My Axie jumped out of his container!!

[natalie]

Hi,

I've read a few of the other posts but just thought I'd add my own in case anyone has any other news on it.

I was cleaning out my tank yesterday and instead of doing the usual poo-suck, I gave the tank a huge empty and washed everything.

This left the little guys in a container each while I worked on it.

As I was carrying Chuck into the kitchen in his container, he got a bit panicked and jumped out! The little guy flew across the room and landed on his head than flat on his feet. I grabbed him as quickly as I could and put him in water but was his white skin was starting to go blotchy with little red veins. Must have been from the shock. So, my first reaction was to put him in the fridge to slow his blood down a bit. I did that for an hour and that seemed to slow him down and allowed for a few huge bruises to come out all over him!

Poor guy, I then carried him into his little cave to hide while he got better. And Dixie just kept her distance on the other side of the tank for the rest of the day, what a thoughtful little girlfriend she is haha!

He ended up sleeping all day and barely moved buy by the evening he was slowly walking around and had a nibble on a few pellets.

Best I get him some earth worms this weekend to make it up to him.

 

[sharn]

with washing your tank out did you wash all the substrate and filter too? because if you did your tank will now re-cycle and cause your bruised boy alot more stress...

 

[hayley-jane]

Like Sharn said, watch the levels if you've changed alot of the tank.

It would probably be best to take the axies out just incase it does do a mini-recycle.

If it were me I would leave the bruised axie in the fridge to make sure he's not stressed still.

Plus, doesn't the cold mean they can't feel as much pain? Like with humans?

 

[cynthia]

Natalie - You should never empty and completely clean your tank.

As others have mentioned this causes your tank to recycle raising ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels that could be unsafe for your axolotls.

Weekly maintenance is done by changing only 20% - 25% of the water.

Placing the axolotl in the fridge did not cause his bruises, the cold does slow them down but that is not harmful. Chilling then warming over a short time span is stressful.

You may want to get some "Stress coat" to add to your axolotls water. If the axolotls skin seems really damaged use the stress coat at 2 to 5 times the amount the bottle suggests for simply removing chlorine.

The axolotl colony suggested those amounts for other axolotls who had jumped out of their tank and had started to dry.

If you don't have a test kit you may want to purchase one so you can keep an eye on your tank parameters.

 

[looby]

hi,
I am only new at owning an axie i have had one for about 5 months. I always empty the whole tank out. Just from reading this i know know you shouldn't. My question is how are you cleaning it if there is still dirty water in it and how do you know ho much water treatment to put back in it?

 

[hayley-jane]

Each week change 25% of the water for fresh as Cynthia said.

You have to get the poo/uneaten food out before it rots and makes the water unclean.

Most people here use a turkey baster to do this.

 

[sharn]

on the bottle of the chlorine remover it should tell you how much per litre/gallon.
the point of doing water changes is to lower harmful nitrates in the tank, it is also like 'opening a window' for your axolotl. i do a gravel siphon with my water changes as that removes all the gunk at the bottom, making your tank cleaner!

 

[natalie]

Actually thats opened my eyes a bit more too. Will make sure in the future I suck the poo and food out more regularly so I dont need to do a big clean out.