Illness/Sickness: Heat stress, ammonia stress and no longer eating

[geekychik]

Hi. I have a rather young axi, who, up until the recent warm aussie days, has been growing fine and eating worms from the garden. I came home from work one day to find that the tank had an ammonia spike. As the weather was warming up, I thought I'd keep her in the fridge until it cooled down. As there was no more worms in the garden, I had to go and buy some. Moving her to a container was stressful for her, she even wriggled out of my hands and onto the floor at one stage.

Anyway, she is now very skinny, and although I have been monitoring her and doing all the required water changes and what not, she has stopped eating and takes no interest in the earth worms I bought. They can't be that different from the garden, so, aside from trying something different, like pellets, can anyone offer any advice please?

She also has this redness that has popped up recently on her tail and I don't know what it is.

 

[Olivia97]

I would try offering some other foods aswell. what are the readings from the container he's in now and from the tank. He's really skinny which concerns me, how much weight has s/he lost?

 

[geekychik]

She's lost a lot over the last 2 weeks, mostly due to weather I think. The tank is cycling at the moment and the ammonia levels are still not low enough, but it's too warm to put her back in the tank anyway. I tried to feed her again, with the compost worms I bought and I found a small one in the garden, but to no avail, she showed no interest in them at all. My tap water has an ammonia level of 0 and I change the water in the containers every day at room temperature.

I will get some pellets and frozen blood worms and try them, but if they don't work, I won't know what to do. I think it might also be a stress thing, because when I transferred her to the other container, she wriggled out of my hands again and onto the floor. She swims around the containers franticly whenever I move them, which is also starting to make it seem like my fridge isn't cold enough.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[FX1C]

She's lost a lot over the last 2 weeks, mostly due to weather I think. The tank is cycling at the moment and the ammonia levels are still not low enough, but it's too warm to put her back in the tank anyway. I tried to feed her again, with the compost worms I bought and I found a small one in the garden, but to no avail, she showed no interest in them at all. My tap water has an ammonia level of 0 and I change the water in the containers every day at room temperature.

I will get some pellets and frozen blood worms and try them, but if they don't work, I won't know what to do. I think it might also be a stress thing, because when I transferred her to the other container, she wriggled out of my hands again and onto the floor. She swims around the containers franticly whenever I move them, which is also starting to make it seem like my fridge isn't cold enough.

Thanks for the reply.

You could try getting some live blackworms from local fish shop or petbarn - they're are always tempting (chocolate for axolotls) at this stage getting her to eat is a priority.

As for having her slip out of your hands - if you are not confident in changing tanks by handling her use a small plastic kitchen strainer 6" diameter (150mm) with a very fine plastic mesh & gently scoop from under & then cover with your hand only if you're confident it cannot get out, otherwise use a small plate as a temporary lid.

If possible find a way of getting a large plastic tub with just a basic sponge filter (runs in an air pump) so you can get her out of the fridge & warmed up to a safe room temp (thermometer in water to check regularly), keep it cool with a fan over it & place it low down in a cool dark room (away from cats & dogs) change 100% of the water every 2-3 days & scrub the tub out (use bicarbonate & salt) weekly to remove any slimy bacteria - remove waste & uneaten food when you see it. Clean fresh water conditions & not being in the fridge may entice her to eat. That way she doesn't have to wait for your tank to cycle to start getting back to normal.



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[Jen10s]

Sorry if I've mis-read, did you say changing the container water daily at room temperature ?

Shouldn't it be fridged too so as to not cause shock? Just sayin......

 

[Bellabelloo]

Nikki is suggesting that rather than use the fridge, put her in a larger container somewhere cooler in the house.
Being in the fridge slows the axolotls metabolism down and they tend not to eat, what they do eat then digests more slowly. Your little axolotl may feed better out of the fridge.

 

[geekychik]

Thanks so much for all the advice. Yes, Jen10's, you mis-read, I meant that I get her container out of the fridge, let it slowly rise to room temperature, and then transfer her to a new container filled with clean water, also at room temperature, so there is no shock. I will use the strainer idea, thanks so much for that, it will be a relief to me and her.

As for the tub idea, I'd love to take that up, but I don't have a dark room, I live in a self contained granny flat, I don't even have a lounge room! So, unfortunately, every room is also quite hot. The temperatures are currently about 32c (around 89f) and are going to be like that until next Wednesday.To make things even more complicated, next Saturday (23rd) I'm going away for 6 days and have no one else I know that can take care of her. I will go to the shops as soon as I can and buy different types of food for her and give them a try. I'll also look up those black worms.​

 

[Kaysie]

It would be a lot less stressful if you refrigerated the water change water. Constant changes in temperature can be very stressful.

 

[geekychik]

Thats how I've been trying to feed her. I leave her container out of the fridge, allow it to warm to room temperature, and then, before putting her in the new container of water, which is also at room temperature, I try to give her some food. There shouldn't be any shock to her at all.

I just checked on her in the fridge and she's still quite a live, albeit slow of course. I will go shopping later today for some more food for her and then try another water change in the evening and see if she will eat anything.

 

[Kaysie]

Because they're cold-blooded, constant shifts in temperature from warm to cold and back again are very stressful, even if there's never any 'shock' from being moved from one temperature to another.

