Illness/Sickness: Something up with my axy??

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suitable4frank

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My little female is usually full of life, swimming round her tank, exploring, climbing in plants, literally NEVER EVER hiding.
However, I've noticed over the past week, she hasn't been moving. She's just hidden under a root I have and hasn't moved. I fed her one day, she popped out her head, came out a little bit, but went straight back under.
That was 3 days ago, and she has yet to poop.
Very concerned as this isn't like her at all? I even gave her a little poke, but she went crazy and literally started burying herself, whereas before she would come and say hello and try and bite my fingers.
Water quality is all normal, 0 nitrites and nirates, high ph and hardness as that's what we get here in the east but that's what she's had all her life.

Also, on another note about her, she literally hasn't grown. I'd imagine she's just over a year old now, but she's only 5 inches long (tip of nose to tip of tail). Not as much of a concern as the above topic, but just curious as to why she's not growing.
 
What do her gills look like? Also what do you normally feed her? Is her tank well oxygenated?
 
They're a pale pink colour, in the normal position. Her main food is earthworms, but I do feed her frozen blood worm and shrimp sometimes.
She has a big bubble wall at the back of the tank, so I think it's oxygenated well
 
How often do you feed her?
Have you introduced any live plants or anything in the last couple months?

Btw, those bubble walls? They are mostly for ascetics. They produce such large bubbles that they really don't do much for oxygenation. I only use them in my fish tanks that I run CO2 on, as I loose less co2. I would recommend getting an air stone that produces fine bubbles. Keep in mind that too much aeration can also cause gill shrinkage. If you have live plants, you really only need to run the air bubbler at night IMHO :)


another thought is that she might be constipated. What kind of substrate do you use?
Super fine sand can cause constipation just like large gravel can cause impaction.
Size tank?
 
I feed her 4 large worms 3 times a week.
Only live plants I have are moss balls and I don't count them as plants so much.

I use a fine play sand, but I've never seen her eat any, she just tries to bury at the moment?
She's in an 180L (about 40 gallons) and it's just her
 
Does she look like she's loosing weight or bloating? Another thought. What is the daytime water temp? I know the west coast here has been having heat wave after heat wave. Not sure about the East. But if your critter has been too warm for too long, you'll end up with issues... Not eating or pooping seems to b some of them.. I had to build a chiller at the beginning of spring to combat this. Now everyone sits at 63-65, except for my dude that's in the fridge because of an injury...
Do a search on this site for "constipation"
But I would hold off on feeding until she poops, imho.
Keep lighting low or off and try and keep your temp at 65-68.
If she doesn't poop within a week or two, refrigerate her.
I know Magnesium is great for Constipated fish, I think I've read about it on Caudata as well. I recommend doing a search.
But I think it's too soon to try and treat her. At least give her a week.
Btw, my guys freak try and bury themselves when I startle them too. She may have just been sleeping.

May we see a picture of the tank setup?




_________________________________________________________
When asked: Why?
Because I couldn't stop at just one dammit!!!
 
She's finally had a poop, not sure what brought it on, but it was one of the tiniest ones I've seen, definitely not worth 6 large worms, but hey ho it's a start. Although it hasn't changed her habits of hiding and not being herself and still not growing.
She's remained the same kind of size, she doesn't even get fatter when I feed her. She's just always on the skinnier side :-(
Tank is sitting at 16c (61 in Fahrenheit I think??) so she's alright on that.
I am genuinely so confused about her size though, I've come across a lot of lotls now and ones her age are almost double her size.

Tank setup is attached, it's been shuffled around like 20 times since I took that photo though. No more bowl in there and more plants.
 

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I think that this is just normal axolotl behavior?
As long as she's eating fine i think she's just starting to turn lazy, all 3 of my axolotls generally just sit in the rock caves that i built them during the day and during the night they seem to swap positions and when i wake up they're all in different caves.
About the finger things, generally if you wiggle your finger in front of them they will chase it when they're hungry but perhaps she just got spooked.
I've only had axolotls for around 1 year so im not really experienced but i find that my axolotls just sit around all day so i wouldnt be troubled if i were you. :happy:

Im also not sure how skinny you're talking but if she's eating 6 worms her tummy should be more or less the width of her head?

Also if she's around a year old she's pretty tiny. My axolotls are around a year and are maybe double her size? She could just be a small axolotl though.

Omg i didnt realize how old this post was. Hope your axolotl turned out well.
 
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