Impacted axie, but why?

Ok, over the last few days, I have noted that Sir Lance-Alotl was starting to drift about somewhat, and over the last day or so she is full on floating. This of course leads me to believe that she is impacted, but I have no idea why she is.

Her diet consists of earthworm, and the occasional cube of bloodworm, which she loves. She lives on sand, and there is no rocks of any kind on her tank, not even ones that are bigger than her head. Just a chunk of wood, a few hides in the form of PVC pipe, and some plants.

I'm currently in the process of preparing her for some time in the fridge, her last feed was 2 days ago. And I might just add that its been well over a week since she has passed anything, and know this because I'm very religious when I comes to checking her tank for anything that needs to be removed. She seems to still have her appetite though, as she is just as snappy as ever.

I'm thinking, is it possible that over time that sand could build up in her gut and clog her up so to speak? Because if thats the case, I will remove the sand at once, I have already lost a axie to impaction, and no matter what I did it just would not pass any waste at all.

I would just also like to add that all the water tests check out as fine, ammonia, nitrates etc as does the temperature, which is sitting at a stable 17 degrees.

Any light that you may be able to shed on this situation is appreciated.

My guys go through spells of floating. I used to worry that this was a water quality problem so I would do an early 20% water change. I would then leave them and with out fail I would have found that they had poohed . Maybe this is what your axolotl is plotting on doing ?

I'd say dont panic.

A week without passing anything is not that unusual in my experience.

I would not fridge at this point

Bren

Chris, My Abraham has just started doing the exact same thing, although I had a little "present' left for me yesterday, so doubt its impaction with him, I'm figuring he's just sick of what he was doing and decided to have a float for a while!

Well I can tell you all that it's been over a week since she has passed waste, a week and a half, and 2 weeks on Saturday. Tonight is waterchange night, so if I don't see anything she will be going into the beer fridge. I can't check on her now, as I'm just about to leave work for the day.

a quick update.

I'm currently doing a water change and a clean, and I switched the trickle filter off as I'm changing some water. I've just noticed that almost as soon as the water in the tank became still, she sank back to the bottom. I think she could have been shi**y at me for the water movement within the tank, which I honestly believed was well within the acceptable range for axies.

she was not showing any of the classic signs of axie stress, no kinked tail or front-curling gills. she did however when she was floating swim over and sit in the corner behind the powerhead that feeds the filter. I now need to devise a way of slowing the current down.

the filter my tank has is a trickle filter that sits above the tank, it's fed by a 400l/ph powerhead (for a 100l tank), the water flows through the filter box and back into the tank on the other side by gravity. I don't think that using a smaller powerhead will make a difference, as once the filter box is full enough to reach the outlet, the water still overflows into the tank at the same rate.

any ideas would help alot, I'm stumped.

Could you put something like fake plants or vines where the water runs down , which might slow it down. What about a turtle dock sitting just under the surface of the water under the fitler flow. Just a thought. Hope it works.

Are you able to place some foam in the line of the water to slow down the rate at which it's entering the tank? Thats helped with my spray bar but not sure if it will work for you..

What I did was turn the outlet if the filter to face the glass, and put a piece from a fake plant across he outlet, and arranged the pice of wood to sit directly underneath. This helps break the flow very well, infact, there is zero surface movement now, and Lance-Alotl has returned t the bottom, and I have not had an troubles with floating since.