Not Eating

[thunderchild]

Righty ho. Not been here for a while as I've been busy and ill and in that time I've lost my old account. So I'm not as new here as I look.
Anyways, I'm having trouble, my male axolotl isn't eating (he last ate a week ago) and is starting the get thin. I have two in the tank and the other one is just fine and is eating healthily.
The male isn't acting oddly and seems interested in the food, attacks it and the spits it out and will not touch anything else I offer him. I hand feed them worms and raw meat, usually liver.
The ammonia and ph is all fine, but they changed tanks about two weeks ago, the axies are also about 10cm long and I tend to try and feed them every third day).
Please please please, is there anything I can do? I'm desperately trying to keep him going but I'm getting very worried now.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Hi there, my male axolotl can be stubborn when it comes to food...especially when it comes to live worms. ( my other is less picky). I have found in his case that he likes variety, so here goes...they are mainly fed live worms, live fresh water shrimp , raw sliced tiger prawn ( their no1 favourite..works with out fail!) thin slices of raw fat free chicken , lamb, beef, pork. My two are over 22cm and at the moment are fed alternate days the equivalent of 2 smallish worms or one raw tiger prawn each, they both are more hungry at the moment since the temps have risen..struggling to keep the tank down to the 20 degree mark( the juvenile golden one especially) My male is on food strike as he can't be doing with wrestling the worms, but as he is in good shape I am not too fussed. Hope this helps in some small way, I hope he starts to eat soon.

 

[thunderchild]

Hi there, my male axolotl can be stubborn when it comes to food...especially when it comes to live worms. ( my other is less picky). I have found in his case that he likes variety, so here goes...they are mainly fed live worms, live fresh water shrimp , raw sliced tiger prawn ( their no1 favourite..works with out fail!) thin slices of raw fat free chicken , lamb, beef, pork. My two are over 22cm and at the moment are fed alternate days the equivalent of 2 smallish worms or one raw tiger prawn each, they both are more hungry at the moment since the temps have risen..struggling to keep the tank down to the 20 degree mark( the juvenile golden one especially) My male is on food strike as he can't be doing with wrestling the worms, but as he is in good shape I am not too fussed. Hope this helps in some small way, I hope he starts to eat soon.

Thank you so much for that. I'll give it a try and report back tomorrow hopefully.

Also, to anyone who's reading this I forgot to add that he had a small fungus infection on his gills recently and they've not healled up to well though what's left is still pretty healthy and the feathers are full but he's now gasping a lotand so is his tank mate. I do need to install a airpump but money's tight.
Would this have an affect?

 

[Bellabelloo]

My two tend to gulp at the surface if the water temp has risen ( less oxygen in warm water). At the moment I have a small fan blowing on to the surface to keep it cooler ( a clip on one for under a tenner Lakeland plastics!)

 

[kapo]

Hi Thunderbird, welcome back

Do you test the tankwater regularly, and have you tested for nitrites? And, how often do you do waterchanges? If they only recently moved to another tank and same substrate, decos/filter were used your tank may be going through a mini cycle.

From the gasping I would suggest doing a 20% waterchange, if you haven't already done so, and get your tankwater tested as soon as possible for nitrite. If you can't get it done for a few days, just do partial waterchanges (20%) for the next few days, until you can get it tested.

In warmer weather and at that size they can actually be fed twice a day. Once they reach 15cm + their feeding can be moved to every 2-3 day feeding.

 

[thunderchild]

Hi Thunderbird, welcome back

Do you test the tankwater regularly, and have you tested for nitrites? And, how often do you do waterchanges? If they only recently moved to another tank and same substrate, decos/filter were used your tank may be going through a mini cycle.

From the gasping I would suggest doing a 20% waterchange, if you haven't already done so, and get your tankwater tested as soon as possible for nitrite. If you can't get it done for a few days, just do partial waterchanges (20%) for the next few days, until you can get it tested.

In warmer weather and at that size they can actually be fed twice a day. Once they reach 15cm + their feeding can be moved to every 2-3 day feeding.

The tank has been cycled but I like to do about 25% (estimate) water changes everyday due to the hot weather. I've been doing this (more or less, I get ill, other people take over, yadda yadda) more or less for the past year which is how long I've had them. The male only started gasping in this new tank. My old tank had a build in air pump but this one doesn't. The female gasps too, but not half as much, I've been putting it down to the males damaged gills.

Even the female refuses to eat more than every other day, I'm offering her some prawn right now and she refuses to take it yet I know tomorrow that she'll rip my fingers off for it.

I'll test the nitrite, I never thought of that but I'm a bit rusty on the ol' cycling system, all I know is there's no ammonia and the ph is where it should be. I think I'm a gonna have to lurk more and get back into things!
Thanks for the advice!
Also he ate a little bit of prawn today! Not as much as I would have liked, but its a start.

 

[kapo]

ahhh, a lurker!

I hope things improve. Here's a link on cycling: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

 

[thunderchild]

News update for anyone interested- He died in the night.
He was fine about midnight and when I got up he was limp, lying on his side and his gills had withered into nothing. Just, wham, dead.
His tank mate is still doing fine, big healthy gills, pot belly (healthy round female belly) and is actively parading around the tank and eating quite normally.
I'm personally puzzled to whats happened. If anyone thinks they can shed some light on the situation and how not to achieve a repeat performance I would be more than greatful!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I am sorry to hear the news, I do feel for you. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed ( hinders my 1 digit typing and walking though) that your other one stays well.

 

[Ed]

what is the temperature. Warmer waters hold less oxygen and increases the metabolism (oxygen requirement) and if the axolotl has reduced gills then then it may have issues breathing.

I am curious, what purpose do you think the water changes do with the increased temperature?

Ed

 

[Bellabelloo]

Hi again!
I suspect the main problem has been with the temps rising here, if I did nothing with my tank it could rise quite quickly. I noticed this as hubby had switched the fan off one morning and did toast for my mini terrorists, when I came down the tank had reached 25 degrees. I now keep the fan on full time, unless I am at home then all the downstairs windows are all left open to get a breeze through, it then settles to approx 19/20 degrees. If you are at home a lot you could use the frozen bottles of de-chlorinated water, but you need to keep good check that theya re swapped over regularly as fluctuation in the water temp will affect the water quality and then the axolotl.

 

[thunderchild]

what is the temperature. Warmer waters hold less oxygen and increases the metabolism (oxygen requirement) and if the axolotl has reduced gills then then it may have issues breathing.

I am curious, what purpose do you think the water changes do with the increased temperature?

Ed

The temp is currently 21C.
If its hot I do small water changes little and often to no more than 25% of the tanks original volume, I figure it'll be too shocking to them to do any more than that.
The tanks relatively new so I've not had chance to set up a fan next to it yet, plus its been rather cold in the UK, its only the last few days we've actually seen sun light.