Illness/Sickness: Vomiting and white gills

[Ripley]

Just fed two small earth worms to axie, while feeding my other tanks I noticed he was having an issue with the second worm. Finally he spit it out, it was covered in white stuff. Few minutes later he spit the second one out in pieces and more white stuff along with a shrimp head. So apparently he had had a little snack. Now he's kinda floating towards the bottom of the tank and his gills are as white as the rest of his body. He was perfectly fine before I fed him the worms. So when they get sick like I explained is it normal for the gills to turn white?

 

[EmbryH]

I'm guessing that you have either an albino or a leucistic?

Overfeeding an axolotl will make them vomit. Mine can't have two worms in one sitting, or else they spew it everywhere. The white stuff you were seeing on the worms was either the slime coat the worm gives off when it's stressed (like when it's being eaten) or the effects of being partially digested. It's basically how any axie vomit looks.

You said he "apparently" had a snack of a shrimp. Why do you have shrimp in the tank at all? Cohabiting with other species is generally bad practice and is strongly discouraged. If you had it in there for food, it's slightly more understandable, though I'd be careful because those exoskeletons can be hard to digest and shouldn't be eaten often.

When an axolotl calms down, their blood flow will not be as evident in their gills. Looking at my albino right now, he's super pale in the gills, but that's just because he's resting.

I'd say that your axie probably had too much in his stomach, threw it up, and is trying to chill and think about his life choices. Check your water quality just for good measure, including temperature, and keep an eye out for signs of stress, such as curled gills or tail, but otherwise he should be fine. Try offering him ONE worm in a few hours and see how that works.

Let us know how he's doing later.

 

[auntiejude]

All sounds normal to me. Axies sometimes go a bit pale after upchucking, just like people do.

Overfeeding, a worm that just doesn't want to be dinner, impaction/constipation, temperature spike, excess ammonia or infection can all cause vomiting. My breeding female can't keep a worm down when she's laying too.

Embry is right about the shrim - they can attack axie gills, and shouldn't be regular tank mates unless they are food. Even then they should only be occasional snack as the exoskeleton doesn't get digested.

 

[Ripley]

My apologies for not getting back sooner. Yes he is a leucistic, I had a pic of him under the name for when I post but being a JR member I guess it does not show. Ripley is back to normal and his gills are pink again, this was the first time I have had any issues and didn't know he would loose all color like he did kinda scared me. It was from being over fed. I am now cutting one worm into two. The shrimp have been moved into my larger tank for the frogs to play with.

 

[EmbryH]

Good to hear! Glad he's doing well

 

[xxianxx]

I didn't realize we had any anti shrimp lobby in this forum....... What foods do you guys think axolotls would eat in the wild ? Many invertebrate food items would have an exoskeleton and axolotls are designed to eat them. The only danger to an axolotl eating a few shrimps (properly quarantined) is to your wallet as they can be expensive.

 

[auntiejude]

I'm not anti-shrimp. My axies love river shrimp. I know they form part of a 'natural' diet, as do snails, insects and other food often deemed to be 'bad' by some.

But from experience, having an axie who gets 'uncomfortable' after over-indulging in river shrimp (and ends up barfing up exoskeleton), and having witnessed shrimp trying to attack axie gills, I am advocating caution.

 

[Jennewt]

I deleted a bunch of posts (xxianxx and EmbryH), which appeared to me to be pointless bickering about freshwater shrimp. Auntijude has contributed a reasonable post, based on her personal experience. Can we let this subject rest?

There are many different types of freshwater shrimp, and I suspect some of the differences of opinion are based on different kinds of shrimp.

It appears that the OP has gotten the info needed. Lets move on.