Illness/Sickness: Is my Axie sick or stressed?

Hey, one of my two axolotls has been exhibiting some odd behavior of late, kinda pin balling around the tank and running into the side, and I noticed a strange white spot on his side (possible scar tissue? fungus?) one on his side and a smaller one on his head........ It could be nothing, in fact I remember seeing it awhile ago and decided to watch for symptoms. He kinda makes me wonder, he has this thing he likes to do, he likes to get going real fast from one side of the tank and slide into the other side of the tank (with a no substrate makes sliding easy) and the thermometer.

Anyways, Is this normal? Should this spot worry me? My other axolotl seems to be fine... are they bored? Or is he exhibiting signs of stress?

Hi Netraven,

Have you checked your water parameters? Poor water chemistry can cause axies to dart about or move in an erratic fashion. Even though all axies will get affected by common factors (poor conditions in same tank for eg), the response is variable as some axies are more tolerant than others.

Do you have enough hiding places for them? Does your other axie show signs of aggression? Are there appliances nearby that causes vibrations, bright lights or heat? Is the tank placed in a position where there are heavy human or pet traffic? These can all startle an axie.

One thing i noticed in the photo is the position of the axie. This position indicates the axie might be constipated/impacted. Are there any thing in the tank that can be ingested accidentally and cause impation? What do you feed the axie?

The white spot appears to be pigmentation from this photo. Would you be able to provide other photos showing a close up of the white spots? Are the spots ulcerative, reddish or discharging any material? Are they flat or raised? How does the surface look like? Smooth and even like the rest of the body or appears to be a different texture?

Cheers.

Its flat, I looks just like his skin just white... he is only hunched up like that cause I was feeding them bloodworm at that moment and its an action shot of him eating....
I have a big rock in there that they hide under and there is some fake plants they like to crawl into every once in a while.
Aggressive? Not really, he is the bigger one of the two and the only time I have seen them do anything like being aggressive towards each other is when they are eating two close.. nothing to serious.
I have the tank in my office and normally there isent much going on in here, there is another tank with a bubble filter on it about two feet away. I wonder if i should put more hiding places in there for them.. he seems healthy except for the swimming around....
The temperature is 70ish and there is a good filter on there, I haven't checked the nitrate and niatrate or ammonia levels lately, I will do that soon.

On second though they might fight a little bit... what do I do about that?

Hi Netraven,

You can either house them separately or use a tank divider. Feeding them at different sides of the tank and providing hiding places will also help substantially.

Cheers.