Odd behaviour

S

steff

Guest
i've been noticing that recently my axie has been acting a bit odd... (i posted up a thread a while ago abt it... but now its different behaviour!) every now and again she swims up to the surface... but she's not surfacing for air! it looks like she's attempting to swim out of the water? and she does this for abt 30secs then stops and does it again for another 30 secs... then she lays on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily... literally looks like she's sucking in water slowly then exhaling fast... whats going on?! i did an ammonia test and it was zero, temp is at abt 18 and pH is around 7... she's being fed a variation of earthworms and frozen blood worms... (btw, is there anything i can feed her to help fatten her up?)
 
something has to be wrong with your water quality cause they only do that when they want escape the water which could be burning her.
 
Well, as a temporary solution, do a half water change. Save some of the water though, and do a complete set of water tests (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, hardness, phosphate, and anything else you can test for). If you don't have the kits for all thouse, a good aquariums store will do them for you. Post the results here, and we'll let you know.
 
ammonia 0mg/L
nitrite/nitrate less than 0.3mg/L
pH approx 7
hardness (total) 6dgH
hardness (carbonate) 5dKH
 
that looks all right, but you really should have a sepereate nitrite and nitrate values. Are you using one of those "total dissolved nitrogen" type tests? They really don't tell you much, because nitrita and nitrate are different compounds, and will have different causes/effects/solutions. For now, I stand by the water change as being the solution. Try to find a place to get a phosphate test done as well.
 
hi.. my axolotls are having a strange behaviour, they are scratching their gills, and the gills are loosing color, they have also a kind of 'diureia', I (hope I wrote it in the right way) their gills are a lit bit curled to the front... can someone help me out?
 
Hi joao - Your axolotls sound stressed. You possibly have poor water quality and or water that is too warm, and or the tank has too much current or a combination of all 3.

Get a test kit and test your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Ammonia reading should be zero, nitrite reading should be zero and nitrate reading should be low.

Water temp should be below 20 C.

What is the temp in the tank?
What are you feeding them?
How long as the tank been set up that they are living in?
What kind of filter do you have?
 
I feed them with frozen bloodworms and mysis, and sometimes pellets, I have a exterior filter in a 120 l aquarium , the filter is for 200-450l aquarium, and the flow is very low, the temperature is around 21 or 22 because my country is really hot...
 
Try feeding them earthworms, chopped if they aren't big enough to eat them. Frozen food isn't as good for them, also try crickets, mealworms, waxworms, ect.
 
Joao, I'm not an expert, but it sounds to me like the filter is too much for a 120 L tank? Can you see the axolotls gills move in the current? If you can, the flow of water is too fast.
 
And Steff, is your axolotl young? Is he coming up nose first out of the tank and kind of wiggling? Mine do that, but it could be as Brian said, to do with the water quality. Could be natural exuberance.
 
i'm pretty sure she's reasonably young... i wouldn't know cos i got her from a petshop... but yeah! she's coming up nose first out of the tank and kinda wriggling!! exactly what u described! so u think its a natural exuberance? sounds like it cos i don't think my water quality has anythign to do with it... its a cycled tank and all the parameters are normal!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    There are no messages in the chat. Be the first one to say Hi!
    Back
    Top