Floaty Lotl

[Cahand]

This has been happening for two days, I found my guy at the top of the tank floating and he was having trouble staying at the bottom of the tank so I put him in a tupperware with not a lot of water and he let out a bunch of gas.
Today he is very floaty again, I am wondering if it is what we are feeding him or what should I do?
I don't want to stress him out..

Help

 

[FX1C]

Apart from illness... floating can mean that they need to poop or they've gulped too much air & probably need to eat to help push out the air.

What are you feeding & how much / often?

Is there any bloating / puffiness visable?

Could you supply the following info.(?'s)
•Tank size
•Tank water temperature
•Water parameters for
Ammonia / nitrite / nitrate / Ph
•what substrate on tank floor

Please post a pic of the floating lotl & a pic of the whole tank - all this information helps to work out what could be the problem.

While you've got the axolotl in the tub try giving lots of food to see if that helps.



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[Cahand]

The temperature stays at about 68 F
I switch between blood worms and brine shrimp about every week, I feed him once a night around 8pm, half a cube
There is bloating after he eats but he poops and it goes away
Its a 20gal tanks
I tested the PH yesterday its at 7,the nitrate is all at none
i will check the ammonia tonight
There is sand for substrate

He looks completely fine, no discoloration or anything and he acts fine when he isn't floating, and he always eats all his food

 

[gfsward]

Is your axolotl young? Usually brine shrimp is used for babies, while bloodworms as a treat with earthworms as the main diet is for older axolotls. It might be that your axie just needs some larger food.
Hope we can help you solve this

 

[wandering]

I tested the PH yesterday its at 7,the nitrate is all at none
i will check the ammonia tonight

Hi,
Nitrate is the safer end product of your in-tank sewage processing system. You would expect to get some reading above zero.
What test kit are you using? Are you shaking the bottle for a full minute?
More important is the ammonia test and the nitrite test. These chemicals are both very bad for your axolotl. If they are in the water your axolotl's gills will likely be affected and it will need to go where the oxygen is, and may be using its lungs too.
Hope that is helpful

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[hannahll]

Since he's been doing this for a while now, his gills would probably be affected if it was an ammonia or nitrate/nitrite problem. So maybe that isn't the case? Although i have heard about young axolotls feeding not enough/too much causing problems.. (& gus is quite young yet) like this http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...0-air-bubbles-babies-tummies-please-help.html

 

[Petersgirl]

Toothless floats a lot too, but not upside down - she just leans on her back legs a lot. I think it's usually a type of trapped wind, as when she 'yawns' or poops she looks fine - she usually has a distended tummy prior to that. I reckon this kind of floating, if all your temps and readings are fine, is just about them swallowing a bit of air while eating.

As for floating upside down, researchers have found that lotls can keep air in their lungs for a LOOONNGG time, so if everything else is fine, I think he's basically floating because he is keeping air in his lungs. Apparently they're learning to control their air intake when wee (mine did it too; she had to figure out how to float to the top of a bigger tank when we got her by breathing in) and that may explain the floating:

Axolotl salamanders continue to intrigue researchers - YouTube