Help! Sick Axolotl

[Clarence]

Hi

We have an adult golden albino axolotl who for the past few days hasn't been very well at all.

It started about a week ago when he went off his food. We feed him a diet of manufactured pellets and the occasional cube of blood worms and we have fed him this diet (aside from the occasional minnow or guppy) since we got him four years ago and he usually loves his food.

He seemed to be generally lethargic and withdrawn but with no visible signs of illness - ie. no fungus, wounds, no bloating or visible veins etc. His gills all look fine.

He is the only inhabitant of his tank which is 110 Litres and equipped with a filtration system with bio balls and ceramic tubes together with wool. Water flow is mild and it is the same filter he has always had. It is summer here and we live in a hot climate (Perth WA) and the temperature of his tank has been sitting around 25 degrees Celsius. I know this is not optimum and we do try to cool the water with ice and by running our air-conditioning directly at the tank. That said, the water temp is no higher than it has been in previous summers and he coped fine before.

We have fine sand as a substrate and the only other things in his tank are a large bridge, log and a plastic plant.

Two nights ago I noticed that his tail was curved and also wavy along the top. His gills were slightly forward facing. I know this is a sign of stress and I know how dangerous stress can be for axolotls. All I can think of is that we have a 10 month old who is just learning to walk and we have caught her on occasion banging on his tank quite vigorously.

I did a partial water change and we covered the tank with damp towels to keep him in the dark and try to cool him down.

In the morning he was floating and not moving but also not bloated in any way. When I touched him gently he did swim away slowly but floated back up pretty much straight away. He stayed in the same position in the tank the entire day and his mouth was slightly agape.

We contacted a vet specialising in fish and amphibians and they advised against fridging but suggested we drop the water level in his tank so that we had a smaller volume to deal with and place frozen bottles in the water to try to cool him and give him time to bounce back. The filter is also not running as the water level is too low.

We did this last night and this morning he does look a little better. He is not floating any more and his tail has virtually gone back to normal. I could not get him to eat anything though and we're worried that he might start dropping weight. I looked for some garden worms but we just moved house and the soil is terrible so I had no luck there. I would say the last time he ate anything would be about 5 days ago. He is usually quite the chunky fellow so he isn't looking skinny yet but we don't want him to go too long without food.

I don't know his exact age as I got him from a pet shop. When we got him I would day he was between 4 and 5 inches long but the tips of his toes were already black which I know indicates sexual maturity. We have owned him for four years and he is now around 8-10 inches long.

Sorry for the long post. I guess I'm just after some advice on what else we could do and whether anyone knows what might be wrong with him as we really love the little guy and don't want to lose him.

Thanks

 

[sebguy]

If you could get the water parameters then that could help decide whats wrong

 

[LSuzuki]

Assuming the water parameters are fine (please tell us what they are so we are all convinced ;-)), my best guess is that it is the heat, even if your axie has tolerated it in previous seasons. So, keeping him cool is best.

Here is the next problem, though, since your filter isn't running the filter may crash and you may have to recycle your tank. Here is a possible solution: keep your axie in a smaller container and do daily 100% water changes, pouring the old water into the (refilled) tank to provide the bacteria with food so the cycle doesn't crash.

Regardless, keep checking your water parameters, since an ammonia/nitrite spike in his weakened condition could make things worse.

Good luck! :happy:

 

[Skudo09]

You could also try cooling with fans. What lid does the tank have? I would replace the lid with a mesh lid if you have a solid one as the mesh will help to keep it cool.

 

[Clarence]

Hi All

He seems to be a bit better today. The curling in his tail is gone and his gills aren't forward facing. He is moving about a bit more but he still is not interested at all in his food. I have tried again (unsuccessfully) to find an earthworm to see if he can be enticed and also offered pellets but he just ignores them. My concern now is that he won't eat! I have some frozen blood worms and brine shrimp but I don't really want to offer this to him as I will be at work all day and I don't want them sitting in the tank all day if he doesn't eat them.