If she's active in the fridge, try feeding her there.

 

[FX1C]

Thanks so much for all the advice. Yes, Jen10's, you mis-read, I meant that I get her container out of the fridge, let it slowly rise to room temperature, and then transfer her to a new container filled with clean water, also at room temperature, so there is no shock. I will use the strainer idea, thanks so much for that, it will be a relief to me and her.

As for the tub idea, I'd love to take that up, but I don't have a dark room, I live in a self contained granny flat, I don't even have a lounge room! So, unfortunately, every room is also quite hot. The temperatures are currently about 32c (around 89f) and are going to be like that until next Wednesday.To make things even more complicated, next Saturday (23rd) I'm going away for 6 days and have no one else I know that can take care of her. I will go to the shops as soon as I can and buy different types of food for her and give them a try. I'll also look up those black worms.​

What are your options for the 6 days you're away? Is it essential that you go away in summer, can you put the trip off until the temperatures are more stable for your axolotl.

You cannot leave your axolotl for 6 days without water changing, feeding & daily monitoring. That would knowingly be negligent beyond words.

What would you do if it was a dog? Surely there is someone you can rely on to look after a pet. If not perhaps the pet shop / fish shop in your area may possibly offer a sitting service where you can take your lotl there to be looked after (its not ideal - but it's better than nothing!) local vets may also offer some kind of accommodation for a fee of course.



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[geekychik]

Well, I don't know what else to do at this stage, I can't put off my trip and an axolotl isn't as easy to care for as a dog. No one I know, knows enough about axoltols to take care of mine, not even for a few days. Maybe I should just do a large water change in the tank, try my best to keep it cool, get her eating again and then put her back in the tank.

Telling me that I would be knowingly negligent beyond words, doesn't help, I'm after advice, not accusations.

 

[geekychik]

Ok, tried giving her blood worms and even a bit of beef heart, but no reaction. I can't see anything wrong with her aside from she swims around a lot, which if I understand correctly, means stress. I just don't know what she's stressing from, her container is currently about 16c.

 

[Minniechild]

Which city/area are you in? It may be possible to find a member on here who might be able to float your axie in the top of their tank to keep it stable and take care whilst you're away. Also, if you can drill someone VERY well over the next few days, they may be able to take over whilst you're away (I trained my brother during the month before I went OS (was going to be for 16 days, ended up being eight), including in hatchling husbandry, and came back to them all being in excellent health apart from one who decided he didn't' like the food selection the day before I came back...He has since been introduced to whole blackworms and is in good health (And has managed to score himself permanent residency in our household...)

As to food, as Nikki suggested, definitely give blackworms a shot- Even though they are expensive, they are an excellent food to get healthy weight back on a lotl in a hurry.

 

[shazza]

with regards to ur tank getting hot, i know chillers are exy. I know the ice bricks work if u are decated to changing them. I knew what size would make what temp and for how long. Even set alarms to change during the night if i was working my hubby did it.

long term health in the heat u will need a chiller. If u are diy handy. There are some imformative clips on you tube on homemade chillers, with stuff from bunnings.

i Know my boy was stressed in water of about24 to 25 deg , wouldnt eat and turned his water in his 25lt tank to a gluggy mess.

Thankfull its all sorted now he has more than doubled in size, and happy. If possible do some research into aquarium people in ur area that come clean maintain tanks. u could get them to look after it for the week ur gone.

 

[geekychik]

Thank you all for the replies and ideas. I have already had one offer for baby sitting, but unfortunately, they weren't living in Melbourne, which is where I live. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I actually bought a chiller months ago. The problem is, I don't know how to hook it up and the directions are in broken english and I don't understand them clearly enough.
I did post a thread on here a not long after I got it and asked if anyone could help, but no one could, so it's been left sitting next to the tank ever since. I live by myself and have no family and although I could school my neighbour in feeding her, she's too busy and can't do a water change; I've already talked to her about it. Don't get me wrong, I hate knocking back all of these wonderful ideas, except the baby sitting one, I will make a post in another section about that :happy: I will hunt down some axi pellets and black worms tomorrow (monday) when everything is open.

 

[shazza]

I hooked my chiller up, using a spare filter. That pumped the same rate as ur chiller. go to bunnings get the right size pipe hook the filter outlet up to the pipe. Run the hose to the inlet and secure. Then run a new piece of hose from the outlet into tank and secure it.

Always turn the filter on first. run the water thru, then turn chiller on. set the temp. it has a 2 deg variance before it kicks in to cool the water.

have a second temp guage to monitor the water temp indepent of the chiller thermo

hope this helped

 

[geekychik]

I have a Resun CL-200 chiller.
PRODUCT --- RESUN CHILLER
How do you tell what sort of pipe you need and how powerful the filter needs to be?

If I can just get through this and she can some how survive until I get back from my holiday, I'll see if I can get her a brand new larger tank and set up things a lot better.

Thanks for the help and advice.

 

[shazza]

i will send i some pics thru shortly mate. just do the school run. i have a bigger resun. but hooked it up to the outlet of an internal power head filter. i was lucky it all fit ok

 

[geekychik]

I also bought a power head because that's what I thought I needed >.<