm looking into tea baths. But regardless of all that, and perhaps the most perplexing part of all this (and the reason I made an account to share because I couldn't find anything like this:
He's now seeping a clear, gelatinous fluid from his swollen cloaca. It seeps and seeps, a continuous strand with a remarkably strong bond to itself (I cut off excess with a pair of scissors). I don't believe I've misgendered him, as I've seen him release spermaphores.
If anyone could help me with even one of these problems, I'd be grateful.
I'll attach pictures soon.
