About to give up!

I had posted a couple of weeks ago about Cedric floating at the top of his tank. He had been floating for over a week. We fridged him for 3 days and he pooped the "great poop"! Which was awesome, cause he seemed to be doing much better he was no longer floating tail up. We slowely tempered him back to his tank temp, he was eating fine. Then I noticed he started flaoting again but this time he was floating head up. I figured he had just gotten some air bubbles from his feedings. The other day I went to check on im and he was floating at the top and to one side..... GRRRRRRRRRRR

Back to the fridge he went, he pooped, but he still continued to float to his one side. I also noticed that he keeps holding his one arm flat along his side. (Any thoughts on this?)
I checked on him the other night in the fridge and he was barely moving, I was defrosting some freezer items and I think it dropped the temp in the fridge a bit to low. So I pulled him out and placed him by our airconditioner where it's much cooler.
Well he finally ate but he still seems to be floating to one side..

This is killing me, I am so frustrated! Hermese my big beautiful healthy as a horse of an axolotl has never had any of these problems. And my husband and I are doing everything the same for the two.

Anyone have some insight on what mights be going on with Cedric?
he doesn't have and white stuff on his gills or blotchy patches, nothing that could indicate disease.

The only odd thing I've noticed is that he seems to be digesting a lot of sand! It's a fine grain aquarium type sand. Is it possible that this is tearing up his insides?

As far as I know sand is not a big problem because they can easily poop it out. I only won't use sand for very young axies.

The floating thing. Hm, when he floated head up he might have had an air bubble in his mouth, and now floating on one side because he swallowed it. It takes a few days for axies to poop (and in the fridge it might be faster) so it might be possible to see him floating with his back end up before he poops (farts?) it out because it looks like it's moving to the back.

Good luck with your lotl

When my husband and I fridge him he seems to pass quite a bit of sand. We were thinking about removing the sand and putting large rocks down for him. He just seems to be ingesting an abnormal amount of sand.
I mean for how small he is, when we fridge him and he poops there is about 1/4 teaspoon on sand that comes out of him.

Here's a few questions for you
Just how small is he? Also what do you feed them? How warm is his tank ? Do you dechlorinate the water and finally what are your readings for Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite?

Believe me everything is perfect in his tank. His tank temp is 62F Declorinated nitrate nitrite ph everything is in perfect range. Regular half tank water changes. He eats blood worms and daphnia.
He's about 3 1/2" long.

We are doing everythign the same with Cedric as we have been doing with Hermese. Hermese is an 11" healthy as a horse adult. We've never had any issues with him.

So I'm convinced he's just addicted to eating sand!!!! We took Cedric out of the fridge and put him in a container in our living room close to the air conditioner. He was starting to look a little frozen in the fridge. His water temp is ranging around 60F to 62F which is about 3-5 digrees less than what his tank in our bedroom stays at.

Seems like every other days he's been pooping hard clumps of sand out. He's FINALLY not floating on his side and can mostly stay at the bottom of the container we have him in. YAY.... Now for the Booo.... part!

We've noticed a bit ago, once he started to level out that his stomach seemed a bit bloated on one side. Since he's been passing the sand and poo, the bloated side has gone down quite a bit and it's almost gone.

Only conclusion we've come to is that he is sucking up a bunch of sand.

We think the loose blood worms that fall to the bottom of the tank at feeding time he's going after and in the process getting a bunch of sand.

Has anyone had issues with their axolotl eating sand?

Mine eat a it of it now and again when some of their food goes in the sand, but not enough to cause any problems.

Once he is back to normal, maybe try feeding him something that will not litter the tank bottom. Maybe earthworms or pellets you can hand feed?

We always hand feed ourworms to the axies, sand can cause bloating, but once passed should be okay, just keep him cooler for now.

I think in the case of this axie, you should keep him on bare bottom tank until he's at least bigger. They're all individuals, and yours seems intent on killing itself with sand.

Earthworms!!!

We use to feed both our axolotls earthworms every now and again as a treat, but when we found out that they can carry parasites, I freaked!

I've seen on the forums here that nearly everyone feeds their axies earthworms. Anyone have and issues with internal parasites?

Or does anyone recomend any other frozen food besides the blood worms and the daphnia? Something a bit more solid.

pent565 said:

I think in the case of this axie, you should keep him on bare bottom tank until he's at least bigger. They're all individuals, and yours seems intent on killing itself with sand.

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Cedric has a hard time moving around on the bottom of his tank when it's bare bottom. I was thinking about using large stones, but knowing how luck goes, we're a bit nervous that he might find a way to suck one of those up! I saw a tank sset up once upon a time where the person use slate rock or something of the like on the bottom of the tank. I think we might try that.

Does anyone know if slate rock is ok for an axolotl tank?