Axie displaying unusual behaviour

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Franklin Price

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Hello! My axie has started to walk up and down near the front and the back of the tank so much the sand has shifted and the glass at the bottom is exposed. I don't see him doing this and whenever I'm in the room he is generally being normal so he must know I'm there! We;ve just started feeding him live worms, could have something to do with it?

He has also started to be awake a lot more than usual, in the morning he's is generally up but he doesn't move much in the day as he remain quite pale. in the evening he colours up and bounders around. his appetite in huge as per and generally he seems good, gills etc. Is there any abnormal behaviour i should be worried about of is he just being him?

Thank you!
 
Franklin, I've just started my axie on worms about 5 days ago and he's exactly the same, his gills can be pale on a morning but soon change colour when he sees me! (or, someone else in the room)
 
That pale look in the early part of the day, followed by rambunctious behavior is pretty normal. They pale a bit when resting, and then brighten up as the blood gets flowing during their favorite time of the evening....feeding time! He was probably a bit stressed when you got him, its a big shift for them with all the shipping around and new homes and the like. Often a new axie is a bit hungry too and low on energy, so the worms perk them up pretty quick. Kind of like my 0300 burrito snack ;)
 
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Im no expert but I believe the lighting is causing the colour change. Natural light vs artificial night light. During the day my leucistic looks completely white, my wildtype has yellow tints to his gills, and my golden albinos gills just look yellow. When I turn the lights on at night, my luecistic suddenly has a slight pink tinge, with vibrant pink gills, and my other two have hints of red and orange in their gills that werent visible earlier,instead of yellow. Please someone correct me if Im wrong, its just what I've noticed
 
Spartacus, his gills are literally nearly white. But then when he starts moving about, as indicated due to increased blood flow, they turn very bright pink! A change which would not be due to light factors alone.
 
That is true, I didnt mean to make it sound like it was the only factor. My leucistics are very close to white too, but you are right in saying that it is not light alone. However its just what I've noticed with my axies, the light definitely always changes the gills from white to pink, even when they arent moving. If I paid more attention, Id probably see they are brighter when they are active though.
 
Hi Franklin

Just to chime in, my axie does exactly the same - barely moves an inch in the day, but between 21.00-24.00, he starts to very slowly plod around and then between 24.00-6.00 are his silly hours, when he explores his tank, clambers over everything and uproots all his plants (in the first week I had him, I thought it was the tooth fairy that was doing it, until I stayed up later at the weekend and discovered him, in his element).

Zoe x
 
Thank you all so much. I feel very happy in the knowledge I have so many axie lovers to hand for my queries! My boy is certainly very happy, I just worry as I adopted him just over a month ago and fairly new to these beautiful creatures.

Glad him being up and about in the day is normal...I do worry about the up and down in the same place behaviour though as I read his could be a sign of stress? As I say, I never see him do it and his gills and tail are both stress free. He's been much more active now his water temp is lower after the heatwave which may have been An added stress factor. I'll test his nitrate and ammonia levels again to check... His ammonia was a little higher than desired last time.

Thank you all!!!
 
Oh and Zoe...They are certainly cheeky monkeys when they want to be! I've put in a ping pong ball for Devy and it had been moving around without me seeing...I caught him the other day though, he was being very fiesty and pushing it around with his little nose, think it was getting in the way of his food the greedy pants! Xxx
 
Hi Franklin,

The behaviour you are observing is normal for axolotls. They are crepuscular as well as nocturnal, meaning they are most active during dawn and dusk as well as in the wee hours of the night. Most axies will be 'resting' during the day with minimal activity but once nightfall sets in, they get more active. Hence, feeding sessions in the evening or night can be more interesting to watch because of their higher activity level.

Cheers.
 
Hello,

If you look at the picture in my album you can see the cleared sand at the front of the tank. He's building a little bank behind it now, all a bit odd really...Is he bored?
 
I'm sure you are right about Devy causing the cleared sand, but the banking really does sound like the result of strong currents to me. You would have checked for this though, right?
 
I did consider this but we have a spray bar filter at the back of the tank which creates pretty much zero current and the gaps are rather suspiciously Dev sized!

My boyfriend thinks he likes the texture of the glass on his feet. We've had less sand in there of late due to me sucking half of it up while I get used to the turkey baster so there have been partings in the sand where you can see glass which I don't think he's been exposed to before. Maybe he's just thought, ooooh smooth glass, that's different, feels good!

As you can see he's looking pretty unstressed so think he's okay, just a bit odd is all!
 
Devy and his bank----->
 

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Hey, he looks very happy and very healthy - the gills are brilliant - how old/big is he?

Zoe x
 
He's probably just digging/snuffling for food. In the wild, axies would naturally root through the muck on the lakebed looking for tasty morsels.

Your axie looks very healthy!
 
thank you, glad you think he looks healthy :) He's 10 months old now so quite a bit boy! He's just had a massive spurt and I think he's going to be quite big if he's this size already, I'll measure him and let you know he's size.

He may indeed be snuffling for foods. He has an appetite like a horse but of course I don't overfeed him!

I want to get him some more hidey places for his tank, can anyone recommend somewhere online that's good value?

xx
 
Here is somewhere I have bought stuff from before:

http://www.wharfaquatics.co.uk/categories.asp?cat=31

I have the mangrove root and the large tree section from there. I know that Seapets sell a lot of reasonably priced stuff, however I think that Mike, one of the members on here, had a bad sale from them once - can't remember the ins and outs, but if you have a look in the testimonials section, there is a thread there about it.

If you know specifically what you are looking for, Ebay may be a good place to find a bargain.

Zoe x
 
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