Illness/Sickness: Axolotyl won't eat! Hasn't eaten in a week!

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Hedgey666

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Hi guys urgent post. I'm freaking out. She hasn't eaten in a week, has become sluggish except when food is held in front of her and she will come up and put head against it but not eat!

Tank is about a 80 litre tank. I did some reading and thought it may be the temperature (is the Australian summer), I dropped the tank to half water and have kept almost constant ice bottles in there. I do have a thermometer but I have my doubts to its accuracy! Please any help would be appreciated! I am in a panic! Will try to include pictures to see if she is okay!
 

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In addition to temperature, what are all the other water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH)? Problems with water quality are always the first suspect when an axolotl is acting ill.

Do you have a fan blowing over the water? Depending on humidity that can drop the temperature a degree or two or 3 (evaporative cooling).
 
I am only looking after it for my brother while he is away, I do not have a water testing kit, but to compensate for that over the week I have been doing 25% water changes, every day and have only dropped the water level as I have started to become more panicked with the temperature (smaller bodies of water cool faster obviously). I don't have a fan, but I have a windowed draft running adjacent and over the top of the tank.

I also feed her green prawns if that's any help.
 
What temperature do you think the tank is at?

Are you dechlorinating the water before water changes.

Was the tank cycled?

How long have you been caring for her?

Are you taking out uneaten food immediately and any poop?

Definitely post pictures, since if you aren't her usual keeper, you may be missing obvious signs that someone here will recognize.

I am going to guess that this is a "new" tank and is probably bad water quality, even though you have been changing the water every day, since axolotls produce a lot of waste.

If you agree that y guess is probably right, here is what I recommend. Fill a smaller container with fresh, dechlorinated water and place her in that container. This should not harm her (as long as you don't drop her or injure her getting her out and it is deep enough that she can't get out). While she is in there, you will need to do 100% water changes like, twice a day. If you don't have such a container, change as much of the water in the tank as you can and get as much of the organic waste (leftover food, etc.) out. Make sure you dechlorinate the water before it goes back in.

Any chance you can either get a test kit or bring a sample of the water to a fish store to be tested? If so, save a sample before changing the water.

I'm heading to bed (late night here), but there are some very nice Australians that will be on-line and can provide possibly better advice based on your answers to my questions.
 
By my guess, at worst, early 20s.

Ofcourse.

No idea how to tell that?

About a month with no issues until a week ago.

Only hand feed, Clean as much as possible

The tank isn't too new, had it for at least 4 Months.

Overall she seems happy enough, after every water change, but she still will not eat what so ever, sometimes curling her tail and backing away.
 
The best course of action is to get a liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH and also pick up a thermometer for the tank so you can get an accurate temperature (best to get a second one if you have doubts on the accuracy of the current one). These items are absolutely essential to have to ensure the tank is cycled and in order to maintain good water quality. Testing these parameters will tell you whether the tank is cycled. Most illnesses or stress in axolotls are due to poor water quality so it is always a good first step to test the parameters accurately to determine if water quality is a factor.

It is vital you understand the cycling process so you know how the process works and how it affects aquatic life and how to properly maintain the cycle to maintain high water quality. Here is a link on cycling. Make sure you give it a good read and ask questions if you are unsure.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

Prawns are not an appropriate staple diet and should be at most an occasional treat. Earthworms are far more suited. Most bait stores will have earthworms you can use. Try offering different foods such as earthworm, bloodworm, axolotl pellets.
 
Also, the gravel in the tank is potentially quite dangerous and poses a risk of impaction if your axolotl swallows them. Hand feeding helps minimise this but it doesn't take the risk away completely. I would advise removing the gravel and replacing it with fine silica based sand or bare bottom. Play sand works well as long as you thoroughly clean it beforehand and sift out the gravel chunks well. If you choose sand, be sure to give the sand a good stir regularly to prevent noxious gas pockets building up. But bare bottom is also acceptable.
 
If the axolotl is a female she could be reabsorbing her eggs.

When axolotl's reabsorb eggs they can lose their appetites for more than a week.

Is the axolotl skinny? (when looking from the top down is the axolotl's belly width similar to that of its head?

I had an axolotl which didn't eat for nearly a month however she never lost any weight and is now happily eating again. If she is reabsorbing her eggs just keep trying to offer her food but if she doesn't make any attempts to eat she probably just isn't hungry.
 
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