Illness/Sickness: Dead Aristotle.

[pikel]

Hi, one of my axolotls (Aristotle) died this morning. He had been sick the last few weeks, floating, not eating and just generally looking distressed. I took him for a holiday in the fridge, and he got alot better. He started eating again and I moved him back to the tank with my other wild type (Plato). The tank parameters were all fine during this period, He had seemed fine over the last few days, in fact I was very relieved that he got so much better. I got back from shopping this afternoon to find him dead, sunk, and upside down on the bottom of the tank. My other axolotl was floating and didn't look at all happy. I've removed the remaining alive one from the tank, and into a small dish for the time being, just to escape the nasty tank water created from Aristotle. My question is, how do I go about putting my still alive fish, back into the normal tank? Is a 100% tank water change needed? I'm so confused, I know that dead fish release lots of bad stuff, but I don't know what I should do to get my live fish back into that tank. Sorry for the depressing news.

[Shannon]

First off, please do not ever refer to an axolotl as a fish. It is not a fish at all and should never be referred to as such. Fish require totally different care than axolotls. Axolotls are salamanders/amphibians/caudates. This is a battle that we all here on the forum battle with the outside world (ie pet shops in particular), we should not need to have this discussion here as well...

Beyond that, I am sorry for your loss but it sounds like you have not done as much research as you should have before becoming a keeper. Have a read out here Axolotls: The Fascinating Mexican Axolotl and the Tiger Salamander if you have not.

The other should be put in the fridge until you figure out what you have going on with your tank. If Aristotle was thriving in the fridge and diminished so quickly in the tank, there is something seriously wrong there so now you need to act quickly to make sure Plato doesn't follow.

Do a 50% water change on your tank. Get and post a full set of parameters. Saying the parameters are fine, doesn't really give a clear picture. What is the temp? What is the substrate? How often are you doing water changes? Vacuuming? What are you feeding them? Are you using a dechlorinator? Are you using any other chemicals in your tank such as something to adjust the pH?