Sometimes axies can swallow air and it causes them to float
Are you sure your axie is dead? Do you have pics?
Did you cycle your tank before putting your axie in? What were the water parameters (ph, Nitrate, Nitrite and ammonia)?
What is your cleaning routine?
If you give us more information we can try to help you more
Thanks for replying!
She was fine, eating (frozen bloodworms) and active. Then one day she wouldn't eat, and started floating at the surface, tilted to one side. I could see no other signs of illness - no skin issues or wounds, no curled tail, Her gills were a bit pale but not damaged or tilted forward. She seemed normal in the morning and by 5 pm was floating. I tried lowering the water level so she could touch the bottom, but that made no difference.
I followed the fridging guide thread and put her in the fridge that evening, in a clear plastic shoebox. The last time I saw her move was when I was moving her into the shoebox. After that she never moved again. I even tried picking her up in my hand a couple of days later, no response. I kept her in the fridge for a few days anyway, changing her water every day (I had prepared several shoeboxes with conditioned water and kept them in the fridge). She floated upright but was limp, mouth hanging open, her legs curled back and her gills almost white (she was a GFP wild type). There was no poop or debris. When I could see signs of decomposition I took her out.
When she was alive I was changing about a third of her water every second day, always using water conditioner. She was in a 10 gallon tank with rinsed play sand as substrate and a sponge filter. Temp was 68 degrees. When the water got a bit cloudy I started using a turkey baster every day to remove uneaten food and debris. Now I realize that when I got her, I hadn't kept a fish tank in years and had forgotten about cycling and water testing.
My guess is that at the two month mark there was a sudden spike in ammonia or some other toxin, and that's what killed her so fast.
Since then I bought the API master test kit and I'm running a new tank to do a fishless cycle using a bit of fish food (I have a lot of old fish flake sample packs anyway). I'm doing the readings every day and partial water changes to deal with high ammonia and nitrate readings. My pH here is rather high, 8+ so I'm using an API PH down product when it gets over 8. I also bought API Ammo Lock for the future in case there's an ammonia spike while I have an axie in the tank. I know it won't remove ammonia but it makes it less toxic. I use a Fluval cycling bacteria product, but I've read these products don't do a lot of good.
So now I want to do what I can to prevent this from happening again when I get another axie. I was quite attached to my first axie, and I still miss her and feel badly that my own ignorance probably caused her death.
