I killed my Axolotl

I bought a new Axolotl and two hours after I put him in the tank he passed away
I noticed his skin was floating and a little pealy and he wasn't moving! I went and had my water tested the results were 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 75 Soft, 1 Chlorine, 20 Alkalinity, 6.8 pH.
I used a water conditioner but did I not use enough? Did the Chlorine kill him or the pH maybe? Please help

YungYeesh said:

I bought a new Axolotl and two hours after I put him in the tank he passed away
I noticed his skin was floating and a little pealy and he wasn't moving! I went and had my water tested the results were 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 75 Soft, 1 Chlorine, 20 Alkalinity, 6.8 pH.
I used a water conditioner but did I not use enough? Did the Chlorine kill him or the pH maybe? Please help

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Since there was still chlorine in your water, you didn't use enough dechlorinator (water conditioner)
What was the temperature of the tank?
Was his skin like that when you bought him?
The soft water might have contributed to the skin problem.

It almost sounds like the temperature was way to high.... Like he was boiled.

Did you ever touch him? Is his slim skin crumble off and stuck to your hand? Skin floating off his body is sounding similar to the symptom that cause by ick or soap residue, or any other toxic chemical that is deadly to him . The result is very deadly and quick . Yes you could have save him by quick salt bath but my guess is that it was too late when you found him. Chlorine is deadly chemical even just 1 can kill in a day still it he might had survive a bit longer. When did you test the water? After his death or before? Cause if it was testing after his death and it came out 1 maybe the result was actually higher than 1 when you first put him in to the tank cause chlorine evaporate overtime. And that would have kill him faster with the same reaction you described.

No fully cycled tank has 0 nitrates. They are the end result of the nitrogen cycle, so I think there were several factors.

1. Tank wasn't cycled (can take 6 to 8 weeks!)
2. There was chlorine in the water
3. They need hard water
4. What was the temperature?

Sorry to read about your loss so soon, unfortunately we may never know what caused this.
Loosing an axolotl like this, makes me wonder if there was some contamination somewhere along the line
I am not familiar with the chlorine read that you provided, but would the same reading come from your tap water ( before treating with de-chlorinator)? I personally have treated fungal problems with untreated water, where the animal stays in there for a number of hours. Maybe I was just lucky, but the treatment would clear the infection and not appear to harm the animal. I also do @20% water changes with out de-chlorinating the water as well. Is your tap water drinking water?
Out of interest, before you put your axolotl in its new tank, had you cleaned it first? if so, what did you use?
One other thought is, did you remember to acclimatise your axolotl before putting it in the new tank?
Finally, it may not have been that easy coming onto the forum asking for help after this happened. Please don't let this experience put you off trying again.

YungYeesh said:

I bought a new Axolotl and two hours after I put him in the tank he passed away
I noticed his skin was floating and a little pealy and he wasn't moving! I went and had my water tested the results were 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 75 Soft, 1 Chlorine, 20 Alkalinity, 6.8 pH.
I used a water conditioner but did I not use enough? Did the Chlorine kill him or the pH maybe? Please help

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Pretty quick death might not have been your fault. It shouldn't be because your tank is not fully cycled. That should take longer than 2 hours. Unless something really bad was in the water.

bellabelloo said:

Sorry to read about your loss so soon, unfortunately we may never know what caused this.
Loosing an axolotl like this, makes me wonder if there was some contamination somewhere along the line
I am not familiar with the chlorine read that you provided, but would the same reading come from your tap water ( before treating with de-chlorinator)? I personally have treated fungal problems with untreated water, where the animal stays in there for a number of hours. Maybe I was just lucky, but the treatment would clear the infection and not appear to harm the animal. I also do @20% water changes with out de-chlorinating the water as well. Is your tap water drinking water?
Out of interest, before you put your axolotl in its new tank, had you cleaned it first? if so, what did you use?
One other thought is, did you remember to acclimatise your axolotl before putting it in the new tank?
Finally, it may not have been that easy coming onto the forum asking for help after this happened. Please don't let this experience put you off trying again.

Click to expand...

You are so right about chlorine I doubt that chlorine at 1 would kill any axie either when I said toxic I was thinking more on axie being in there over night and possibly there was more than just 1 since chlorine elaborate , plus floating skins sounds more like other chemical problem not chlorine related.

I agree that it's not plausible that this is the result of your setup only. Other factors must have contributed to this result. I guess the level of chlorine can only have caused some stress in these two hours of exposure.

bellabelloo said:

Sorry to read about your loss so soon, unfortunately we may never know what caused this.
Loosing an axolotl like this, makes me wonder if there was some contamination somewhere along the line
I am not familiar with the chlorine read that you provided, but would the same reading come from your tap water ( before treating with de-chlorinator)? I personally have treated fungal problems with untreated water, where the animal stays in there for a number of hours. Maybe I was just lucky, but the treatment would clear the infection and not appear to harm the animal. I also do @20% water changes with out de-chlorinating the water as well. Is your tap water drinking water?
Out of interest, before you put your axolotl in its new tank, had you cleaned it first? if so, what did you use?
One other thought is, did you remember to acclimatise your axolotl before putting it in the new tank?
Finally, it may not have been that easy coming onto the forum asking for help after this happened. Please don't let this experience put you off trying again.

Click to expand...

Originally I had the tank set up over 24hrs and I had already used dechlorinator so I was unsure if it just didn't work well even though I used what I was supposed to. When I got him he was supposed to be pink but the guy said they come clear and after a week they get their color back because they are stressed from the shipping. My house it at 68F and the tank was a little cooler than that. I didn't see anything wrong with the water I floated him for a few minutes and then added him to my tank. After like 2 hours I saw him floating and he was still alive but his skin was pealing and he was dead after a few minutes I tried to transfer him to a 2G tank that was pretreated but it was too late. I decided afterwards to get the water tested to see if anything was wrong because when I emailed the guy I bought him from he said it had to of come into direct contact with chemicals and he doesn't dechlorinate his water so the chlorine wasn't the problem and he pretty much made it like I or somebody in my house killed him intentionally! I just clean my tank with warm water and my hand or a scrubber no soap or chemicals.