Axolotl not eating frequently in head down/tail up position

[ukisuki]

Hello! We have a axolotl who is about 11 months old and we have had her for about 9 months. She has always been a good eater, and relatively calm. She is housed in a 20 gallon tank with no substrate, 2 filters, and 2 air stones. We monitor her temperature closely and keep her cool. About 5 days ago she seemed less interested in food. She did eat a pellet but then ran off and hid. Since then she has not eaten and even will not eat her worms which she usually loves. We checked her water parameters and her ph was a little low but 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates and .25 ammonia, so overall not bad.

Yesterday we noticed her looking like she was trying to vomit but nothing came up. She did this several times. I also noticed she was more active during the day and was swimming back and forth in her tank sometimes bumping her nose into the glass. She is kind of silly sometimes but I am concerned that this was more that she was agitated. I also see her more in a position with her head down and tail up. She isn't like that all the time at all but does it more often that usual. I am attaching a picture. The plants are not real so we know she didn't eat those.

Her gill color is good and they aren't curled forward and her tail isn't curled but she is definitely telling us something is wrong. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Riley_Hatteras]

Well, it seems that she could be a bit constipated, with her head facing down. Some recommend lowering the temperature of the tank, by doing a water change and adding cool water or putting a frozen water bottle in the tank. The cooler water should get the digestive tract moving. For the eating thing, it could also go back to being constipation, because that seems to be very common for axolotls. She could be sick also, but she is probably not. I think that simply lowering the water temperature should encourage eating. I don't know though, maybe she is just not hungry at the moment; they can go weeks without food. But once she starts to feel hunger, she will definitely eat, so just keep trying.

 

[ukisuki]

Thank you! She did finally eat a piece of worm today and went for it with her usual enthusiasm. We are keeping the tank cooler than usual and hopefully that does the trick. We sure love her and it is worrying when they don't eat and just seem off.