Illness/Sickness: Floating axie also seems blind

Hi all,

I'm really worried about one of my axolotls. I have two, both female, about 2 years old.

A couple of weeks ago my black axie started spending most of her time floating midway up the tank (sometimes just below the water surface) or standing on two legs (photo attached). To make things even worse, she seems to have gone blind. There is nothing in either of the eyes (no discolourment / patches) but she can no longer find food unless i bat it around directly to her mouth and she can feel the water movement.

They're in a four foot tank, with water filter, water temp between 17 - 20 C and have a diet of frozen bloodworms (one a day / every other day each) and river shrimp (20 - 30 live shrimps a week into the tank).

All advice appriciated! Thank you

Hi Ladybug
Axolotls don't have very good sight to begin with, it's possible that she is no longer interested in the food you're offering and that is why she takes so long to accept it.
Usually when an axolotl goes completely blind they do have discolouration in their eyes... but this doesn't seem to be happening.
I'm not sure what the problem is, it's possibly that over time she will develop white patches over her eyes..

I'm afraid I have to mention as well that your tank is not ideal for an axolotl.
You should increase the amount of water in the tank as axolotls do like to run around a lot, this may be why yours are so chubby Also, the substrate looks very pointy and sharp as well as just the right size to be ingested.
To avoid trouble in the future you may want to change it to sand or barebottom tank.


Other than all those mean things I just said, your axolotls are very cute and I LOVE the mask on your leucistic

Thanks Stef :happy:

Have raised the water level in the tank. Said axie is now floating on top of a plant but about 2" below the surface, which i hope is a good sign!

Yeah I must admit she does look chubby although I feed them both the same and the leucistic is much smaller. I did wonder if this is anything to do with the floating - could there possibly be something that is making her buoyant? Of the two axies she also does the most surface / air gulping.

Thanks again about the tank. Am moving house in a week or so so will change the substrate over to sand then.

Thanks, Lisa

Axolotls will swallow bubbles of air when they eat too quickly or have long breaks between meals.
This may be the cause of the floating, as sometimes it takes a few days for the axolotl to burp out the trapped air.

My axy sometimes stands up aswell against the glass, is this bad? I thought she was just interested in whats going on above her.

Well, my other axie also stands up on its hind legs every now and then, or hovers over a plant, I think thats fine. Happy curious behaviour!

What had me worried me about Axle (original, I know...) is that she stopped walking altogether for about three days and just floated around like a blimp. But today shes back eating again and for the past half hour had actually been standing on her legs. Progress!

My axolotl go through spells of floating or lurking in odd spots of their tank, and generally there has not been anything wrong. I tend to check their water parameters if their behaviour changes, but so far it seems its just something they do.