Juvenile not eating- any ideas?

[Hamamelis]

My baby 'lotl, not quite 4 inches long- the slow growing one from a friend's batch, has suddenly started looking decidedly ill.

He was fine just before Christmas, but when I got back (was only away for two days) he was looking slightly listless, not showing interest when I took the lid off his tub, but still appeared to be eating fine once he'd worked out that food was in there, so I gave him a big water change, just in case there was something up with the water.

He had a worm on the 28th, (bloodworm the day before, which was all hoovered up), but has basically been leaving almost all his food since, and he's starting to really look thin.

Today, I noticed that his stomach is visibly not evenly rounded- there's a noticeable notch in his middle,plus he seems to be gulping air quite a bit, and he seems to resting be in an unusual posture- with his back legs pointing upwards, not a pose I've noticed him in before.


I just tried to give him a small worm, and despite it fitting easily into his mouth, he's just spitting it out again every time. I even tried cutting it in half (and it is a tiny worm, a size he'd normally have no trouble with) and though he's trying to eat, he keeps spitting the bits back out, then getting fed up with trying.

There's nothing in his tub he could have possibly eaten (no decor smaller than him, bare bottom), so I don't see how he could have a blockage. Any ideas? Is there anything I can try?

*update* I think he's finally eaten half of the worm while I was typing this.

 

[Kaysie]

What's the temperature in your tank?

 

[Hamamelis]

I don't have a thermometer in the tank at the moment- but it's at room temperature, which is cold- about 12C.

The heating hasn't been on in that room for weeks (we only turn it on if it goes below 10C), and it's not been above 16C for a few months now, so it's been pretty stable.

 

[Kaysie]

That's probably the cause. They don't eat as much when it's cold.

 

[Hamamelis]

He's not simply ignoring it though- he's trying to eat, but spitting it out. Is that normal for when it's cold?

My other axy is eating like a horse at the moment (if horses ate worms and axy pellets), and he's at the same temperature, though he is in a different tank, and he is quite a bit bigger.

 

[Kaysie]

Are they your normal type of worms?

 

[Hamamelis]

So far as I can tell, they're the normal worms. I'm not a worm expert, and I do dig them up from the (no-pesticide/fertiliser/anything) back garden, so it's possible that they're unusual. He's doing the same with bloodworm too though, so I doubt it's that.

I hope it is just cold, it just seems like something more is wrong.

 

[Kaysie]

Keep trying with different types of food. Sometimes they get picky too.