My boy is not acting right.

Hi it 4oclock in the morning here in uk and just woke up to see frecks acting very strange again, some nights he is realy active he swims rapidly, kicks the stones and trys to get out the water. Well to night he is doing the same but alot more, he keeps going to the top of the water to gulp air and seems to me he wants to jump out the tank so i had to put a lid on his tank just a minuet ago just in case. He is the only one in the tank as the girls are in a seprate tank but they are acting fine, they are always at the bottom were frecks is mainly up the top of the water. It is warm over here 23c in the kids tanks but i thought if it was the temp the rest of the axis would be acting odd too. The only thing i could think off is, does my frecks want to get out the water and start to morph, i only read on here the other day that one persons female axi died as it may off drownded by trying to morph poor thing.So please can some one help me find out what is wrong with him and if he does want to morph what shall i do im really worried and want him to feel ok bless him. Thank you.

Have you tested his water for ammonia, nitrites etc?
How big is his tank compared to the females tank?

Hi Lisalee,

It is very unlikely that Frecks is morphing. A much more common cause is that something is amiss in the water quality. If you can test the parameters as Becky suggested, you might discover the culprit.

If the water parameters are all ok, it could just be Frecks' way of "playing". Axolotls are nocturnal and are surprisingly active in the deep of the night when compared with how still they are in the daytime.

-Eva

He is so quiet now hes still and waiting for his dinner. Just say if it is his water quality would the girls be like him as well cause there always quiet at nite not like frecks. Freckles is in a 3ft tank and he looks realy healthy so does the girls and lottle who is 7 months old who is also active at night it could be just a boys thing but just worries me in case he jumps out the tank as we dont like to put the lids on the tanks as its too warm for them so we have to use fans over there tanks 24/7.

You may be able to improvise a mesh screen with some netting so you can continue to cool the water but avoid worries about jumping out.

23 C is not too worrying for a few days, you do need to stop the temperature rising further but probably the last three days is all the summer we will get! When it is warm the axolotls are more active and this can result in deterioration in water quality as they break down protein in the food quicker, producing more ammonia. The warmer water also holds less oxygen so they will tend to gulp at the surface more rather than breathe through their skin and gills.

Like other posters I tend to check if the ammonia and nitrite are OK if my axolotls behave strangely and if the tests show safe results relax and say this is normal.