We have managed to cool his water with fans, air-con and ice and its sitting around 20 degrees now.

The water parameters are:

PH: 7.0
Nitrate: 20ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Ammonia: 0.30ppm

How long can an axolotl go without eating? I have read forum threads on here in the past that once axi's stop eating it can be difficult to get them to eat again. He still looks in good physical condition but does anyone have any suggestions to try to get him to eat?

Thanks

 

[LSuzuki]

Have you tried dropping the food so it just brushes in front of his nose? Often, they will instinctively snap at food that way (and hopefully eat it instead of spitting it out.)

 

[Clarence]

Hi, yep, tried that but no luck.

I have also tried hand feeding which he used to always like but he just turns his head and moves away. Am really holding out that I can find a worm tonight after work to see if I can entice him.

When we first got him from the pet shop he refused to eat for about a week and we fed him live food which he loved. I don't really want to put any live food in at the moment as in his weakened state I'm concerned that they might pick on him.

I just don't know what to do!

 

[Clarence]

Me again!

Ok, so the water parameters are slightly different today:

Ph: 7.8
Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite all 0 - is this ok? I thought a healthy tank needed some nitrite?

Our little guys seems well enough but I can get him to eat. Last night I gave him some frozen blood worms and he *may have eaten some but the majority were on the bottom of the tank this morning and I siphoned them out.

Yesterday when I got home from work there was quite a bit of waste that he had passed but nothing that would cause concern.

One thing that he keeps doing a lot of is gulping air from the surface. He has very occasionally done this in the past which I read was normal but he is doing it a lot, around every half an hour. Should I be concerned?

Thanks

 

[CatSpit]

Hi, I can't speak to the behaviour as I don't have an axolotl, but with regards to your water parameters, you ideally want to have 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrites which will happen when your tank is cycled properly. Nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle. It is less toxic, but at high levels can cause distress to aquarium inhabitants so you want to keep it at manageable levels. Your pH sure changed as well, hopefully this will stabilize as you don't want big swings in the pH level.

 

[Clarence]

Hi

Our little guy is still not eating and I'm getting really worried. He is also gulping at the surface more often and when he does it is quite loud, like a cough.

I also am having real trouble with ph swings. Yesterday it was 7.6 and this morning it was 8.8!

Other readings are all still 0. I've been doing a lot of partial water changes and am worried that if I keep messing with the water I'm just going to make things worse. I have gotten some driftwood to put in the tank in the hopes of lowering the ph naturally. Is there anything else we can do?

He also has a mark near his eye that has grown in size. I first noticed it a few months ago and thought he had bumped himself on something but as he was happy I didn't think much of it. I have attached a pic. Should I be concerned?

 

[birdsong]

I realize this isn't helpful to you but has anyone else noticed the sudden surge in sick Australian axoltls ? I haven't been a part of this forum long but it seems like a trend lately. Could there be a link to all this or just a coincidence ?

 

[LSuzuki]

Birdsong - It is summer in Australia, and is pretty hot in many places. The warmer temperatures make axies more likely to get sick.

 

[LSuzuki]

I'm not sure about the mark. It doesn't look like an infection in the picture, but I'm not the best at interpreting pictures. Since your axie is acting sick however, it could be a symptom of importance.

Warmer water holds less oxygen, which (combined with whatever is making him act sick) could be why he is going up for air more often. Do you have an air pump you could use to aerate the water?

Re the pH swing: that big change just doesn't make sense. Do you test often enough to know what the pH "should" be? Have you added any decoration (such as rocks) that could be raising the pH? One possibility if you haven't been monitoring the pH in the past - in the US, they sometimes get the pH of the water near neutral before distributing it (such as adding CO2 to drop the pH). Then, the pH returns to it's usual level once it is in the aquarium. Could that be the case here? Regardless, 8.8 just doesn't make sense and if it really is that high, could be contributing to your axolotls illness, particularly if this is a new change.

Good luck!