Axolotl in trouble

[Ivander]

Hello,

Can anyone help me understand what to do for our axolotl who has not eaten in weeks, and appears to have a wound in its lower body / stomach area? I am attaching a picture, albeit a poor one. It's quite hard to get him to show me his underside...

We received the axolotl as a gift in December 2019. It was in a 10 gallon tank, so in January we bought a 20 gallon long tank and moved him in February. The tank has some smooth 3/4" river rock as a substrate. A few weeks ago he stopped eating after my wife accidentally startled him by dropping an ice pack in the tank because the temperature had gotten up to 67 degrees F. He stayed hidden in his log for about 3 weeks and just started to come out last week, but rejects all efforts to feed him. Over the last few days he has been more frequently "floating" near the top, but swims to the bottom when I move the water near his tail.

In terms of tank maintenance, I change about 5 gallons of water every week (tap water boiled than cooled for a week). A local pet shop tested a tank water sample and said no problems with ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates, but the pH was low so they sold me some chemical to raise the pH level. The pHvalue continues to be in the 6.6 to 6.8 range. Is there a way I can raise the pH without chemicals?

Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated! We really would like to bring our axolotl back to health

 

[JuiceBox52]

What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? It is my understanding that they need exceptionally clean water

 

[Colin_T]

You can raise the pH by adding limestone rock, shells or dead coral rubble to the tank or filter. I suggest limestone rock due to it being an axolotl. Add a small piece and monitor the pH over a week. If it hasn't improved then add another piece and monitor for a week. Continue doing this until the pH settles around 7.0.

Check the pH of the tap water too. Test it straight out of the tap and put some in a glass and wait 24 hours before testing that.

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Try doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate every day for a week.

Add 1 heaped tablespoon of rock salt, sea salt, or swimming pool salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water. If there's no improvement in the wound after a couple of days, add a second heaped tablespoon of salt so there is a total of 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt in there for 2 weeks. See if there's any improvement.

When you do water changes while using salt, add the salt to the new water before adding that to the tank so the salinity (slat level) in the tank remains stable.

After 2 weeks of salt, stop adding salt and do a 20% water change each day for a week to dilute the salt. Then do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a week.

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What are you feeding the axolotl?
Try different foods like raw prawn/ shrimp, bits of raw whitebait or blue sardines, earthworms, tadpoles, live shrimp. Try anything you can just to get it eating again.