mdtaylor
New member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2018
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Country
- United States
Hi all,
After researching axolotls for quite some time, I randomly wandered into a really depressing pet store while killing time and found that they had one tiny axolotl in a large tank and in seemingly poor condition. His tank had a strong water current in it and gravel substrate, and his gills were rather bare. He looked so sad... a week later I went back to get him in the hopes of maybe giving him a better chance at life.
It's been three days. He mostly stayed still on the first day, and on the second day (last night) he seemed to take a rapid turn for the worst. He hasn't eaten much, and hadn't defecated anywhere that I noticed. He would stay still for a long time before occasionally just sort of... tipping over, at which point he seemed to startle himself, swim for the surface, and then sink back down again. Late last night around midnight, I noticed he'd stopped trying to right himself, and would just lie on his side unmoving unless I gently nudged him. I had registered for the forum but hadn't yet been approved, so I had to make a judgment call... seeing as I didn't think he would last the night, I put him in the fridge as described in the forum's sticky post. Today, a little under a day later, he's still alive and at least keeping his balance, but I'm not sure where to go from here... any advice would be greatly appreciated; I'm willing to do just about anything to give this little guy a chance.
I apologize for being wordy, but here are some additional details about the tank. I haven't owned an axolotl before, and I never had any fish other than a couple of long-lived bettas. I bought the supplies for the tank and set it up only about two hours before going back to get the axolotl before the store closed, and I didn't realize that cycling the tank meant so much more than just running the filter for awhile. It's a ten-gallon tank with a rock cave to hide in. an appropriately-sized hanging filter with a secondary bowl to absorb the current of the outflow. I kept the tank two-thirds full, appropriately dechlorinated, and no substrate. Temperatures were running approximately 65 degrees, measured digitally. Because I haven't been able to find local live food small enough for a 5cm axolotl, I've been trying to feed him frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. He only eats if a piece falls directly in front of him and grazes his mouth, and even then he usually ignores it. Last night he refused almost everything. Prior to putting him in the fridge, I checked the water parameters by taking them to a Petsmart (not the same irresponsible store where I got the axolotl) and then performed a partial change. The ammonia was a little higher than I expected, possibly because of the dead brine shrimp I was unable to remove. These were the complete parameters:
Ammonia 0.25 to 0.5
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Hardness 60
Chlorine 0
Alkalinity 20
pH 6.8
All water changes were performed using dechlorinated water at the same temperature as the tank, around 65F.
When he became almost completely unresponsive, I put him in the refrigerator in a large plastic tupperware and monitored the temperature constantly until it reached a steady state of about 7C. He seems to be maintaining his balance a little better, though is still sometimes a little crooked. Occasionally moving the water elicits some response from him, usually just to rebalance himself a little. He occasionally moves between observations (very briefly once every hour or two with the light off). I've completely changed his water once today using dechlorinated water at the same temperature. So far he has defecated once while in the fridge, very shortly after putting him in, but not since.
In the meantime, I'm keeping the aquarium running, doing partial water changes, and taking measurements to hopefully get it to a state that might be more comfortable for him. I've also ordered some brine shrimp eggs to hopefully give him something wiggling to stimulate his appetite. The tank's parameters (again, currently unoccupied) are currently:
Ammonia: 0.25 or lower (hard to tell with the strips)
Nitrate: (difficult to tell from the strip, the color is brownish and not close to anything on scale)
Hardness: 75
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 40
pH 7
I'm not the best at reading the color strips, but these are my best estimates after several repeated trials.
Please, does anyone have any suggestions for how to watch after him and nurse him back to health? How can I know when it's time to start re-introducing him to the aquarium? Though he defecated once, I'm concerned that he might have eaten a rock at the pet store or is otherwise in a very precarious position because of his gills, but if I have made any mistakes (other than not cycling the tank), please let me know. Thank you so much for your help and patience.
~M
P.S. Given his size and appearance, how young do you think he is?
