Our axolotl died last night.

[jmknapp21]

We live in Maine, and it was in the mid 90's yesterday. We had a rotation of ice packs going like we did when we had these temps last year for over a week. Our axolotl, the Tiniest, ate worms like a champ on Sunday, refused food yesterday, and then was dead this morning. She's only 3, and we've raised her since she was an embryo. She had a male tank-mate for a while, but after too many eggs, we sent him to a reputable breeder. The only health issues she's had were when she ate some gravel early on in her life, but we got those out. Her tank is a 40 gallon breeder, Florabase substrate, some live plants, and some terra-cotta pots for hiding. We use a canister filter, and we did a water test this morning, and everything was normal. I know the heat is the obvious thing here, but would 1 day of warm temperatures really kill her this quickly!?!? We are SO sad.

Thanks everyone,
Jessie

 

[Bdyoung]

I wouldn't think it would be one day of warm temperatures but more so that the water temperature was going up and down all day drastically.

 

[imzunicorn]

It might not have been the heat, it could have been the fluctuating temps with the ice packs. When I brought my axolotls with us on a move, they were in a cooler. However, at one point I think it got around 80 in there. They survived the whole trip just fine. I've even spoken with some people and agree that axolotls can survive some higher temps for a while. However, bringing the water up and down over and over is far worse than a constant high temperature.

 

[jmknapp21]

I should clarify that we just added the ice packs in the evening when it was apparent that the tank was approaching 75, and she seemed stressed. The time before when it was really hot for weeks, we did do a long term rotation of ice packs, but this time, we just put them in once.

As far as we can tell by looking at our thermometer, the ice packs only lowered the temperature in the tank by 1 or 2 degrees last night so I'm not sure it was that drastic.

 

[imzunicorn]

Oh, that is pretty weird. Maybe there was something on the ice pack itself? If she was already sick, the higher temps could've exasperated the problem too.