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Axolotls showing signs of stress after being reintroduced to tank

marlin234

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Jun 18, 2020
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Hartford CT
Hi all. Recently my cycle crashed after a power outage. I tubbed my axies for ~2 weeks while I reseeded the tank from another established tanks media and recycled.

My ammonia and nitrite had been at 0 for 2 days while adding their dirty tub water so I added them back into today after acclimating (I also did a ~40 percent water change to get Nitrate below 20 ppm).

They looked good for a few hours but recently have seemed very stressed, they are thrashing about, gill scratching, occasional floating, in general looking very unhappy.

Current parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
pH 6.8 (bit low but I have crushed coral to raise it)

Temp 66 F (was the same in the tub)

I used Prime during water changes and Stability during the cycle. They are 2 ~4 year old female axies in a 55 gal.

Any ideas what this could be? Is it just stress from being re-acclimated to the tank or should I tub them again?
 

LiaKalima

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Jun 1, 2020
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Alberta
Gill Scratching is never a good sign. Did you use enough prime? Often they do it because something is burning their gills or they have fungus.
 

Binditheaxolotl

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Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Messages
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Location
Pennsylvania
Hi all. Recently my cycle crashed after a power outage. I tubbed my axies for ~2 weeks while I reseeded the tank from another established tanks media and recycled.

My ammonia and nitrite had been at 0 for 2 days while adding their dirty tub water so I added them back into today after acclimating (I also did a ~40 percent water change to get Nitrate below 20 ppm).

They looked good for a few hours but recently have seemed very stressed, they are thrashing about, gill scratching, occasional floating, in general looking very unhappy.

Current parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
pH 6.8 (bit low but I have crushed coral to raise it)

Temp 66 F (was the same in the tub)

I used Prime during water changes and Stability during the cycle. They are 2 ~4 year old female axies in a 55 gal.

Any ideas what this could be? Is it just stress from being re-acclimated to the tank or should I tub them again?
Sounds like under prime usage or fungus. Maybe stress? I would recommend getting a cheap sponge filter so if the power goes oit again, all the bacteria won’t die because it will be in the water.
 
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