violent swimming, itching, and floating

[glittrbabe]

Hi!! this is my first time posting to this forum and if I'm being honest, I was having a hard time navigating the site, so I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask a question haha. Hopefully it is though, so I can get some advice...

I have two axolotls currently in a 29-gallon tank (melanoid and leucistic) and recently, the leucistic one (Peach) has been acting very strangely. I noticed her swimming extremely erratically and violently beginning around a week ago and it hasn't stopped since. The violent swimming is often triggered immediately after she eats (her appetite has not decreased). Sometimes she'll curl around and try to scratch at her gills, and other times she'll just swim frantically and smash into the decorations and walls. I heard that this can be an indication of gill fungus, but her gills look fluffy, long, and healthy with no signs of a fungus. On top of all of that, she's also been floating a LOT recently. And although this can be normal behavior, it's really out of the ordinary for her. I tubbed her two nights ago to help relax her because I thought the floating was stressing her out, and for a while, in the morning she was better, but by the evening she was floating again. I did two water tests last week and all of the parameters came back okay, so I'm not entirely sure what I should do to help her, but I hate seeing her like this. My melanoid (Salem) has been completely fine throughout all of this. Thanks for taking the time to read this!! Hopefully someone has some advice):

 

[Calgarycoppers]

HI

First things first

Temp
pH
High range pH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
GH
KH
what conditioner?
what foods?
what substrate?
When was the tank set up?

Sorry for all the questions but it helps immensely

 

[glittrbabe]

HI

First things first

Temp
pH
High range pH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
GH
KH
what conditioner?
what foods?
what substrate?
When was the tank set up?

Sorry for all the questions but it helps immensely

Temp is at 65 degrees, pH is at 7.0, ammonia at 0.25 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 40 ppm. I haven't tested GH or KH, this is honestly the first I'm hearing of either of these things but I'll do some research on it. I use seachem prime water conditioner. Maybe about two weeks ago I switched both of my axolotls from eating Invert Aquatics soft pellets to nightcrawlers. The substrate is pool filter sand aaaannndd this particular tank was set up around mid March of this year. And don't worry about asking all the questions!! I hope they help!

 

[Calgarycoppers]

Okay

The Ammonia is a problem - its toxic at any level

GH and KH are your water hardness - Axolotls like harder water and some have health issues when it gets to soft.

After the switch in foods did this start?

 

[glittrbabe]

Okay

The Ammonia is a problem - its toxic at any level

GH and KH are your water hardness - Axolotls like harder water and some have health issues when it gets to soft.

After the switch in foods did this start?

hmmm okay.. to correct the ammonia, should I just do a water change? Or try using prime/stability? I don't want to completely disrupt bacteria growth in the tank but I've also never dealt with an ammonia spike so I'm not entirely sure what to do from here. And yes, the behavior happened after the switch in foods, but it wasn't immediate so I didn't automatically correlate them.

 

[Calgarycoppers]

I would personally tub the axolotls so you can correct the ammonia without them in getting affected.

I would do a full dose of Stability no prime we want the bacteria to convert it not bind it.

I would test after 24 hours to see where things are at.

For the food you might have to do a mix of worms and pellets or repashy grub pie. Worms can come out their gill slits which is highly irratating.

hmmm okay.. to correct the ammonia, should I just do a water change? Or try using prime/stability? I don't want to completely disrupt bacteria growth in the tank but I've also never dealt with an ammonia spike so I'm not entirely sure what to do from here. And yes, the behavior happened after the switch in foods, but it wasn't immediate so I didn't automatically correlate them.

 

[glittrbabe]

I would personally tub the axolotls so you can correct the ammonia without them in getting affected.

I would do a full dose of Stability no prime we want the bacteria to convert it not bind it.

I would test after 24 hours to see where things are at.

For the food you might have to do a mix of worms and pellets or repashy grub pie. Worms can come out their gill slits which is highly irratating.

I wish you could've seen the expression of my face reading the bit about the worms and the gill slits!! sounds HORRIFYING! but as for the stability dosing and diet, will do. thank you so much for your help! hopefully, there's some change in behavior once that's sorted out

 

[Calgarycoppers]

LOLOL - everyone tends to have that reaction - there are videos from owners freaking out on the internet.

Keep us posted

I wish you could've seen the expression of my face reading the bit about the worms and the gill slits!! sounds HORRIFYING! but as for the stability dosing and diet, will do. thank you so much for your help! hopefully, there's some change in behavior once that's sorted out