Nocturnal or light stressed

As I am still building my axolotl's permanent home tank system I am spending a lot of time manually checking conditions, adjusting lights, feeding and cleaning up in his current 20L.

I have noticed each 'morning' when I turn on the day lighting for his tank he is much more active, ie. mid-tank, moving around, etc. After the lights are on he becomes much more lethargic, inactive, etc. because of this I have taken to feeding in the morning before lights-on as he is more likely to take notice and grab up all his bits when he is moving about.

20L 75% full - rimless top
Weekly 50% water changes
12" LED strip light approx 12" from the surface
several dark areas from caves, floating plexi pieces etc
17.6 C water, 7.6 ph, hard
One 30Gallon sponge filter, adjusted to a trickle for barely any water movement - water is very clear
No natural plants as I have them all stretching under full LED in another temp tank across the room.
Screened sand about 7mm thick substrate
Apple Snails and ghost shrimp tank mates - shrimp are segregated and the snails are way too large to be swallowed.

Huxley (wild type axie) is now almost 8 months old, very dark in color with very fine healthy seaming gill stalks. I have associated his color shades with stress I believe as during tank tank/water changes he goes pale for a day before resuming his schedule and returning dark.


Is this night/pre-dawn activity typical? I am aware they lack eyelids and need low light but I am not sure if full light with shadows and dark corners causes more stress than just downsizing my light and sticking with only low-light plants would make him happier.

I believe axolotls are nocturnal animals, but they dont like bright lights/tank lights and dont need them either.
If it is a tank light, its best to have LOTS of floating plants to dim it down or just simply not turn it on/remove it
If its day light/Room light then just make sure you have hides and shaded areas for them to hide in when they are scared