Two dead axies in one week

[sliemm]

Well, it's been a sad week in my house. My leucistic, Eric, died last Thursday - rather suddenly. His tankmate, Ernie, followed him a week later. I'm so gutted I lost both my pets in the space of a week after having them for three years.

I'm trying to work out what could've happened. They were both happy and healthy right up until I found them dead. I had been hand feeding them once a day since they were babies, and then about two months ago they stopped hand feeding, so I'd put worms on the substrate for them to eat - and I watched them eat the worms, so it wasn't like they starved to death. Their appetites did slow a little, but apart from this change in their behaviour, there was nothing to indicate they were going to die suddenly.

I have heard of genetic defects in axolotls in Australia that can kill them at around 3 years old, but I think it's too much of a coincidence that both could die of a genetic defect within the space of one week. Perhaps it could've been a bacterial infection? I have no idea. Their bodies were fine - no disease, no marks.

I'd like to get another couple of axies now, but I wonder if I should completely change the water first, just incase it's some sort of bacteria in the water that killed them.

 

[birdsong]

I noticed last week that there were many Australian axolotl deaths and all seemed very unexpected. Maybe you could search the other threads on that topic and compare the circumstances of there demise and see if there are any similarities . Good luck and I'm sorry for your lose.