PLEASE HELP

[jenny]

My son brought home three axolotls(one male, 2 female) yeaterday. They are all the same age but the male it almost twice the size as the two females. They are all in the same tank, with the same water, filter, and food as they were accotomed to. This morning, my son woke me up saying the smallest axi wasnt moving. It had probably been attacked by the male axi since his leg has been ripped off as well as both of the gills. There is now no sign of life from the smallest female axi. }The tank is completely bare, just plain spring water. This morning, i also noticed that the other female looked sick. It is now 10:00 at night and the (alive) female axi hasn't moved at all, its tail is curled up ALOT, its mouth is open, its gills are down, but it still move ocasionally. It is VERY sick. I have only had the axolotls for 2 days now and two of the are practically dead. What should i do for the sick female axi? Also, the male is acting completely normal and is eating, swimming, and crawing around just fine. I have no clue what killed them. Please help to give me an idea of what could of caused the death!

 

[anne-marie]

"My son brought home three axolotls(one male, 2 female) yeaterday" Did you have a tank ready and cycled for them? Have you done ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests? If so, can you post the results here.

Can you post a pic of the sick axies? They definitely sound stressed.

"The tank is completely bare, just plain spring water" Tank water should be tap water, de-chlorinated with water treatment conditioner. I'm not sure about the efficacy of spring water - it might be OK but I'm not sure.

I would suggest that you isolate the sick axies in separate containers and put them in the fridge for now, to slow down their metabolism (put them on hold, if you will). Then check out www.axolotl.org to find out lots more important info. Good luck.

 

[grant]

The problem is the water. Was it bottled water? Axolotls like really hard water. Plus the tank should be allowed to cycle for a while before they are even placed into the tank. You should do 20% water changes every day to. What kind of filter are you using and what is about the temperature of the tank? The tails normally curl because of stress from the water current or temp. And what size tank is it. And anything that is upset in their water can greatly affect them because they are amphibians and absorb nearly everything in their environment through their skin.

 

[joan]

Again, doing 20% water changes while your tank is cycling will mean literally months before your tank cycles. I suggest taking them out and putting them into seperate containers, especially because of the size difference. The bigger one's attacking the smaller ones. Your tank being completely bare means they have no place to hide from each other and that's bad. You need lots of places for them to hide, such as flower pots, small caves, plants, etc.

I would go with Anne-Marie's advice and put them in the fridge, in seperate containers! Change this fridge water daily, with water of the same temperature (so keep a large jug of water in the fridge for water changes).

(Message edited by joan on June 04, 2005)

 

[jennifer]

If the tank is too small, that could also contribute to the problems. The shock of moving and the bare tank brought out aggressive tendencies. When you say they are in the same water, do you mean, literally, the VERY same actual water, or do you mean the same TYPE of water? If it was fresh bottles of the same type of water, this caused a huge shock to them. (The chemistry of tank water changes gradually over time, so an old tank of spring water is very different than a tank of fresh spring water.)

If the biggest one is looking OK, I'd say leave him there and do the water changes as suggested. Although the tank will be cycling for several weeks, he can live in there if the water is tested often for ammonia and doesn't have too much. Move the smaller one(s), if alive, to separate containers in the fridge.

I disagree that it would take months for the tank to cycle if 20% water changes were done daily. If there is an animal in the tank, I think the tank would cycle normally under these conditions.