Illness/Sickness: SOS: Wound bloody leg of axie from fighting!

[terencehsu]

Dear all,

Smiley is suffering from his wound left-front leg for four days. Today it becomes worse (see photos), as I witnessed Buikpein ate Smiley's wound leg completely in her mouth during a fight while feeding them! My son timothy and I are really concerned.

The questions:
- Is there anything can be done to help Smiley get cured faster?
- They are fed with one cube of bloodworm once every 2 days, even since we put them in the new tank for a moth ago to avoid making the tank dirty. Perhaps that is too less for 13 month old axolotls?

Please advise and many thanks in advance!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I would keep a close eye on the wound, keep the tank cool and clean. If it changes and looks like fungus is developing you may then need to do salt baths and put your axolotl somewhere cooler. But keep us posted for further help.
The best food to give adult axolotl is live earthworm, blood worm as a main source of nutrition is not good.
Julia

 

[Shizeric]

In addition to bella's advice, I would also say you can increase the amount of food you are providing. 1 cube every 2 days seems a bit low, so you could increase that which may cause less aggression between the axolotls. What size tank do you have them in?

 

[terencehsu]

In addition to bella's advice, I would also say you can increase the amount of food you are providing. 1 cube every 2 days seems a bit low, so you could increase that which may cause less aggression between the axolotls. What size tank do you have them in?

60x30x40

 

[melfly]

I'm assuming that cm. Its not big enough for two adult axolotls. Being kept in a tank too small can cause them to be more aggressive with each other as they are constantly in each others way. You'll need to upgrade. Mel

 

[terencehsu]

It is a 60 liter tank. I am surprised to hear that it is too small for 2 axolotls. I remember read somewhere in this website (or somewhere else) that for about 60 liter tank can have fish up to 40 cm long in total. Smiley and Buikpein in total are about 20 cm, so I guess that is still OK?

Moreover, we still have some brine shrimps in cubes and fed the axies about 2 times. It seems very messy food. For bloodwoms, they will eat up all the left-over on the sands overnight; but that was not the case for brine shrimps.

What about frozen mosquitoes larvae? In the pet shops in Belgium, only some frozen food for fish, so I do not think can find live earthworms. Any other advice on the food?

Cheers
Terence (49) and Timothy (13)

 

[terencehsu]

In addition to bella's advice, I would also say you can increase the amount of food you are providing. 1 cube every 2 days seems a bit low, so you could increase that which may cause less aggression between the axolotls. What size tank do you have them in?

Hi Shzeric, If we increase the feeding for one cube every 2 days to the same amount every day, will it be good enough?

Moreover, at supermarkets they sell frozen sea shrimps. Is it alright to feed to axolotls?

Cheers
Terence

 

[Shizeric]

What about pet stores near you? Or bait shops? Both of these places may sell live worms. Instead of feeding the axolotls more often, you could try feeding them more when you do feed them. 2-3 cubes each every other day would be fine. And as Melfly said, 60L is NOT large enough, which may be contributing to the aggression the axolotls are showing towards eachother. I recently found out that information on this website does say that 60L is sufficient for 2 Axolotls, but unfortunately that information is incorrect, and hopefully will be changed soon. Frozen sea shrimps are not a nutritional diet, nor are the mosquito larvae.

 

[axiegaz]

Hi there,

couple of things:

1.A sojourn to the fridge would probably help speed the healing process

2. A 2 ft / 60cm tank is a little on the small side - i have my 2 axies in a 3 ft/90cm tank and i still think it's a little too small

3. Bloodworms are not nutritionally balance for axolotls so try and get some earthworms - if you have nowhere local/ no garden/ wrong time of year try google - there's some great online stores in the UK i'm sure there will be some in Belgium.

4. if you cant get a new tank right now (after all they're not cheap!) try adding another hide or two - giving the axies more places to hide can help with agression... or so i've read.