Not eating

[louloud]

I brought two axolotls last saturday from different stores. I have been testing water quality and that is fine. But one of them isn't eating I asked at the pet store what he had been eating and brought that the other one is eating fine, but he is hardly eating at all. any help??

 

[MRIGUY]

Sometimes it takes time for an animal to get acclimated to a new home. During that time they may not eat or they might hide a lot. Sooner of later they will eat just fine. Try a piece of chopped earthworm.

One thing though, purchasing animals from different sources and keeping them together is fine but the animals should be quarantined for 30 days to prevent the spread of any disease that may have been present in one of their original homes. Perhaps you already did that but since you didn't mention it I figured I'd trow it out there.

 

[louloud]

Thanks for your advice, I'll try earthworm as well. No I didnt do the quarnatine period which I should of if I had known. I'm currently setting up a new bigger tank which is cycling I will just add one at a time to see if that helps. The only reason I got them from 2 different sources is so I could get two different colours one store only had golden and the other brown they're of very simliar sizing though.

 

[louloud]

Also I'm thinking of making the substrate sand in the new tank as i've heard gravel isn't the best even though I currently have gravel over 2cm in size. What's the best way to clean the sand of waste once in the tank? As i currently just use a gravel siphon and turkey baster in the smaller gravel tank.

 

[MRIGUY]

No need to add them one at a time to the new tank. They are together now and have already shared anything they might have had. Pre-cycling the tank is a good thing. It's one less source of stress with the new home. I would clean the sand the same way as the gravel. You will find that it is easier because the food doesn't fall in the cracks and get missed.

 

[louloud]

One of my axolotls still isn't eating! the other one is eating fine. As they are adults I offer them food every 2-3 days. Im starting to get a little worried the one that is eating is very active always swimming around were as the other hardly moves at all (but he never was the active type). I've tried axolotl tucker which he was being fed in the pet store, pellets and earthworms. he hasn't eaten in about a week...he still seems a good weight though.

 

[ben_tajer]

Depending on the temperature, the axolotl can go fine with out food for a lot longer than a week. So a week without eating does not by any means indicate starvation is imminent. Still your concern is valid, and I would continue to attempt to feed it. If you're really worried, separate the axolotls. I once had a problem where one newt ate all of the food before the others could get to it, this can happen and may not even be very obvious. Even if aggressive tank mates are not the problem, separation can still help you monitor the one who isn't eating better. If it starts to look scarily thin you might want to try force feeding, but this is a last resort.

 

[louloud]

Thanks for your advice. I do individually hand fed them so the axolotl has a equal chance of getting the food. I will just keep trying. I also did try putting the axolotl in a smaller seperate container to feed it, it wasn't interested. It is cooling off in New Zealand so the water temp would be cooler I just found it strange that the other one still has a large appiette in comparison.