Question: Anyone Use Infrared Light To View Their Axolotl?

Hi,

I recently moved my two axolotls to a larger aquarium in a house I haven't moved into. Since I'm not there to see how they're coping to the move, I put a remote WiFi camera equipped with infrared lights for the night vision.

When I left the house for the night, Dim and Sum (my two axolotls) were just laying on the bottom of the tank motionless for the most part. The next morning when I looked at the recorded footage on the camera, Dim and Sum were swimming around all over the tank fairly fast but not fast like they were spooked. They were swimming around from 10:00 pm to about 5:30 am mainly on the left side of the tank. When I went to check on them in the morning, they were just relaxing in the corner together motionless. I'm sure they were tired from all the swimming around.

Is this normal behavior for axolotls to be swimming around in the night when it's dark or could they see the infrared light and were annoyed with the brightness and were trying to get away from it?

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with using infrared light to view their axolotls?

Extra information:
The camera and light was point at only one left side of the tank, the right side didn't have as much infrared light.
The tank finished it's fishless cycle for a few days ago, I put 1ppm of ammonia in a fresh water change because I wasn't moving Dim and Sum right away. Water parameters, PH 6.4, 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 40 nitrates. Going to do a water in a day or two to bring down the nitrates.

Thanks for reading my post and hopefully replying!

Axolotls are usually pretty active at night, at least in my experience. I'm not sure how infrared affects them though, I know it's fine for reptiles.
They could be reacting to the ammonia in the tank as well. Do a water change sooner than later to get that down to 0. They're pretty tolerant of pH but I would try and bump it up a bit using some crushed coral. From 6.5 and up is fine but it's usually suggested to get it in the 7's.

I've been finding that when I drop the temperature to a suitable temperature for axolotls, the beneficial bacteria converts ammonia and nitrites at a slower rate than at 80 degrees F. I did a 50% water change this evening to bring down the nitrates and I turned off the infrared light for tonight to give them darkness and try again tomorrow.