Sick Axolotl

[Turtle1972]

Our male Axolotl has not been eating for 3 weeks now. His gills are curled, but his tail is not. I check the water parameters daily and they are perfect. The temperature of the water stays about 20 degrees Celsius. The substrate is large rocks, with an under rock filter that has an aerator tube. He is approximately 7 years old. He eats earthworms. He is also lethargic. There are no signs of bacterial or fungal infection. I am at a loss. Please help!

 

[kcoscia]

Water parameters are perfect? What are they exactly?
How large are large stones? I have concern for bowel obstruction.
Pictures would be helpful.

 

[Turtle1972]

Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, pH 7, Kh 30, Gh 40
The rocks are too big to be ingested.

 

[tundrabadger]

what's the ammonia looking like?

 

[Hayleyy]

Will wait on your ammonia, but if your nitrates are 0 your cycle may have crashed/not been cycled.

 

[Turtle1972]

The ammonia levels according to my Tetra EasyStrips is 0.

 

[NidiaNz]

The test strips aren't good, your best to tub your lotl and get a freshwater master test kit as it's likely the water is bad.

 

[tundrabadger]

That's a very strange result. I mean, i don't want there to be ammonia, but if there are no nitrates or nitrites you would expect to see some. Do you have any other means of testing the water? I can highly recommend the API freshwater master test kit...I find the results much more accurate and easy to read than strips.