Axy Floated Upside Down

I kept an eye on my axies. I noticed the curled tail and thicker back legs and smaller gills so i changed a lot of the water. A few days later (the weather has gotten HOT here!!!) she was floating upside down. SO as i usually do i popped her in the fridge and changed the water again. I have been changeing the water daily and shes been in the fridge almost a week. I think i will keep her there till the hot days are over. She is much better now. Just letting all us aussies know, it may be something in the water here. I tend to have a 6 month death row for my axies but this axy i apodted. She is now about 7 i think or 8 and ive had her for a few years So i am proud. I just hope she keeps getting better not worse.
IF she is morphing, can she reverse it? or is it a one way track and she will die eventually? is it inevitable.

You probably shouldn't be doing big water changes at once, as too big a change can be quite stressful for your axolotl. 20% once a week is fine, more when you have ammonia readings. Have you tested your ammonia?

It does sound like it could be temperature related. Do you know what the tank temperature has been lately? It should be under 24C, though ideally, 20C or less is better. Now that your axie is in the fridge is she doing better? If so, leaving your axie in the fridge during the heat is probably a good idea

Morphing is fairly rare, usually what you have mentioned can be attributed to bad water conditions and high temperature. So I probably would put that low on the list of things likely to be causing your axie's discomfort.

Hi Teesha, welcome back to the forum!

Yes I remember you had similar problems last year and most likely it's the same thing temperature related and water quality problems.

There may very well be a water issue with your tapwater if you are on town supply - usually happens when temperatures rise and depends on how the council treats your water.

But from memory, your last water problem you had regarding your axies were inconsistent waterchanges/cleaning within a 2-3 week period as you were studying quite heavily, tank temperature and couldn't unfortunately put the time in for regular tank maintenance - so you were doing irregular large waterchanges. As well as addition of unquarantined animal/axolotl, which probably didn't help when your axies were getting stressed and sick.

As in that case I very much doubt it is morphing. You know yourself about how regular water changing (monitoring water parameters) and keeping the temperature cool is an important factor in keeping an axolotl healthy.

Good to hear she is improving - you may need to keep her in longer than a week though if you're unable to keep tank cool.