P.P.S. I know it's a little too early to know if it's a male or female, so I've picked Kimchee as a neutral name for now (though defaulting to male pronouns out of habit)
After researching axolotls for quite some time, I randomly wandered into a really depressing pet store while killing time and found that they had one tiny axolotl in a large tank and in seemingly poor condition. His tank had a strong water current in it and gravel substrate, and his gills were rather bare. He looked so sad... a week later I went back to get him in the hopes of maybe giving him a better chance at life.
It's been three days. He mostly stayed still on the first day, and on the second day (last night) he seemed to take a rapid turn for the worst. He hasn't eaten much, and hadn't defecated anywhere that I noticed. He would stay still for a long time before occasionally just sort of... tipping over, at which point he seemed to startle himself, swim for the surface, and then sink back down again. Late last night around midnight, I noticed he'd stopped trying to right himself, and would just lie on his side unmoving unless I gently nudged him. I had registered for the forum but hadn't yet been approved, so I had to make a judgment call... seeing as I didn't think he would last the night, I put him in the fridge as described in the forum's sticky post. Today, a little under a day later, he's still alive and at least keeping his balance, but I'm not sure where to go from here... any advice would be greatly appreciated; I'm willing to do just about anything to give this little guy a chance.
I apologize for being wordy, but here are some additional details about the tank. I haven't owned an axolotl before, and I never had any fish other than a couple of long-lived bettas. I bought the supplies for the tank and set it up only about two hours before going back to get the axolotl before the store closed, and I didn't realize that cycling the tank meant so much more than just running the filter for awhile. It's a ten-gallon tank with a rock cave to hide in. an appropriately-sized hanging filter with a secondary bowl to absorb the current of the outflow. I kept the tank two-thirds full, appropriately dechlorinated, and no substrate. Temperatures were running approximately 65 degrees, measured digitally. Because I haven't been able to find local live food small enough for a 5cm axolotl, I've been trying to feed him frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. He only eats if a piece falls directly in front of him and grazes his mouth, and even then he usually ignores it. Last night he refused almost everything. Prior to putting him in the fridge, I checked the water parameters by taking them to a Petsmart (not the same irresponsible store where I got the axolotl) and then performed a partial change. The ammonia was a little higher than I expected, possibly because of the dead brine shrimp I was unable to remove. These were the complete parameters:
Ammonia 0.25 to 0.5
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Hardness 60
Chlorine 0
Alkalinity 20
pH 6.8
All water changes were performed using dechlorinated water at the same temperature as the tank, around 65F.
When he became almost completely unresponsive, I put him in the refrigerator in a large plastic tupperware and monitored the temperature constantly until it reached a steady state of about 7C. He seems to be maintaining his balance a little better, though is still sometimes a little crooked. Occasionally moving the water elicits some response from him, usually just to rebalance himself a little. He occasionally moves between observations (very briefly once every hour or two with the light off). I've completely changed his water once today using dechlorinated water at the same temperature. So far he has defecated once while in the fridge, very shortly after putting him in, but not since.
In the meantime, I'm keeping the aquarium running, doing partial water changes, and taking measurements to hopefully get it to a state that might be more comfortable for him. I've also ordered some brine shrimp eggs to hopefully give him something wiggling to stimulate his appetite. The tank's parameters (again, currently unoccupied) are currently:
Ammonia: 0.25 or lower (hard to tell with the strips)
Nitrate: (difficult to tell from the strip, the color is brownish and not close to anything on scale)
Hardness: 75
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: 40
pH 7
I'm not the best at reading the color strips, but these are my best estimates after several repeated trials.
Please, does anyone have any suggestions for how to watch after him and nurse him back to health? How can I know when it's time to start re-introducing him to the aquarium? Though he defecated once, I'm concerned that he might have eaten a rock at the pet store or is otherwise in a very precarious position because of his gills, but if I have made any mistakes (other than not cycling the tank), please let me know. Thank you so much for your help and patience.
~M
P.S. Given his size and appearance, how young do you think he is?
P.P.S. I know it's a little too early to know if it's a male or female, so I've picked Kimchee as a neutral name for now (though defaulting to male pronouns out of habit)
