Illness/Sickness: No poo?

[fireball99]

Hi all,

I've been an unregistered reader of your forum for a while now and I see there's quite a few threads on constipated axolotls. My little lotl's Axl's problem is kinda similar but also kinda not!

We got him when he was a baby and he used to go maybe every second day. It has been literally weeks now since I cleaned any poo from this tank? We've not changed anything in his tank except get him some new hides and I tried to vary his diet a bit with Daphnia and he didn't eat it so, he's now on sinking salmon pellets which seem to be his favourite. He's always eaten them since we got him.

We use fine sand as a substrate in his tank so he can't possibly have any gravel in his stomach. Water temperate has been consistently around 13-14 degrees c and is a 60 litre tank. He's the only lotl in the tank. He has a 1/5 water change every week with a drop of dechlorinator. One drop is all we need as we measure how much water we remove and add back to the tank and our tapwater is safe for lotls anyway. He's fed every second day.

Normally his waste is quite sandy and if I don't collect it in one go it'll break up but I can normally see traces of it in the sand but for the past while there's been nothing. The filter sponge can be quite dirty so I'm hoping that it's just being sucked into the filter?

He's always liked to float in the plants in his tank and doesn't do it often enough to concern me. Equally, he doesn't seem constipated as his backlegs are on the bottom of the tank.

He seems happy enough, coming out from his hide to say hello when I'm in the same room and will swim to the surface to collect his food. The only thing different about him is, since he's a leucistic, I can sort of see through his skin and he's dark on either side of his body? He shows no signs of stress. I thought maybe he was being a cat and burying the poo but I've moved the sand and nothing?

Hopefully the photo I tried to attach will be there. The picture is a little old but he doesn't look any different.

I feel like a worried parent but I do love this little guy and want to make sure he's ok

 

[auntiejude]

Axies hide thier poop - under ornaments, in the sand, in plants. And they stomp on it to break it up and the filter removes it - possibly accidentally but sometimes on purpose. And poop disintegrates on it's own after a while. But they aslo eat their own poop (eww!) especially when fed pellets, I don't know whether its beacuse it smells like pellets or because it looks like pellets, but they do.

The dark you can see on his sides is just his insides - liver and intestines normally. You can see their heart too when they are really tiny.

Have you tried worms? Earthworms are the best nutrition for axies, and I find poops are a nice solid bean (jelly-belly bean) type lump that is easy to remove.

If he's otherwise happy and healthy he's probably fine.

 

[fireball99]

Thanks auntiejude, that makes me feel better

He used to eat his own poo when he was a baby, usually while I was in the process of trying to remove it, but I thought he'd grown out of it but maybe not.

I haven't tried worms mainly because I don't know if I have the stomach to cut them up! Defrosted food is fine but he doesn't seem interested in it.

Thanks again for your response, much appreciated :happy:

 

[ThickAsaBrick]

If you are queasy about cutting up worms blanche them first. Get some water boiling and just pour some on the worm quickly. That will kill the worm. Them pick it up with forceps and dip it in cool water. Cutting up the worm is easy then because it is dead and doesn't squirm around.

This also keeps the worm from expelling the smelly yellow defensive liquid so the pieces are much more attractive to the axolotl.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kjnorman]

I was actually surprised to find a fairly solid axolotl poo just recently after several weeks of owning my two adults - first one I had seen!
I just assumed that it was being broken up and removed by the filter/by me when I do a vaccum and water change, which is pretty much every other day.

I did noticed that it was always cruddier under and around hides - probably they are hiding it!

 

[fireball99]

Thanks everyone, and thanks for the worm advice. I'll give it a go

 

[NexSocius]

Mine likes to leave his poop under the side of his hide, and if I don't spot it soon enough, he decides to swim laps and spread it everywhere -,-
Worms will make their poop more solid, whereas pellets tend to be powdery. At least, this is what I've observed with mine

 

[EmbryH]

Ablus and Jinx make it a freaking game to hide their poop from me -.-;; Sometimes axolotls are mischievous. Try feeding it earthworms, because the waste is more solid and noticeable, and check the tank every day for any droppings.