Axolotl not eating with swollen back legs

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STARBURSTTHEAXOLOTL

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Can anyone help, I'm getting a bit worried now?. I moved him to a larger tank 1 week ago. I transferred 80% of his water, plastic plants and the 2x internal power filters from the established tank to his new one. 100l tank to 200l tank. He seemed fine at first but after 2 days he started swimming erratically and he wont eat he just spits his worms back out. I have also noticed his back legs look swollen. All the water parameters seem ok apart from the PH is 6.6 but I'm trying to bring that up with crushed coral.
IMG-20230308-WA0000.jpg
 
Have you tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? What numbers and what testing kit?
I don't know anything much about axo's, sorry, but the timing of it, two days after moving into a clean tank, if you new tank had an ammonia spike, especially if the substrate wasn't moved from tank 1 to tank 2
 
ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm the nitrate was a bit high around 40ppm. i did another 20% water change last night and i will test again tonight to see if its brought he nitrates down. he normally eats live worms no problem but he has been spitting them out for at least 4 days now. I have also tried bloodworm which he usually loves but he spits that back out. he has never liked pellets so i am going to try him with some prawn without the shell.
 
Axies can become very stressed out very easily....being shifted from one aquarium to another will induce extreme stress.

Ideally an Axie doesn't need heat or light...other than basic natural daylight. Without eyelids any source of light is painful to them and should be avoided. The stress levels can sometimes affect the metabolism, which is very slow normally (feeding once or twice a week is average normally), so leave him unfed for a few days.

He may have impaction. if he has over eaten or eaten something like a plastic plant weight or a stone (anything they can get into their mouth, they will get into their mouth). If he is impacted you will need a large sandwich box with water from the aquarium in it, scoop him up in the box (do not handle him in any way since it damages him and makes him prone to bacterial issues), put the lid on the sandwich box and place in the bottom of your fridge for 5-7 days. The lowered temperature will allow him to pass whatever is impacting without tearing his gut or anus.

However, since it has only been a week since he was moved, I am fairly sure its simply very stressed...his gill feathers are also not healthy...water chemistry is likely to be a little off and high stress levels make a very unhappy Axie who turns down or spits out food.

Let him rest in darkness (big towel or two over the entire aquarium, totaly darkness) for a few days, let him calm down and get used to his new home slowly. Just as with fish when they move home, they need time to adjust to the new surroundings and water, so do Axies....more so with Axies due to absorbing everything through the skin and any issue with water chemistry will upset them.

(I owned a big male Axie for almost 4 years and upgraded him a couple times on aquarium size and went through this sort of thing...and the blighter took a weight off an artificial plant and had to be refrigerated for a week)
 
thanks for the info, hopefully its just stress. I will put a couple of towels over him tonight when i get home.
Check that all plants still have their weights attached too.....Axies will literally try to eat anything and everything that fits in their mouth....hence why gravel and pebbles are a no-no. Anything less than the size of a clenched fist is prime munchies for them, they don't care if its not edible, they just munch it anyway....then things get stuck/constipated and its in the fridge for a week.

(Visitors who make the coffee often get a shock when going into the fridge for milk....finding a splashing Axie in a sandwich box in the fridge can be a little surprising)

One really easy indicator regarding water chemistry....big fluffy gill feather is "the water is awesome"...no gill feathers or very few of them "I need my water sorting out please"
 
Putting your pet in the fridge next to the bacon for a week or so? That's pretty wild! Makes me want to learn more about them, they are one of those weirdly fascinating creatures!
 
Putting your pet in the fridge next to the bacon for a week or so? That's pretty wild! Makes me want to learn more about them, they are one of those weirdly fascinating creatures!
Perfectly normal to place your Axie in the fridge for a week when constipated

Their metabolism is extremely slow...hence only needing to be fed once or twice a week, it can take that long for the food to get from one end to the other. Placing them in the fridge in an aquarium water filled box, slows things down even more, so it allows for the impaction/blockage to pass without killing the Axie in the process due to anal or gut tearing. Axies slow down so much that you think they have died in the fridge, but they haven't...its just their way of getting unconstipated and passing whatever happens to be blocking their gut.

It can lead to some interesting discussions when you have visitors and they go into the fridge for anything.....
 
Thanks for everyones advise. He is now eating and pooing and his gills are looking fluffier but he is still gulping air and swimming eratically and bouncing of the glass but not all the time. I have re checked all the parameters figures below with an api test kit and a water harness test kit. I live in a very soft water area so i have added crushed coral in a media bag which has brought the PH up from 6.4 to 7. I have read the KH should be between 7 - 14 and the water in the tank is only 3. Could this be an issue?

PH 7.0
AMONIA 0ppm
NITRITE 0ppm
NITRATE 20ppm
KH 3
GH 5
 

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