Axies going a bit crazy

[sliemm]

Hi guys. This morning I noticed my two axies swimming a bit madly around the tank - they usually like a good swim, but this seemed slightly frantic, and they were swimming near the top of the tank and climbing on the filter. They didn't seem happy.

I took a chemical reading and the ammonia level in the tank is at 0. All good. However, it's winter here in Melbourne now. During summer the temperature in the tank could reach up to about 24degC, although it usually averaged about 21-22degC. I'd read that this was too warm for axolotls, and that they thrived in temperatures of 14-18degC. Nonetheless, they've always been happy, they've eaten regularly, and never showed signs of stress, so I figured this temperature was fine and wasn't worrying them.

Now that's it's getting colder, I noticed the temperature this morning was at 18degC. I still thought that this should be fine, even though the water temperature has dropped considerably over the past three months - 18degC should still be fine for them. But they're not happy evidently, and one of them hasn't eaten for three days.

Any advice as to what could be making them behave this way, and what I could do about it?

Cheers.

[Leanne]

I would check the water parameters, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and do a water change just to be sure.....That behaviour sounds water related to me
The water temp is fine....I have a chiller and it is set for 18 during summer and in winter I turn the chiller off. They have been known to live in water that has ice on the top.............

[sliemm]

Thanks for the advice. I've done a near-full water cycle, cleaned the filter out (there was a bit of gunk in there) and added a few teaspoonfuls of crystals that lower nitrate/nitrite levels. I've been doing 20 per cent cycles on a weekly basis, but it's a while since I've done a larger one, so perhaps that's it. I'll monitor the situation and see how they fare now....

[sliemm]

Well that certainly fixed things up! They're happy as pigs in mud, eating again regularly too. Cheers for your help.

[Sky]

Usually the higher the temp the more active they are, so I've found with my guy. Right now his water is 13 degrees and that's with a heater in there and he's been more sluggish the past two days since his water has gone down. Last week his water was 20 and he was acting a little crazy too.