Pale gills, little appetite after laying eggs

Sylerwin

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Short version:
-1 year old 9inch female introduced to male, laid non-viable eggs and is stressed
-Pale gills
-Thin gills (thinner than usual, at least, she has never had fluffy gills for some reason)
-Lack of appetite
What I've tried:
-Put divider in
-Cut up nightcrawlers
-red wigglers
-bloodworms

She is eating, but not as much as I would like her to. I recently added more fake plants for hiding places and removed the divider to give her more space, I don't think the divider helped her at all. I have indian almond leaves, should I try adding one to the tank?? I've never used them before.
Temp is about 60F, 40% water changes every week, siphon out poop as needed.


Detailed version:
I used to have two females alone is a 40gallon breeder tank. Once they got big enough and old enough, I added two more, who happen to be male. I'm not interested in pushing breeding, but if they are happy lotl's and it happens, awesome. Barely a week after I added the males (there was a divider in there for one day to say hi without issue), one male was courting my female by staying near her, nudging her "parts". A day or two after I saw a few eggs. Just a few. I got a 5gal, and transferred the eggs. Over the next few days I saw a few more eggs, maybe 10 tops. They ended up not being viable. (She is about 18 months old, and about 9in long). After that my female became stressed and wasn't interested in wrestling with the nightcrawlers. I had to start cutting them up in teeny tiny pieces for her to be willing to try it. But I couldn't get her to eat more than a tiny bit versus her usual half worm. I assumed she was stressed from the egg laying. The male was still bothering her so I put up a divider and separated the males from females. She seemed more willing to try food, but still not as much as I would like her to eat. After having the divider up for about 3 weeks I decided to remove it because she wasn't improving. The least I could do was give her her space back. The petstore was out of nightcrawlers so I got red wigglers which she doesn't like the taste of. But I've tried nightcrawlers, bloodworms, and red wigglers. Her gills have paled in color. They have never been fluffy gills, but now they are even thinner than before. I lowered the airstone hoping she would get her gills back but because it's just her affected I'm not sure that will make a difference. Is there anything I can do for her? I recently picked up some indian almond leaves (much bigger than I thought), should I put one in the tank?


Thanks for reading, guys. I'm worried about my girl.
 
Is it possible she is slowing down on eating because she's producing more eggs in response to the male? does she look plump?
 
Not especially more plump. Wouldn't she need to eat more if she's producing more eggs? I'm not familiar with this sort of thing
 
Hello there :p
Sometimes female axies can 'leak' unfertilised eggs. This would explain why theres only a few that you have found.
When an axie is laying fertilised eggs they can lay 100's of them at any one time.
Female axies who are ready to mate will eat more as it uses more energy to create, fertilise, then lay the eggs. Female axies should be plumper than males :D

What are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate, PH?

Have you tried feeding blackworms? I hear theyre irresistible to axies :proud:

 
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