Mysterious "stone" in my tank?

[yonykins]

I found two mysterious brown stone like objects in my axolotl's tank. I assumed they were some sort of feces. I tried to scoop them out and only managed to extract one while the other was buried in the sand I keep at the bottom.

Here is the one I took out:

It looks like a little pebble! At first I was worried that it might be a "stone" passed from my axolotl, indicating some sort of health problem. However, it's very hard and it has been about a week and it hasn't broken apart. I'm thinking it may actually be plastic because of the way it feels and sounds when I tap it against something. It also looks like it's painted and some paint has worn off.

The original "caretakers" of my axolotl had a substrate of colored gravel and various stones. No surprise, one of their axolotls died. They gave me the survivor. I suppose it's possible that he swallowed the pebbles when he had pebbles in his tank and just now passed it (poor guy!).

He has been very active ever since I moved him, significantly more active than he was when I first got him (he hardly ever moved). It doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with him, but could this potentially be a concern? Just looking for some thoughts.

Thank you!

Edit: I fed him yesterday and he very vigorously snapped up the worm I gave him.

 

[charleybambino]

Looks to me like a piece of stone/gravel from previous tank set up. On this site are pictures of beautiful plastic stones, glass beads etc all passed by axolotl.....so I think yours is probably this.

 

[yonykins]

That makes sense, the only issue is that I've had him in a gravel free tank for over a year. Could that have been inside him all that time?

 

[Jacquie]

Could that have been inside him all that time?

Yes they can retain gravel for an amazing amount of time (poor beggars!). It took one of my purchased axolotls 8 months to clear the gravel stones it had ingested at the petstore; all ten of them!