Puzzled, Axolotl floating constantly. Seems Healthy!

My husband and I have 2 pet axolotls. Our oldest Hermes we've had for years and love love love him! We decided a few months ago to get a second one. Cedric has us absolutely puzzled. We are experienced in raising axolotls, keep the tanks both in perfect condion, regular 50% water changes. Nitrates and nitrites, ph, everything is perfect. Yet Cedric seems to be constantly floating.
He eats normal. At first we thought the floating was due to him gulping so much air at the surface when we fed him. He would float for a little while and then eventually he would be fine. I caught him burping up air bubbles one time and he was fine(not flaoting anymore).
We keep our tanks temps between 66 and 67 degrees, water is clear, no signs of stress (other than floating) or sickness!
We got him from the same trusted breeder as we got Hermes from. We picked Cedric because he was in a bowl by himself since he was a bit older and larger than the new hatchlings they had. We're taking better care of him than we did with Hermes since we now know more about taking care of Axolotls. But we just can't figure out what the heck is going on with him

ANY info, sugestions, help would be much appreciated!!!!!

What substrate do you have?

Does he eat fine and what do you feed him?
Does his rear end float more (like tail up) or just his whole body?

We have aquarium sand. He completely floats some times and sometimes his tail end is floating, dragging him up...
The only thing we can think that we have been doing different is that with Hermes we used stress coat in his tank and we have not done that with Cedric.

Anythoughts.

We feed them blood worms and daphnia! Frozen.

He might have swallowed an air bubble (I've had that with my axies a few times) that needs to get out soon (probably that's why his butt is up a little, the bubble is 'in the back'). If it won't go away in a few days I would fridge him to see if maybe something else is in there, blocked sand/poo or something else.

I did catch him once burping up a ton of air bubles.
We have not tried fridging. We've never had to even think about it before, cause we've never had problems in the past years.
We nick named him popper, due to the fact that when we go to feed him, he snaps and pops at the surface gulping quite a bit of air. Hence why we were thinking for the longest time that he was just getting air bubbles. But he has been floating NON STOP for over week now.
We tested the water and everything is normal and in the safe ranges, the water is a bit high on the hard side, not sure if that could effect him.

Our oldest Hermes is like our child and we spoil him rotten, massive tank lots of plants and hiding places, while Cedric we've only had for 2months, we've become super fond of him and this has us going crazy with worry.

How is his pooping? Sounds like he is constipated, but i cannot be certian until i hear about the unmentionables comming out the other end

The solution is to fridge him for a few days. This slows their metabolism and increases bowel movements. Very easy to do. Just put Cedric in a plastic (preferably food grade) tubberwear dish filled with conditioned water and pop it into the fridge make sure you have a lid and that he has enough room to move a bit. Cover the dish or tub with a towel so the light from the fridge does not startle him. You will need to do daily 100% water changes. - cedric will not eat as much in the fridge so do not worry about his loss of appetite you can offer him food though.
!!Also make sure that when you do the 100% water changes that you keep a jug of dechloinated water in the fridge so the sudden temperature change does not kill him.

As for the bubbles you should consider trying earthworms and holding them by his snout under the water or simply dropping them in the water on his snout. They love the wigglies and you get a kick out of them eating them. Plus earthworms are more nutrious than the bloodworms and daphania.

Fridging just seems scary to me... My husband and I work a lot and I'm a bit worried about leaving him in the fridge with out one of us at home.

That is looking more and more like my only option, Cedric has just been floating for way to long. We've lowered the water level in his tank so it's easier for him to anchor himself to a plant.

I have noticed that he doesn't seem to be pooping "the great poop". I checked his tank this morning.

I'll go to the store tonight when I get off of work and pic up a fridge thermometer and a new non-microwaved/used food grade container.

Thank you everyone for the insight and help.

Wish Cedric and me luck everyone!

Hermes in his 55 gal. tank, this was about 6 months ago, He's grown more since we upgraded him to this tank Hermes is about 11" long and very robust. He's a BIG healthy boy..


This is Cedric, 2nd day we had him.... AND YES, we do have sand in his tank, this was just the 2nd day and we had issues with getting the aquarium sand thoroughly. Oh and he's in a 10gal. tank.

Just a tip for a good reference for size between the two, look at the base of the plants.. Cedric was tiny.

My axi tends to float at times, mostly in the morning and late afternoon. She's very healthy, her tank is near to perfect temp and chemical wise. She can and will stay on the bottom and plod around (leaving her cute little footprints everywhere ). I've decided that it is a case of personality more than anything.

She especially loved floating in near one of the fake plants (its a annenome type plant made of soft silicon... so I figure it feel nice agains her skin for her).

Yours might just be quirky like mine... I would only be worried if he CAN'T get to the bottom and stay there.

My case seems to be similar to Boo Penguin. Mine can stay at the bottom, but she likes to float sometimes too. (I'll note that I am in the process of cycling), but I test it frequently and change water daily (sometimes twice). She likes this one tall plant and likes to sit up in it (similar to a monkey in a tree lol), I just attribute this behavior to her personality. I have yet to determine what hours exactly she likes to do this, but it sometimes is for most of one day. She is very active around 12 AM- 2 AM, she swims around a lot, floats for a bit, and swims around a lot more. Then, usually, throughout most of the next day she is just chilling at the bottom.

One of the axies I raised seemed to pretty much permanently have problems with floating. It got so bad that I'd have to come in every hour or so to splash some water on the bits that were poking out of the water. I found out after some time that he was extremely sensitive to nitrates, even just a little bit. You say your nitrates are in safe parameters, what exactly is the reading?
Fasting for a day and then feeding peas and broccoli helped him out quite a bit but the most effective way to relive them quickly is to give them a little massage. Gently rub on Cedric's sides and you'll be able to feel the gas. Try moving it gently up until he burps. Of all the times I massaged him, I never got gas to come out the other end. Seems easier to get it going back where it came from

Cedric can NOT stay on the bottom, and he is now floating to one side...

When I get home from work tonight I'll check the water again and post the actual numbers for the nitrate and nitrite.

Kenneth said:

My case seems to be similar to Boo Penguin. Mine can stay at the bottom, but she likes to float sometimes too. (I'll note that I am in the process of cycling), but I test it frequently and change water daily (sometimes twice). She likes this one tall plant and likes to sit up in it (similar to a monkey in a tree lol), I just attribute this behavior to her personality. I have yet to determine what hours exactly she likes to do this, but it sometimes is for most of one day. She is very active around 12 AM- 2 AM, she swims around a lot, floats for a bit, and swims around a lot more. Then, usually, throughout most of the next day she is just chilling at the bottom.

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Yeh this sounds a lot like my baby girl its so cute huh?

pinkstarlights said:

Cedric can NOT stay on the bottom, and he is now floating to one side...

When I get home from work tonight I'll check the water again and post the actual numbers for the nitrate and nitrite.

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don't forget ammonia, may be the most important

You know I feel absolutely stupid. We're always so concerned with chlorine, ph, nitrate, nitrite and etc. It never dawned on me to check the amonia. We has a filter in there and we do half water changes, but he may be extra sensitive to it. He does well when we put him in a small container and do 100% water changes...

THANK YOU, I can't believe that passed my mine. I'll get ontop of that right away.