Axolotl behavior / feeding / gastrointestinal questions

[frogenjoyer]

Hey everyone,

This isn't very urgent, but I have some questions about axolotls and the spectrum of their personalities and behaviors. I have a 1-year-old axolotl named Tatiana; she is my first, so I'm always a little unsure if certain behaviors she exhibits are normal or not. For background, she's in a 29-gallon tank kept at 60 degrees with live plants, hides, and a hammock with no lighting besides ambient light. The tank is a couple feet from my bed, so I spend a lot of time watching her. I cycled the tank for 6 months prior to getting her and have never had any issues with water parameters. I use very fine, light-colored sand as a substrate. I feed her a red wriggler worm cut in half every other day to every two days. She's definitely not skinny, but she's definitely not fat either. If you were to imagine a standard leucistic axolotl, that's her (cuter than everyone else's, in my opinion, though). But she doesn't seem to poop very often anymore, and it's a bit concerning. She poops around once every two weeks, sometimes once a week. Is this okay? She is constantly hungry and eats voraciously. She seems hungry all the time. If I open the cabinet where I keep the tongs, cup, and scissors I use during feeding, she gets visibly excited. I keep other things in that cabinet, so she's not always getting fed when I go in there. If I walk by the tank, she gets visibly excited and follows me wherever I go. She isn't bloated or swollen at all. The only floating she has ever done is when she goes to the surface, takes in air, floats around the top for a couple minutes, burps, and sinks back down. She seems totally healthy to me, but she's honestly pretty crazy, and I'm never sure if there's something wrong with her or I just have a crazy axolotl. She is not scared of anything. If I am siphoning water or have to reach into the tank, she immediately goes right to the siphon or my hand to look at it and will gladly bite my fingers if presented with them. She takes worms directly from my hand or with tongs. She's so friendly and curious. She spends hours upon hours (upon hours, upon hours) swimming in every inch of the tank. It doesn't look like she's flailing or doing anything abnormal—just very, very active. Does anybody else's axolotl behave this way? Every axolotl I have ever met just sits there and does nothing or hides. She chills out for a few hours a day, especially after eating, but generally she's swimming around. I speculated that maybe she's pooping while I'm at work or while I'm asleep and maybe breaking the poop packet with her high activity, and that's why I think she's pooping less than she actually might be. To account for that possibility, I'm diligent about water changes (20–30% once a week). I'm just hoping to hear some other people's thoughts.

Thank you,
Matt

 

[wolfen]

because fecal matter can easily be broken up and go missing one of the easiest ways to find out if she is excreting waste is to take a measurement of the nitrates 24hrs after a water change then just before you do the next water change test again, if the nitrates are notably higher then she is producing waste, provided her torso is at least the same width as her head then she is receiving enough food although is should be noted that females can take on a more rounder appearance then males, one of the reasons for continual activity can be hunting for food although this isn't a sign of under feeding but a sign of a greedy axolotl.
axolotls are mostly nocturnal so tend to be quite active at night, unless there is a notable difference between day and night axolotl can easily confuse the two and be quite active in daytime, something else to be taken into consideration is the fact that young axolotls also tend to be more active than older axolotls so she may calm down over time they also tend to have larger appetites.

 

[frogenjoyer]

because fecal matter can easily be broken up and go missing one of the easiest ways to find out if she is excreting waste is to take a measurement of the nitrates 24hrs after a water change then just before you do the next water change test again, if the nitrates are notably higher then she is producing waste, provided her torso is at least the same width as her head then she is receiving enough food although is should be noted that females can take on a more rounder appearance then males, one of the reasons for continual activity can be hunting for food although this isn't a sign of under feeding but a sign of a greedy axolotl.
axolotls are mostly nocturnal so tend to be quite active at night, unless there is a notable difference between day and night axolotl can easily confuse the two and be quite active in daytime, something else to be taken into consideration is the fact that young axolotls also tend to be more active than older axolotls so she may calm down over time they also tend to have larger appetites.

Awesome feedback wolfen, thank you very much!