Illness/Sickness: Tail/Back Legs Floating and On His Side.

I don't know what is wrong with my Axolotl. I woke up this morning and his tail was up in the air. I thought he had some gas so i rubbed his belly, that just made him mad. Now he is chilling in his cave on his side I don't know what is wrong with him. Any ideas? I changed his water last night, I did a 100% change and I aged his water first as I always do. His temp is sitting just above 20 degrees so it isn't too hot. I don't know what to do. He eats his sinking pellets, about 10-15 a day. I feed him frozen bloodworms every 2 days as a bit of a change for him. Is he really sick?

You probably sent him into pH and temperature shock. Your old water could have been lets just say for discussion 6.8 with a temperature of 64 degrees. You change 100% of the water and the pH becomes 7.5 and the temp becomes 70 degrees. This can shock them. Just like running outside in 100 degree heat after working in a meat packing freezer all day. It shocks you. You might say out load ...Wow this is brutal. If you axolotl talked it would say the same thing. Since Axies are more fragile that humans it call really be dangerous to them. All you should be doing is syphoning out the dirt you see once a week. Removing 10-20% of your water. Top back off with clean water. If your tank is proper size and you don't over feed that should be plenty. Doing 100% changes can also screw up your tanks bacteria cycle. Quickly raising ammonia levels. Which is even more deadly.

Thanks for the response. Is there anything I can do now? Obviously I can fix this from happening in the future but what about now? Is it too late? He looks really sick. I am scared he is going to die

Best photo I could get as he wont come out of his cave..

Unfortunately the photo isn't working .

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There is a link to the photo.. Sorry I am still trying to navigate this site

Are you dechlorinating your water? Or just letting it sit to age?

I see that you have no substrate.

You always do 100% water changes? You're better off doing more like 20% once or twice a week. Do you test your water parameters?

Hi! I have done 2 100% changes in 2 months. His water gets mucky very quickly! I have had the levels tested every week or so as my cousin works at a pet shop and there is nothing wrong. I use the Water Ager you buy from there. I use the correct amount and I stir it around and let it sit for a bit before placing him back in. When I did the 100% changes I had him in his old tank. I Filled it with 10 liters of water and placed ager in before i put him in!

Update!! I woke up half hour ago and he was still the same. I just went and saw my partner off and have come back in to him swimming around the tank but his butt & tail are still in the air He has come up for 2 big gulps of air while I have been sitting here. He is struggling so much with the back part of his body. He is sitting in his cave to try and not float away I think

He has some large River Rocks down he end but nothing small enough to go in his mouth!

He yawned? a fair bit last night. My partner seems to think he might have been trying to get some gas/wind out of his belly!

How big is your tank? Do you have actual numbers for water parameters? Ammonia and nitrite are the most important, and should ALWAYS be 0ppm. I have a hard time believing that your levels are fine when you're only doing water changes once a month, unless your tank is 100+gallons and heavily planted.

You're feeding 15 pellets a day? That's an awful lot of food. Have you always fed pellets? When is the last time you saw poop?

I have done 100% changes twice. I change 25% of his water every Sunday. Sometimes twice a week depending on how much he poops. My cousin works at a pet store so I know I am getting my levels tested correctly. The food container says on the back and I quote "Feed the Axolotl as many pellets as they will eat in 6-10 minutes twice a day. Remove any uneaten pellets to prevent water contamination" Unless the company that makes the pellets are lying I am feeding my axolotl correctly!

Hi, u mentioned your axolotl tail keeps sticking up in the air , it sounds constipated properly impacted from the sinking pellets , you should really give them pellets as a treat as they sometimes have problems passing them as they swell and also use other ingredients other than meat to keep the pellets a solid , just a suggestion

Just because you CAN feed pellets to an axolotl and not kill it doesnt mean its a great, or even a good food. Try earthworms.

Find out what EXACTLY your parameters are. Saying that you are getting them professionally tested doesnt help if the person doesnt know what the proper parameters are for your pet, in this case an axolotl. Heck, YOU should come home with the knowledge of exactly what your parameters from that testing are. I would never leave the care of any of my creatures in someone elses hands entirely, and just be ok with hearing something along the lines of "oh, your temps are fine." Ok, but what are they! (snake example but I'm sure you see the connection).

If you do know what they are, then thats good, but stop doing the crazy 100% water changes. You are just going to crash your tank if you havent already. Once that happens, ammonia and other toxins build up pretty crazy fast, and you will pretty much have to get your water tested every day until your cycle completes again. Get a test kit and do this at home! And not those stupid dip-strips, I'd recommend the API freshwater Test Kit. I love mine, and I learned so much from testing my own water parameters.

Like mentioned earlier by another, making sure the water is the same (or very close to the same) temperature and PH when you do such gigantic changes is very important. I use a temp gun when I do large water changes (like while i was cycling my tank and trying to get my nitrites to drop), to make sure that my temp was the same. I knew the PH was the same because I tested both with my kit first.