Illness/Sickness: Floating... again :(

Hi guys,

Max has started having trouble passing wind again. He floats and wedges himself under things for most of the day, then it seems to pass, but it keeps coming back again. He is eating earthworms as usual, no differences in his diet. The only thing we can think of is that he seems to keep eating the plant we have in there. We're not sure what type of plant it is, but maybe if he's eating it he might be having trouble passing it? His tummy is the same width as his head so we don't think it's because he's hungry. This plant seems to have just brought problems since we've had it! We had snails for weeks as well!

Nitrates: 20ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm
pH: 7.6
Temp: 18

Should we take the plant out and replace it with a plastic one? Or could it be something else? He doesn't look bloated so we're hoping it isn't bloat He doesn't have a hooked tail or curled gills, the only time he looks stressed is when he's trying to get to the bottom and his bum won't let him!

Thanks for any help,

Sally and Dom

Axies aren't that smart. They like to snap at things that aren't edible just because it moves. So if he's eating the plant it's not because he's hungry or has gone vegetarian, he's just following his instinct to try and eat it coz it moves. Silly lotl!

And have you ever eaten sprouts of cabbage and got a bad case of gas? Of course you have, it's the average Xmas aftermath.....

So you have 2 choices - wait until he figures it out for himself (he will - eventually) or take the plant out. Or the plant will die from being continually nibbled on.

BTW you need to quarantine plants the same as fish etc - almost every plant you get from a LFS will have pond snail eggs on it, don't be surprised if you find little clusters of snails for the next 20 years. Mind you, my axies seemed to take care of the few I had and I ended up with some empty shells....

Ha! That reply made us laugh, thanks!

I know what you mean with eating anything that moves, Max likes to try eating our noses, even though they're on the other side of the glass!

The plant looks like it's dying off anyway, so I think I may well just take it out. It was quarantined for a few days but obviously that wasn't long enough. The snails were tiny little things but we're pretty sure we've got rid of them now (I would imagine Max probably helped with that too!).

I'll take it out tonight and see if it makes any difference.

Sally and Dom

Just a thought... Maybe he swallowed snails with the shells... And now he really has to poop. When they need to poop, they get floating bum syndrome (I just learned this myself, thanks Auntiejude).

So, maybe you've still got that snail problem, but Max keeps eating them, and isn't passing them easily??