Making me nervous...

[MandaLotlMomma]

Hi Everyone...
I am a first time Lotl Momma so I am a little hyper about changes in Heyzeus..

Heyzeus is about 14 cm long and hangs out in a 5 gallon tank while his big tank cycles (in the second stage of cycling right now - he is NOT in that tank) The tank he IS in gets daily water changes to keep levels all low. Ammonia never gets above .25 and everything else stays at 0. His water temperature stays around 64 F. No substrate in his temporary tank.

He gets fed cut earthworms to a size he can easily manage and red wigglers. Not to fond of the red wigglers so he hasn't had any of those in about 4 days - just earthworms each day. He eats about 1/2 - 1 earthworm each day (hes a pig and always has a full tummy)

Today he is moving slower though. He is normally quick to snap up food and today he just kinda looked at the piece of earthworm, seemed to think about it for a second, then ate it. He did eat about 1/2 a worm today - but its just odd for him. Hes also a bit less active than usual just kinda sitting around on the bottom of his tank - normally moves around a bit more especially right after eating.

He IS pooping, so I dont think he is constipated although he has eaten more recently in one feeding than he did in others so maybe its just taking a while to digest?

So I am wondering if maybe something is wrong? Or am I being paranoid?

 

[Cacique]

I can't be 100% positive, but it reminds me very much of when I found out I needed to stop feeding my axolotl all the time. I got my axolotl at 2.5 inches and basically I just put in black worms when they ran out. He didn't take right away to worms so he went to pellets, about 6 twice a day at about 5 inches. I would notice the slowed behavior towards the end of his feeding, and it seemed to me to be connected to him being full. I even continued to increase feedings thinking he still needed all the food he could get until he started turning his head away from it.

My axolotl is now about 8.5 and he made it very obvious to me. He was quite plump, and after every feeding (once a day, about 10 pellets) he would throw every single pellet up. After a couple of days of failed feedings and freaking out and some reading I finally figured that was it. I didn't feed him for about 3 to 4 days, and since I tried not to catch his attention too much, he was calm the whole time. The last day he seemed a bit skittish and I went for a Canadian night crawler and he ate it whole. I got him on worms that way actually.

Sorry for the long post, but I guess I just thought maybe you could find some similarities there. You could try cutting down a bit on the feedings to maybe once a day and maybe feed a little bit more but not quite the whole 2 feedings. If he throws up his food, then he's most likely just overfed. To fix my axolotl's issues I just gave him a little break. Since mine kept throwing the food up I decided to go for a few days.

 

[MandaLotlMomma]

Its completely possible that I am overfeeding him - he has never thrown up though or anything... and I dropped the last piece he ate into his tank (pre water change) and within 15 mins he had found it and ate it... so I dunno?

 

[Boomsloth]

Its completely possible that I am overfeeding him - he has never thrown up though or anything... and I dropped the last piece he ate into his tank (pre water change) and within 15 mins he had found it and ate it... so I dunno?

I don't think anything is wrong with your axolotl it's just they sometimes get a little slower as they grow. I've said this before and other users agree, a growing axolotl should eat as much as it can every day and will not get fat as long as it's still growing. I used to feed mine until they chose to stop and removed the extra food.


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[Cacique]

It could be that he hasn't reached his threshold. My axolotl acted slow for a couple of days before he threw up, but having ruled out everything else over feeding was the only thing that made sense. Do you have any idea about how much times goes in between each feeding? Also, how big are the worms?

I base my feedings on what I've read here and feed my axolotl a worm about his size every 2-3 days, but he's all grown now.

 

[MandaLotlMomma]

Thanks! I was a bit worried and I tend to jump to the worst possible scenario - My husband is already calling me a Crazy Lotl Lady and we only have ONE! I just want him to have the best life he can have and be as happy and healthy as he can possibly be so I worry!

I feed him once a day - right when I get home from work (before I even eat LOL) so its roughly 24 hours between feedings. He eats a couple pieces that are around 2 cm in size and today he ate maybe 6 cm total of worm.

 

[Cacique]

Yeah, it sounds like it should be fine. Don't worry, we all freak out over our axolotls sometimes.

 

[HitmanSougo13]

As axolotls age they can prefer to have larger meals but not every day. Also I am not sure what the weather is like at your city but colder climates or climates that seems like their breeding season makes them less hungry. As long as the axolotl is not crazy skinny, all should be well.