Losing toes

[stitchpunk]

It seems like The Dude lost the tip of a toe overnight - I found it in the tank and now 1 toe has no claw and it looks like the toe next to it might do the same because it looks brown at the very tip. But there is no sign of fungus or anything. Do axolotls shed their claws usually or is something else happening? Could it be related to the (aquarium safe) rock that I put in last weekend? He is by himself so there is no-one to nip at his toes...

 

[PatchworkClocks]

He may have injured his toes on something while you weren't looking. It's hard to say though. What are the water parameters? I know that sometimes finger loss can stem from ammonia burns. A picture would be helpful, too.

 

[stitchpunk]

I did a water test a little earlier - i only have the API strips rather than liquids at the moment so it's hard to be accurate. But I believe ammonia was around 1ppm, nitrites were zero and nitrates were around 40ppm; I've since done a 20% water change and put a mug of cold tea into the tank. Considering that he has yet to poop (I've had him 2 weeks) and there are no live plants I can only think that the bloodworms I tried to give him a day or 2 ago caused ammonia to rise, even though I cleaned up as well as I could afterwards. He was quite active this afternoon so I gave him a worm and he ate it but then regurgitated it about half an hour later. I'm really worried!
I can't get a photo of his toes right now...the one that lost the claw doesn't actually look any shorter, but a bit swollen, whitish and blunt and the next toe in is brown at the very tip as though it has shrivelled a wee bit. I'm hoping to replace the rock with white sand as soon as I can just in case there is a sharp bit that I missed.

Between the constipation, the troubles with feeding him and now this I'm freaking out and feeling bad - I guess like a new parent who makes all their mistakes on their first kid!

 

[PatchworkClocks]

As long as the white part doesn't look cloudy or wispy, there's nothing to worry about. It's just scar tissue that the axolotl has grown while trying to regrow its lost toetip. Usually axolotls will throw up their food if they've eaten too much, if they're stressed, or if they don't like the taste. If constipation has been an issue for him, you should definitely get him onto another diet. Fasting him for a day or so wouldn't hurt either, just so he has a chance to pass everything before you feed him again. If he hasn't passed anything in a day, fridge him for about 30 minutes to an hour. This will cause his metabolism to slow, which will make him release anything he has in his bowels.

A good diet for axolotls that I've found is earthworms, shrimp/salmon/axolotl pellets, and minnows as a treat. The minnows help "grease up the system" so to speak, which makes passing things much easier. I would feed a minnow every couple of weeks, more often if the constipation starts again.

It sounds like there isn't an ammonia issue, so he probably scraped his toes on something. Definitely remove that rock, and look around for anything else in the tank that might have tiny cracks or sharp edges he might have gotten caught on. My own axolotl ended up ripping his tail on the filter intake one day. I made sure to put things around it so it wouldn't happen again.

 

[stitchpunk]

Thanks! I am going to get the sand today so shall fridge him while I'm doing the tank and see if I can encourage him to poop in the clean tank I am also going to get him some floating fish flakes or perhaps turtle sticks as that is what he's been used to in the past - I'll get whatever I can find that has the closest protein and fat match to the axolotl pellets (which he spits out.) and then when things have (hopefully) settled down for him in 2 or 3 weeks I shall start trying to reintroduce some proper food. He is certainly hungry - when I was trying to give him pellets last night he came up to my hand for the first time and put one foot on my fingers which was beyond cute.

 

[PatchworkClocks]

Good luck getting him back into tip-top condition! If you have anymore issues please let us know. c: