Illness/Sickness: I think my axolotl may be sick. Please help.

I have just checked the ammonia level and it is 0.25. When I do a reading tomorrow do I need to check nitrite, nitrate and ammonia, or just the ammonia? Thank goodness there are nice people like you on here that new owners can chat with.
 
I have just checked the ammonia level and it is 0.25. When I do a reading tomorrow do I need to check the nitrite, nitrate and ammonia or just the ammonia? Thank goodness there are nice people like you on here that new owners can chat with.
 
0.25 is a good reading at the moment. Test again right before the next water change so you can get a rough idea how much it goes up between the water changes. You could test for ammonia and nitrite during cycling. Nitrate will stay low anyway because it's the end product of the cycle and you're removing the ammonia (and later nitrite) before most of it is converted to nitrate. Once the ammonia and nitrite stay low with less frequent water changes, you should test for nitrate too, that's when it starts going up.
 
I have just checked the water now because I wanted to get your advice before I change the water tonight. (I will also check it directly before the change). I don't know how much to change, the reading is 0.50, supposing the reading stays under 1, then how much do I change? If it goes up to 2 or 3 how much would need changing? I know that when it was 4 you said to change at least 75%. Thanks for all your help.:happy:
 
At 0.5 the reading is still ok. If it stays under 1, you only need to do a small water change today.

If the reading is at 1 it's good to do atleast a 50% water change to bring it down to 0.5, that way there is room for it to go up again.

If the reading is at 2, a 50% water change would bring it down to 1, but since you have to consider that it will rise again before the next water change, you need to change more than that. 75% would bring it down to about 0.5.

If the reading is at 3, a 65% water change would bring it down to about 1, and a 85% water change down to about 0.5.

If the reading is at 4, a 75% water change would bring it down to about 1, and a 90% water change down to about 0.5.

If the reading for some reason gets up to 3 or 4 it's probably easier to do two big water changes than try to get enough water out at once. And then do the tests again to make sure the ammonia is low enough.

If you test the ammonia again later today, you can get an idea how much it goes up in a day since you know it was 0.25 yesterday (try to test it at around the same time as yesterday). So for example if it would be at 0.75 later today, you know it goes up about 0.5 in 24 hours. Then you know you need to get the ammonia level down to 0.5 or under in order for it to stay under 1 at all times.
 
Thanks, that info is fantastic, it's really easy to understand. The water reading I took tonight was still 0.5, so I just changed a bit of it. The container that I filled yesterday for the daily water changes holds about 60 litres, I only used about 15 litres tonight, so will the rest of the water be ok left in the container over the next few days till I use it all? If I'm only doing partial water changes I've probably still got enough in the container for another 3 days.
 
The water will be fine in the container as long as no contaminants can get in there.
 
That's ok cos I have a lid on it. They both seem to be flicking their gills more than usual today, will this be due to the water not being right? Roughly how long will it take for the tank to cycle? I'm guessing weeks. The ammonia reading was 1 today, so I changed 50%.
 
I'm really worried because of how often they're flapping their gills -as often as every couple of seconds, this goes on for maybe 10 seconds then they stop flapping completely for 10 seconds, then the process starts again. I've also noticed that their gills (particularly the middle 2) are curled over. Noel only ate a bit of bloodworm tonight and wouldn't eat the rest of it, he has never turned down food before, his gills are more curled than liam's as well. I'm defrosting a bit of fish for him in the hope that he eats. :(
 
Thankfully he ate the fish. He was greedy with it. Maybe he just didn't fancy the bloodworm, he did eat half of it tho. Their behaviour is normal other than the gill flicking.
 
The cycling will take weeks. Since you need to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down the bacteria won't multiply as fast as they would if the ammonia and nitrite were higher.

The axies might be a little stressed because of the frequent water changes and commotion around their tank. But if you're worried, you can always test the water parameters to make sure there's nothing wrong with those. If they start thrashing around the tank that's usually a sign that there's something wrong with the water parameters. They usually flick their gills just to get some fresh water and oxygen to their gills.
 
Yeah I was planning on checking everything today. I didn't realise last night but he spat the fish out under his rock, I tried him again later and he did the same again. He has eaten this morning tho, not as much but at least he's eating. Neither of them are swimming frantically, they are both just sat at the bottom which is what they would normally do. I was really worried last night about them. I am thinking is it kinder for them if I give them back to the pet shop cos they will have cycled tanks. I would be so upset to do this tho. :(
 
I don't think there's any reason to give them away. You're keeping the water safe for them and that's the most important thing right now. The stress is only temporary. It's not a huge thing if they don't eat every day. Some people start feeding their axies only 5 times per week once they're 10 cm long and only once a week when they're fully grown.
 
Thank you for easing my mind. My results today are ammonia 0.5, both nitrite and nitrate 0 and ph between 6.8 and 7, so the water is ok thankfully. I'm so pleased that it was you who answered my original question, you have been fantastic. I've learned so much this past couple of weeks, I've got everything you have told me written in a note pad so I can refer to it. If I remember right you mentioned that when the ammonia and nitrite are kept low with less frequent water changes then the nitrate will go up, how will I deal with this.:happy:
 
The last couple of days I've noticed that noel's poop ( I assume it's his cos it's near to him) has changed colour - it's normally dark brown but it's gone a grey colour. Does this mean anything? He's still not eating as much, could all this be linked? Like you know, these past couple of days I had started preparing water and letting it stand, I'm thinking that the water might have been too warm for them because tonight I had to go back to using water straight from the tap (treated of course) and their gills have started straightening and they're not flicking them half as much.
 
Glad I can help. :)
Nitrate is the end product of the cycle so it needs to be removed by weekly water changes when the tank is cycled. It's not as toxic as ammonia and nitrite, but can be harmful in high concentrations.
When your tank is cycled the good bacteria will eat the ammonia produced by the axies so the ammonia level stays at 0. The bacteria then produce nitrite which is eaten by another colony of bacteria so the nitrite level stays at 0 too. These bacteria then produce nitrate that you need to keep at a low level by doing water changes. So in a cycled tank the water parameters should be ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate under 40. If you have live plants in your tank, they use some of the nitrate and keep the water a bit better.
Basically cycling the tank means growing enough good bacteria in there to take care of your axies' wastes.
 
If the water was warmer than normal, it could've caused some stress for them. Keep a close eye on the temperature for a few days and see how it goes.
 
They seem to be ok now. Everything seems to be going back to normal. I'm not letting the water stand, I think it was that water that was stressing them. Once again thanks for being here for us. I will contact you if I need help again, it that's ok.
 
That's good. Send me a message if there are any more problems and I'll try to help the best I can. :)
 
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