Sick axolotl

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geo18

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Hey all, I'm fairly new to this website so I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing.. anyway I've had my axolotl Ernie for about 5 months, it's a male and he is white with blue eyes. Since I got him he has gradually lost a lot of weight due to him not eating which is a fairly recent thing. Lately he hasn't been moving, isn't eating at all and his gills are really pale white rather than the pink colour they usually are. I've taken numerous water samples to different aquariums and they always say everythings fine. I have so many different types of PH and KH tests and the waters also been tested for nitrate etc.. He eats feeder fish, but only one type as he is fussy.. I tried beef heart and he was not interested whatsoever. If anyone has any thoughts/suggestions that would help :)
 
What do you have in the tank with him. as in substrate, plants etc. Also what is the water temperature? Have you been quarantining the feeder fish.... sorry for all the questions, but they may lead to a solution.
 
The water is around 16-17 degrees, and in his tank theres just rocks, fake plants and a few other decorative type things. The feeder fish are in a seperate tank I only put a couple in every few days as he usually would eat them. The other thing I thought may have caused him to refuse food is where I bought him the aquarium suggested a certain type of rock which he started eating/choking on, as soon as I noticed I swapped the rocks to bigger ones.. but since then I havn't seen any waste in the tank could that have something to do with it?
 
Large rocks will trap a TON of waste. How do you clean them?

I don't recommend rocks for that reason. Do an ammonia and nitrite test. Do a big water change, 30% or so. And to see if he has an impaction, try putting him on a bare substrate tank for a while and see if he eats and poops like he should. If he's been eating gravel, he may have an impaction, where the gravel is blocking his intestines.

If you're using strictly feeder fish, I would definitely switch to earthworms. They're a lot more suitable than fish, which aren't a natural salamander diet.
 
Usually I clean the rocks with a gravel cleaner, which just sucks up some of the waste.. but to do so it stirs it up a lot and can miss some of it on the bottom. I got ammonia and nitrate tests and my local aquarium and he seemed to think they were fine. I will switch to earthworms and see how that goes, because I havn't tried any type of worm yet. The substrate tank is probably going to be my first move, the rocks in his tank and grey/brown so I can't tell if he is going etc.. I did notice before that just on the left side his gills are looking heaps smaller than usual and sort of curled back, so I'm not sure what thats indicating. Thanks for the advice I'll definitley change his diet to the worms and put him in a substrate tank and see what happens. Let you know how I go :)
 
Hey guys! I know it's been a while, just letting you all know that i put him on a new diet and although he isn't too fussed on earthworms he's still eating them which is a start! I put him in a substrate tank and he wasn't doing anything.. at all. So I'm not sure where to go from there but as of right now he's doing better. Thanks for the help :)
 
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