What should a fridged axolotl look like?

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alx32186

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Hi all, I am hoping for some help please as we are new axolotl owners and we love our little guy. The issue is that about a week ago he just stopped eating. Water parameters were perfect and I even had them checked at specialist aquarium store nearby. We tried special axolotl food and his regular pellets all with no success.
mer also tried cooling the water a little as it is summer in Australia but that didn’t make any difference to him.
He was beginning to lurch around the tank, but on the bottom and didn’t look well. We had been offering him food twice a day and our little guy would just swim away.
we didn’t feel confident fridging but did do a day and a half ago as a last resort. (Perhaps we should have done it sooner)
He has emptied bowels in the fridge but is looking lifeless in the tub. Is that what happens to him or is he dead?

I am sorry to ask such a silly question but given they slow their metabolism right down, I just don’t know how to tell. I am a little unsure of what happens next and would be grateful for advice. We are all a bit devastated.
 
alx32186 said:
Hi all, I am hoping for some help please as we are new axolotl owners and we love our little guy. The issue is that about a week ago he just stopped eating. Water parameters were perfect and I even had them checked at specialist aquarium store nearby. We tried special axolotl food and his regular pellets all with no success.
mer also tried cooling the water a little as it is summer in Australia but that didn’t make any difference to him.
He was beginning to lurch around the tank, but on the bottom and didn’t look well. We had been offering him food twice a day and our little guy would just swim away.
we didn’t feel confident fridging but did do a day and a half ago as a last resort. (Perhaps we should have done it sooner)
He has emptied bowels in the fridge but is looking lifeless in the tub. Is that what happens to him or is he dead?

I am sorry to ask such a silly question but given they slow their metabolism right down, I just don’t know how to tell. I am a little unsure of what happens next and would be grateful for advice. We are all a bit devastated.
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Axolotls naturally have a slow metabolism, but fridging them make it even slower. They will not move around much, if at all, and are unlikely to eat while that cold. I only usually recommend it as a last resort in the case of servere injury or illness. Its not uncommon for them to poop after being put in the fridge. If you can take and post some photos, that may help figure out whats going on with him.
Also, what are the water parameters of your tank? Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH, temp?
size tank?
How long have you had him?
What chemical are you using the tank? Dechlorinators, ect.
 
Thanks so much for responding. We did feel that we were at the point of last resort, he had begun to lurch around the bottom of the tank and was starting to get little white feathery fungus above his eyes and elsewhere on his body. It seemed he would die if we didn't do anything. This is a photo from this morning and a couple from a few days ago when the main issue was that he had gone off his food.

We did a big water change last night, so will test the water this morning and let you know what the parameters are, but everything was perfect before then, no ammonia, nitrite and nitrate was at about 10ppm. pH was at about 7.4 as I recall The tank is 40 gallons. He is in there on his own. We have only had him since October, he is so new that this is all a bit of a shock. The tank was at about 21 degrees celsius.

The other strange thing are these little white mulloscs that seem to attach themselves to the outside of the tank. I fear that they came with a new plant that we bought. Could they be causing some issues? the only way i have found to deal with them is to physically remove them.

The main issue now is that he doesn't respond at all when I touch him in the fridge. Is the only way I will find out if he is dead to reintroduce him to the tank? or should he move even slightly to touch whilst fridged? He has only been in there for 36 hours. He just looks so skinny, my heart is broken.

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alx32186 said:
Thanks so much for responding. We did feel that we were at the point of last resort, he had begun to lurch around the bottom of the tank and was starting to get little white feathery fungus above his eyes and elsewhere on his body. It seemed he would die if we didn't do anything. This is a photo from this morning and a couple from a few days ago when the main issue was that he had gone off his food.

We did a big water change last night, so will test the water this morning and let you know what the parameters are, but everything was perfect before then, no ammonia, nitrite and nitrate was at about 10ppm. pH was at about 7.4 as I recall The tank is 40 gallons. He is in there on his own. We have only had him since October, he is so new that this is all a bit of a shock. The tank was at about 21 degrees celsius.

The other strange thing are these little white mulloscs that seem to attach themselves to the outside of the tank. I fear that they came with a new plant that we bought. Could they be causing some issues? the only way i have found to deal with them is to physically remove them.

The main issue now is that he doesn't respond at all when I touch him in the fridge. Is the only way I will find out if he is dead to reintroduce him to the tank? or should he move even slightly to touch whilst fridged? He has only been in there for 36 hours. He just looks so skinny, my heart is broken.

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He is definitely very very malnourished. Judging from the photo you took today, the odds are not good. Its harder to tell on darker colored axolotls the extent of blood flow, but I would say the odds of him still being alive are very slim. The best way to know would be to let him warm up some and see if you get any response from him, but the severely curled gills dont bode well.
 
Thanks for your thoughts. He has lost so much weight in 8 days, he used to eat so happily and had a lovely little tummy. He literally just stopped eating one day.
 
Thank you for thinking of us. Yes, he has passed away. We warmed him up in the tank but as you suspected, he didn’t respond. We are so sad and perplexed. Everything was normal, happily eating and playing, looking perfect one day and then didn’t eat the next, and we couldn’t get him to eat again. We miss him terribly.
 
alx32186 said:
Thank you for thinking of us. Yes, he has passed away. We warmed him up in the tank but as you suspected, he didn’t respond. We are so sad and perplexed. Everything was normal, happily eating and playing, looking perfect one day and then didn’t eat the next, and we couldn’t get him to eat again. We miss him terribly.
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So sorry for your loss! Losing a much loved family member is hard. Axolotls are very resilient little things, but things do happen. He could have had an infection that just went undetected (as they do sometimes) or it could have been something neurological, it's hard to say. All we can do as axie parents is try to learn from it.
 
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