Is my axie stressed?

smiley1996

smiley1996

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Hello, i have had my Axie Yonty for around 2 months now. I got him from a local pet shop, that thinking about it werent the best. He was in a 2 foot tank with 5 other Axies for 3 months in the pet shop. They ranged from around 4-5 inches with Yonty being the smallest. He had no enrichment, like tunnels etc. No fake Plants nothing to hide behind. He was fine for the first month and a half and has now tried swimming numerous amounts of times head first into the side of the tank as if he was trying to escape. i dont know whether its him being stressed? or he needs a companion as hes been without one for 2 months it may be stressing him out? or he just likes the look of himself in the reflection? hehe! im not sure what to do or if i should be worried.

Yonty also has white spots on him at the minute which im guessing and have been told that is a fungal infection? so i hope my little man will get through it fast! im doing more frequent water changes and yet to find something to put in his tank to help. He had been trying to swim into the side of the tank before the fungal infection occurred ...i feel like im doing something wrong? But dont know what? :confused: Any ideas? :S :confused:
 
Pics would be useful.

Is your tank cycled? What are your water parameters? Sand/bare bottom? Tank mates?

Shine a light into the white spots - if they reflect a shine they're harmless. If not it could be a slime coat problem or fungal problem which pics would greatly help determine.

As for wanting companions, they don't need them, but can live with them so I doubt he's stressing because he's lonely. Pretty sure he doesn't really care lol it's more so to do with water conditions.

Also what are you feeding him?
 
Hello thankyou for replying. I understand just thought maybe he was used to companions? as for tankmates he has none. I use pebbles for the bottom of his tank bigger than his head, in the pet shop they used small stones that he has only just stopped passing. He eats normally and i feed him frozen blood worm and brine shrimp.im looking to get some earthworms for him? Well i have a filter but when i got my axie i put him in the water setup the same day. with some of the water he was in from the pet shop. I use Aqua Safe in his water. His water temperature is 17 degrees C. ( il send images seperately)
 
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You have to remember that axies aren't terribly smart...He's smacking into the tank edges because he can't see or understand the concept of glass containers. He is not pining for company either - they are rather indifferent when it comes to companionship.

What do the white patches look like?
White and fluffy and confined to gills, feet, tail or an injured spot - possibly fungus. Salt baths required.
Shiney and all over - probably iridophores, part of their natural coloring. Completely normal.
White, flat and in the creases at armpits and hips - possibly an accumulation of slime coat, not harmful.

Worms can be obtained from:
Worms direct
Yorkshire worms

Set up a worm farm (bucket with ventilated lid), feed them on mashed potatoes, they breed like bunnies. I suggest with one axie you'll need about 100 worms to start with feeding and breeding. I currently have more worms than I need from a starter of 500 in a 25L bucket and 4 hungry axies.
 
What white patches?! He looks like a lovely specimen!

And I'd get rid of those glass pebbels - easily small enough for axies to swallow.
Not meaning to scare you, but:
axolotl-stone-in-stomach.png
 
Yonty has white patches on his feet but they dont look fluffy just like white spots. He did have what looked like loose skin around one gill but that seems to have gone? but that indeed did look flufy. the other white spots are on his tail there are very few of them, but if it is a fungal infection i wouldnt want it to get worse? :) Thankyou so much for them links :D been looking to find some everywhere and couldnt find them. oh. well thats a relief i thought it was abnormal behaviour through being stressed :D thankyou :)
 
yh when i got him he was passing stones from the pet shop but these ones are bigger than his head? and hasnt had any problem with them as far as i know yet... but yh i suppose when hes older he probably will ... aha! My college has an Axolotl and when i asked them they said it could be the starting of the fungal infection but thought id get a second opinion from you guys. Hes also only ever passed one solid poo. the rest just look like muck. :S ive also tried him with bare bottom but he seemd to not have any grip and was all over the place. i also got told by a pet store that sand could be just as bad?
 
You'll know when it's fungus - looks like cotton wool.
And axies can fit things in their mouth that you might not believe would fit - small gravel will pass through (eventually and possibly uncomfortably) but those glass pebbles will require surgery if ingested. By 'bigger than their head' we really mean 'the size of your fist'. If you catch your axie yawning (or even better google some images) you'll see exactly how big an axie's mouth is.
 
oh. oops. i hear so many things from so many people its confusing haha. He doesnt have any grip with bare bottom though as ive tried it when i first got him? :S
 
I have sand...which I'm still unsure about...But it's better than pebbles. Try large slate rocks?
 
My partner got me some slate....but from his garden thats why i havent putit in will it be okay if i put it through kettle water? :)
 
Are you crafty at all? I have an acrylic plate false bottom in my tank. I have covered it with silicone and embedded sand in the silicone - it give texure without the fear of ingestion. Stank to high heaven when we made it (silicone solvent is vinegar!) but it's been there for 6 months and is doing brilliantly. I can take it out to clean underneath, but it's snug fitting so that not much can get under in the first place.

You can also use large slates if you sand down the edges, some people have even used astroturf. There are some fantastic ideas in the 'tanks and substrates' section here.
 
i will go and have a look now thankyou :D just dont know whether slate from the garden is ideal or not.... foxes being about andcats?
 
Scrub with dilute vinegar, then rinse with boiling water, then rinse, rinse and rinse again - cleans almost any stone to aqauarium suitablility.
 
Sand is only bad if the axie is really young or if its the wrong type of sand 'childrens playsand' is the type you want and its really cheap from B&Q or somewhere similar :D

I wouldnt bother with the brine shrimp as they wont be doing much, use the bloodworm until your worms arrive, then go straight onto earthworms, yorkshire woms do little worms that are 1" which would be ideal for your axies size and means you wont have to cut them up.

I also agree that you should remove those stones, i wouldnt risk the health of my axie for something to look nice.

Have you cycled the tank?
If you havent cycled it and its bad water quality, it could explain his odd swimming
 
i do water changes regularly (2-3 times a week) however yet again when i got the axolotl i didnt get told anything about testing the water for nitrates etc and got told that water changes would cover everything. ive had a filter in there since day 1 and have cleaned the filter out to ... however its sounding a bit weird at the minute and think i need to look into getting a new one. im going to clean the slate that ive got from the garden with the diluted vinegar and kettle water and then add that to the tank aswell after the sides have been sanded down ofcourse. see how that works. i looked at pictures of the axies yawning and its crazy how the little guys mouths are quite big i understand what you guys mean now and the stones will be taken out! just dont want to change too much to make him ill/stressed. okay il finish off the strips of brine shrimp i have and begin with the earth worms. bloodworm i find so messy and even if i think ive cleaned it all up i realise after i havent :S hehe thankyou very much for your help :D
 
Hey smiley,
I find my axis does the same thing by swimming into the side of the tank, I asked my fish shop and they said its because they cant see stright they have like a bubble vision and cant judge distance. Im not sure how much of that is true but my axis has been doing it for years and seems fine as for the blood worms I leave mine as a frozen block and use tweezers to give it to my axis. If the block is to big she spits it back out but that never really happens as for the blood worms that she spits out I just leave them on the bottom of the tank and she cleans them up as she moves around the tank eating 90% of whats left over.
hope this helps.
 
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