Illness/Sickness: Help! Sluggish for no know reason - What's wrong?

[mbeck123]

I am worried sick about Steve. He is four year old, lives in a chilled tank (65 degrees), water parameters are fine and there have been no changes to any of his tank conditions in the past six months. Suddenly he just lies around and barely moves. His gills are not back and his tail is not curled. I am doing everything that I normally do (his diet is feeder fish and red wigglers) yet his behavior has changed drastically. He used to prowl the tank - up and down over the driftwood, hide in his hide, come to the front and crouch attentively on all four legs when he wanted a worm. He was active and alert. Now he is nearly motionless. Sometimes he does change positions. I have read every entry and have found nothing like this. There is no fungus, no bloating, just a total slow down in all activity. He has stopped presenting himself for worms and keeps his head in the corner. I put three feeder fish in the tank and he may have eaten two last night. (I can't be certain because sometimes they die and get caught behind the driftwood and I don't find them right away.) I would welcome any suggestions or ideas. This is my first axolotl. Has anyone every experienced these symptoms? I thank you in advance for your help. I am totally stressed about this!

 

[limnologist]

That happened to my first axis too, she randomly became lethargic. I started feeding her tiny chunks of shrimp and some garden slugs and after a while she was normal again. Idk if it was the food or not.

 

[keiko]

Is there a light over the tank? If the light is too bright it might be the cause.
Have you watched him at night /late in the evening or early in the morning? Is he any more active then? My leucistic male tends to be pretty lazy during the day and active during the night, even though he was very active during the day when he was smaller. If I have to take him out of his hide during the day when I'm cleaning, he looks very grumpy and just puts his head in the corner and stays there.
Do you quarantine the feeder fish or grow them yourself? So that you're sure they aren't carrying any diseases or parasites.

 

[Boomsloth]

When you say feeder fish do you mean guppies or goldfish? Can you post pictures? And do you know the water hardness of the tank? It almost sounds like anemia which can take some time to present itself but is not really life threatening


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[mbeck123]

Thank you all for your suggestions! This is a great discussion group - very helpful.

The next day Steve started to look slightly more active but I found an exotic vet in my area and stopped in anyway. They have never treated an axolotl but based on my statement that I put 14 feeder fish ( 3/4 to 1 inch) in at the same time, the vet thought that Steve's preditory nature may have caused him to over eat.

Or, she said that maybe one of the fish might have had a parasite or illness. She suggested that it could be the equivalent of human food poisoning.

I decided not to take him to the vet because he is perking up slowly and the transfer would be stressful. However, he still is refusing the red-wiggler worms that he used to snatch from my fingers.

Thanks for the light suggestion, but I only keep it on when I am home and for no more than 8 hours per day.

I would be willing to breed my own fish, but Steve doesn't like to eat guppies (easy to raise because they are live birth.) He has left one small guppie and one larger gold fish in the tank for over two months. The fish I buy are called "rosies." I don't put their water in Steve's tank, and I go to the best fish supply store, but I do worry about their quality.

I wonder what type of fish other people breed at home?

For now he is on the mend and I hope that he just keeps getting better. I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[mbeck123]

How do I prevent anemia? Sorry I don't know the hardness, but it was in the normal range by my test kit. Is that good enough? Or, do axolotls need something more?

Thanks!

 

[mbeck123]

Sorry, I haven't figured out how to reply to an individual post....no, I don't quarantine them other than putting the feeder fish in their own tank. I bought three dozen and gave Steve 14 right before this happened. He ate them in 3 days (Steve is 10 inches long) and the rest are still alive. Does that tell you anything?

 

[layna]

Haha that tells me he is greedy and over ate!

I would only ever put 3 or 4 in at a time as axies just dont know when to stop eating

He was probs just digesting his huge meal and so was very lazy

 

[ArpTheAxolotl]

Most likely over ate. Speaking of over eating, ever since I’ve put my axolotl back in her 10 gallon tank, she has been slowly swimming about. She is 3 inches and a little over half. I just got her a 1-2 weeks ago, and still haven’t gotten worms for her yet. So in the mean time im feeding her shrimp. She usually eats a little piece per day, and they doesn’t want anymore. I’m getting the worms in 2-3 days, maybe she’ll improve when she eats worms.
Also, do your axolotls perk up when you look at them? It’s so cute when they do!