My axolotl is eating rocks and floating what do i do?

My axolotl Axel is eating rocks and floating. The other day i saw it drop out 10 rocks. How can I stop it eating the rocks?

take the rocks out of the tank as soon as possible and use either sand or have a bare bottom tank.

Also what is your tank temperature, have you had problems cooling the tank (this could be the reason for floating)? If the temps are 24C+ you need to cool the tankwater down by using fans and/or frozen bottles of dechlorinated water rotated before they melt.

The water temperature is 19C. Is that an ok temp? Is there any other way to prevent it from eating the rocks besides taking out the rocks?

No. they snuffle around looking for food, its natural and invariably swallow them. Only other way is if you permanently silicone the rocks to the bottom of the tank so they can't be swallowed.

Temperature is fine.

Have you tested your tankwater for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates at all?

Kapo how do you test the water for ammonia,nitrites and nitrates? if I got bigger rocks would it stop axel from eating them?

If the rocks are bigger then your axies head then yes it will stop them eating it. To test you water for these you need test kits. If you do not have any take a jar ful of the tank water and take it to the pet shop and ask them to test it for you. Ask to get Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and the PH tested. Get the jar there as soon as possible so the results don't vary.

Hope this helps Stephen

just put bigger rocks in

If the rocks are about 1.5-2inches that should be fine. Only thing is, as with gravel, a lot of waste builds up underneath and in between; and even with a gravel cleaner, a lot of gunk builds up.

Make sure they give you the figures/no.s of the each test result, tell them to write it down beside each one (it can be very easy to muddle the nitrAte and nitrIte readings up, if you're not sure what they're about0.

Also, if the petshop says your figures seem a bit extreme or high; do not be tempted, on their advice to buy something to fix the nitrate, lock the ammonia or raise and lower your pH. These invariably do nothing and just causes more problems for your tank as they are temporary fixes only.

Axies can live in pH levels of 6.8-8.0

If ammonia or nitrIte are above 0 the best way to fix it, without chemicals, is to do frequent daily 30% partial only waterchanges. This will bring the toxins down so its safe enough for your axies to live in.


You could just leave it bare, it is by far the easiest thing for cleaning and feeding (I've only realised after looking after both my sisters babies and my axie larvae how easy it is). Almost tempting to remove the sand from some of our tanks but hubby would have a fit over it.

I find sometimes have sand you can get ammonia spikes, so i agree and say clear or big rocks

Yes with sand they build up anaerobic pockets of gas, I think, so you have to give them a weekly stir, we run turkey baster in rows through the sand every few days (and the axies think we intend feeding them and chase them to grab - greedy beggars!)

Thanks for all the help guys I have now fixed the tank.