WordsOfFate
New member
So I have a 75-gallon tank with 3 axolotls; an adult golden albino, adult melanoid, and a juvenile copper. This post is regarding my melanoid who over the past month, has had an extreme increase in appetite.
When I only had the melanoid and golden, they were both in a 20-gallon tank for the year I had them before I was thankfully able to upgrade them to their current 75. During that time, they both got along fine and neither of them really ate that much, especially not the melanoid. Nothing was wrong though; they both still maintained a perfect size but they just didn't really eat that much. The golden would eat every 3 days but the melanoid would only ever eat ever 4-6 days depending on how big the worm I gave her previously was.
But since upgrading them, both of their appetites slightly increased from every 4 days, to every 3 days, and now I feed them every 2 days. The golden has been content with eating every 2 days but as of late, the melanoid wants to eat even more than that. And just today, after I had just fed the melanoid and was now feeding the golden, the melanoid went after golden's worm and tried ripping it from her mouth.
The two of them grew up with each other and have never once shown any aggression towards each other so this was quite shocking to see. The melanoid didn't bite the golden so she wasn't harmed anyway and since the golden has always been the "dominant" one, you could say, of the two of them, she promptly kicked the melanoid out of the hide and finished eating her worm. She has yet to show any aggression whatsoever towards the smaller copper and, in fact, actually seems to have taken a liking to the copper but I'm a bit worried that might change.
She's also been way more aggressive towards me lately when I feed her. She's always been a bit aggressive towards me ever since I first got her like purposely ignoring the worm and trying to bite my fingers instead, but it's been way worse lately. I have to feed her with tweezers now because she rips the worm away from as if she hasn't eaten in weeks.
Is this normal behavior for an axolotl to have such a sudden change in appetite and to be so much more aggressive than usual? And should I feed her another worm if she's still hungry, even after just eating? I'm just scared that I'm going to overfeed her and she might get sick, but it also worries me just how aggressive she's starting to get with the golden. At least the golden's able to keep her in line for the time being, haha.
By the way, the water parameters on the tank are all perfect and I check weekly. The temperature is usually anywhere between 60-66F but never gets any higher than that.
When I only had the melanoid and golden, they were both in a 20-gallon tank for the year I had them before I was thankfully able to upgrade them to their current 75. During that time, they both got along fine and neither of them really ate that much, especially not the melanoid. Nothing was wrong though; they both still maintained a perfect size but they just didn't really eat that much. The golden would eat every 3 days but the melanoid would only ever eat ever 4-6 days depending on how big the worm I gave her previously was.
But since upgrading them, both of their appetites slightly increased from every 4 days, to every 3 days, and now I feed them every 2 days. The golden has been content with eating every 2 days but as of late, the melanoid wants to eat even more than that. And just today, after I had just fed the melanoid and was now feeding the golden, the melanoid went after golden's worm and tried ripping it from her mouth.
The two of them grew up with each other and have never once shown any aggression towards each other so this was quite shocking to see. The melanoid didn't bite the golden so she wasn't harmed anyway and since the golden has always been the "dominant" one, you could say, of the two of them, she promptly kicked the melanoid out of the hide and finished eating her worm. She has yet to show any aggression whatsoever towards the smaller copper and, in fact, actually seems to have taken a liking to the copper but I'm a bit worried that might change.
She's also been way more aggressive towards me lately when I feed her. She's always been a bit aggressive towards me ever since I first got her like purposely ignoring the worm and trying to bite my fingers instead, but it's been way worse lately. I have to feed her with tweezers now because she rips the worm away from as if she hasn't eaten in weeks.
Is this normal behavior for an axolotl to have such a sudden change in appetite and to be so much more aggressive than usual? And should I feed her another worm if she's still hungry, even after just eating? I'm just scared that I'm going to overfeed her and she might get sick, but it also worries me just how aggressive she's starting to get with the golden. At least the golden's able to keep her in line for the time being, haha.
By the way, the water parameters on the tank are all perfect and I check weekly. The temperature is usually anywhere between 60-66F but never gets any higher than that.