Hi, I have (had) two male axolotls, one black and one spotted. I have had the black male from a hatchling and he has always been the picture of health (nice full gills, thick tail, good body to head ratio). When he reached about a year old, I brought another axolotl from our local pet store (Roughly the beginning of November last year). This male was very underweight, had tiny gills and a weird mouth. I was told that this could have been the result of him being undernourished. I had the new male in quarantine for over a month just in case. He was a good eater, he never really seemed to gain much weight. I noticed a few weeks ago that he losing weight. He was spitting out any food that he would usually take and was also swimming to the top of the tank and floating. I did as much research as I could and tried (I believe) everything, but tonight he died 
Unfortunatly there was no vet around here I could have taken him to, otherwise I would have tried that as well. When I found him he was very, very thin (as he had been for a while, even though I had made frequent attempts to feed him at least twice a day, and he refused all) and had his mouth open with what appeared to be a lot of blood beneath the skin on his head and face, with the blood vessels in his neck very exposed. I should also note that throughout all this my other axolotl (The original one) had remained perfectly healthy.
My tank is approximately 120 litres (or about 30 Gallons) with a sand and extra large pebble substrate. The water is tested regularly at a local aquarium and it has always been fine. I feed the axolotls everything from earthworms, bloodworms, mealworms, beef heart, brine shrimp, pellets and occasionally crickets as a treat (My black male loves them)I have a external filter that has a very low flow and the tank never is allowed above 23 degrees C. I know that is still higher than preferred but I live in Queenland and in the summer it can easily reach 40 - I have a fan on the tank 24/7 and do a rotation of ice bottles and frozen blocks of tank water. When it is really bad I fridge them until the heat wave passes. I know it is a lot, but I am just desperate to know what went wrong! I can't figure out why one died and I am concerned that my other male may become ill too
Unfortunatly there was no vet around here I could have taken him to, otherwise I would have tried that as well. When I found him he was very, very thin (as he had been for a while, even though I had made frequent attempts to feed him at least twice a day, and he refused all) and had his mouth open with what appeared to be a lot of blood beneath the skin on his head and face, with the blood vessels in his neck very exposed. I should also note that throughout all this my other axolotl (The original one) had remained perfectly healthy. My tank is approximately 120 litres (or about 30 Gallons) with a sand and extra large pebble substrate. The water is tested regularly at a local aquarium and it has always been fine. I feed the axolotls everything from earthworms, bloodworms, mealworms, beef heart, brine shrimp, pellets and occasionally crickets as a treat (My black male loves them)I have a external filter that has a very low flow and the tank never is allowed above 23 degrees C. I know that is still higher than preferred but I live in Queenland and in the summer it can easily reach 40 - I have a fan on the tank 24/7 and do a rotation of ice bottles and frozen blocks of tank water. When it is really bad I fridge them until the heat wave passes. I know it is a lot, but I am just desperate to know what went wrong! I can't figure out why one died and I am concerned that my other male may become ill too
