Mash_01
Member
So, I did my weekly water change yesterday, which involved two dish pans full of fresh water and one gallon jug full of fresh water, both treated with drops of dechlorinator and left in the fridge the night before yesterday.
I had put them in the fridge the night before yesterday at about 6:30 PM and did the water change yesterday at around 2 PM, taking out about half of the old water in the tank and replacing it with the new water.
To my surprise, Mash, my Axolotl, started freaking out, swimming rapidly and twisting her body around and gasping.
My immediate concern was that the water wasn't fully free of chlorine, so I put in a test strip to check the water levels.
Everything came out within the proper parameters and the water was entirely free of ammonia and chlorine.
Thinking that she might die and being willing to surrender her to a pet shop at the expense of no longer having her as a pet, I brought her in to a local shop and the first employee with whom I spoke told me that if the water had just come from the fridge then it was possible that the temperature drop brought on by putting it into her tank was causing her muscle spasms.
He said that she should calm down after a while.
While she did calm down, she was still not in good shape and frequently rolling onto her side and back.
I brought her back in and another employee talked to me and ran another test strip, finding that everything was within the proper parameters and that there was no chlorine or ammonia present.
The way this employee explained it to me was that quite likely me changing out so much water and introducing so much new water was just such a shock to her system that it had caused her to stress.
I was told that everything would be okay and I bought some Hornwort and a charcoal bag to help with water filtration and introduced Mash back into her tank.
She thankfully seems to be doing okay now.
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
The employee told me that rather than do changes with so much water once or twice a week that I should do smaller changes, maybe ten to twenty percent, two or three times a week.
I had put them in the fridge the night before yesterday at about 6:30 PM and did the water change yesterday at around 2 PM, taking out about half of the old water in the tank and replacing it with the new water.
To my surprise, Mash, my Axolotl, started freaking out, swimming rapidly and twisting her body around and gasping.
My immediate concern was that the water wasn't fully free of chlorine, so I put in a test strip to check the water levels.
Everything came out within the proper parameters and the water was entirely free of ammonia and chlorine.
Thinking that she might die and being willing to surrender her to a pet shop at the expense of no longer having her as a pet, I brought her in to a local shop and the first employee with whom I spoke told me that if the water had just come from the fridge then it was possible that the temperature drop brought on by putting it into her tank was causing her muscle spasms.
He said that she should calm down after a while.
While she did calm down, she was still not in good shape and frequently rolling onto her side and back.
I brought her back in and another employee talked to me and ran another test strip, finding that everything was within the proper parameters and that there was no chlorine or ammonia present.
The way this employee explained it to me was that quite likely me changing out so much water and introducing so much new water was just such a shock to her system that it had caused her to stress.
I was told that everything would be okay and I bought some Hornwort and a charcoal bag to help with water filtration and introduced Mash back into her tank.
She thankfully seems to be doing okay now.
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
The employee told me that rather than do changes with so much water once or twice a week that I should do smaller changes, maybe ten to twenty percent, two or three times a week.
