Question: Axolotl has spent sevral hours out of water! Please, help!

[Vivern]

Hello, world!
My axolotl (white, but not albino, male, 1.5 years old) has spent several hours out of his tank, we found him and put back into the tank. He lives alone in 80 l. tank. Temperature of water is aboout 16-19 C.

When we put axolotl into the tank, gills were very pale and were "sticked" to his head. He swam several laps and hidden into his cave. Now he is looking shocked and his skin is pale yellow, instead of almost white, and his gills are deep red (like he just have eaten).

Please, help me!
What should I do?
Why could he leave his tank? Bad water? Wrong temperature? Something else?...
Thank you! :)

[Stef]

Axolotls can jump out of their tank when the ammonia levels are too high because it tends to burn their skin, the temperature is fine and so is the tank size.
Have you tested your water before? You should give it a try now, see what your ammonia levels are.
He is probably very stressed out at the moment, I would put him in a tupperware container with dechlorinated water inside and put him in the fridge for some down time. You should check there are no little 'grabbers on' on his gills or skin from when he was out of the tank.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, I'm not sure about this one..
Good luck though!

[Spazzatron]

Don't you just love it when your axolotl just decides to up and leave? Me and my friend have had that happen to us before. I think they sometimes do that even if the water conditions are good. Axolotls are mysterious like that. I agree with Stef about putting the axolotl in the fridge so he can chill (haha). Just bare with the axolotl. A trip into the great unknown is a very stressful ordeal. He would of lost a lot of water through his skin which he would need to do so he can continue breathing through his skin. So he'll be very sticky. With time he should rehydrate and hopefully get back to full health. It would be a good idea to check for any injuries. I wish you both the best of luck and a speedy recovery.

[Vivern]

inkozana, sherylbobbins, thanks! :) Seems like axolotl feels a little bit better now.

I haven't ammonia tests right now, but I'm going to find some.
As I know, ammonia level increases when there are no enough plants in a tank, and axolotl leaves some food that is given to him. I have different kinds of plants in my tank, I think, I have enough :) And I try to take away all the food my axolotl has left, but usually he eats it all and he likes to "clear up" his tank - he finds and eats even a tiny pieces of food! (Usually I feed him with bloodworms or small pieces of bull heart). Maybe I should partially change water in the tank more frequently than I do now (once per 2-2,5 weeks).

Once I have seen how my axolotl was trying to get out of tank. It happened more than 8 months ago, so, I think, if water is too bad for him, he wouldn't wait for 8 months until repeat his "escape" :)
Maybe sherylbobbins is right, and he is just curious. Sometimes he looks through the glass and it seems like he knows something that people don't know! Really mysterious creature I say! :)

[Miss_Bikealot]

A note for the future: Lid on tank
lol

[Vivern]

You will be laughing but there is already lid on the tank :) Only 2 small holes are left for the cooling system. I thought, these holes are too tiny for my "wide-faced" axolotl!

[Miss_Bikealot]

HAHAHA! Re name ur axie udeni :P

[Stef]

Yes, ammonia buildup is caused from over-feeding, too many animals in the tank and inadequate biological filtration.
20% water changes each day will help to bring the level down.
If you don't already know about tank cycling- here is a link to fill you in :)
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml :)

[Vivern]

Thanks for the link!
I already know about the cycling, but there is still a lot of interesting info in that article :)

Yesterday evening I changed about 13-18% of water and decreased temperature in the tank. Now it's about 14C. I afraid of putting my Lanc in the fridge, because he is already shocked and if I catch him, put in a small tank then into fridge, he would be shocked again... So, I decided to decrease temperature in his tank (I use Peltier-based cooling system).
Lanc still looks shocked, rarely moves. This morning I found him almost on the same place when I saw him last evening. The angle between his body and tail is about 30 degrees and end of the tail is a little bit "curved". He is still yellow with dark red gills.

It seems to be hard to find ammonia testes here. I'm going to check other Aqarium shops.
I think, the only way to get it is to buy it via Internet shop, but in this case I get them after 3-4 weeks. So, I'll be keeping changing 10-15% of water every day till I get these tests.

[Vivern]

So, finally I've made some pics of my poor Lancelot!
Here they are (sorry for the quality, but I didn't use flash):





He has several scratches.
I'm worring about that strange white thing on the end of his tail, maybe it's just another wound.
And I'm not sure Is axolotl shocked or not?..