New Axolotl Keeper Kinda worried...

[mythicalord1]

Hi guys so im kinda worried, Ive had my Axie for about a week and a half now...

Ive been feeding him bloodworms every other day and been dropping in a few pellets every day hes still a Juvenile btw. and im kinda worried for a few reasons...

1. He takes a bit to actually take the food, for example he will swim around a couple times and then actually bite off the worms (I use tweezers) is this normal?

2. He will only eat 2 tweezers of bloodworms on average rarely 3... is this a regular thing? he will usually take most of the worms off the tweezers.

3. As I was feeding him today he took 2 of the tweezers of worms and then I offered him another just incase, I noticed he was floating to the top and opening and closing his mouth and he would then swim back down, he would occasionally spit out a bit of the sand / pellet dust... is this regular or am I doing something wrong?

Ive also put a picture of him just so you can have something to go off of

 

[AxolotlChris]

In most cases Axolotl will eat till they are stuffed, seems like he's not that interested in eating for some reason. Axolotl do tend to swim to the surface for a gulp of air and then with that air inhaled they will float on the surface, opening their mouth to release some air to then sink back to the bottom of the tank, so this seems fairly normal.

If he is spitting out sand then you might want to reconsider the sand you are using or just have a bare bottom tank, some Axolotl are fine with sand but others end up ingesting a lot which can cause impaction.

First place you want to start is by checking your water parameters. Ammonia, PH, Nitrite, and Nitrates must been monitored to ensure your tank is properly cycled with good bacteria. If your tank is not cycled then your Axolotl could be harmed which could affect his eating habbits.

Check out: Axolotl.org :happy:

 

[AxolotlChris]

What pellets do you use? Also send some better images of your tank and Axolotl, might help find something which could be the root cause