I've been overseas for just under two weeks and I left my axolotl in the care of my mum. While I was away, she put new sand down in the tank (I recently took out some rocks which you all informed me were small enough for him to swallow) but apart from that, feeding him, and some 20% water changes, she left everything untouched and said that he's been fine.
However, I've been back for two days and I've noticed that the poor little thing is stressing out completely. He's eating normally but he is swimming rapidly backwards and forwards, up and down, in his tank, hitting into the sides of it most of the time. He's leucistic anyway, but his body is notably paler, and his tale is quite red. When he swam up for some food I noticed that his (and actually it could be a "her"... not yet a year old) cloaca was bright red and a bit swollen.
I tried changing out a bit of the water because I thought this might be the problem, but when I did that, my axie started swimming around even more frantically (faster than I've ever seen him!) and all these tiny bubbles started coming out of his mouth. This happened a couple of times and now he's just sitting underneath the chiller pump, not moving at all.
The tank water isn't murky or anything, the temperature is consistently 19 degrees, but the tubes in and out of the chiller are pretty filthy from all the silt that my mum couldn't get off the new sand...
Please help! I don't know what could be the matter or whether any of these symptoms are connected, and I'm not sure what to do
However, I've been back for two days and I've noticed that the poor little thing is stressing out completely. He's eating normally but he is swimming rapidly backwards and forwards, up and down, in his tank, hitting into the sides of it most of the time. He's leucistic anyway, but his body is notably paler, and his tale is quite red. When he swam up for some food I noticed that his (and actually it could be a "her"... not yet a year old) cloaca was bright red and a bit swollen.
I tried changing out a bit of the water because I thought this might be the problem, but when I did that, my axie started swimming around even more frantically (faster than I've ever seen him!) and all these tiny bubbles started coming out of his mouth. This happened a couple of times and now he's just sitting underneath the chiller pump, not moving at all.
The tank water isn't murky or anything, the temperature is consistently 19 degrees, but the tubes in and out of the chiller are pretty filthy from all the silt that my mum couldn't get off the new sand...
Please help! I don't know what could be the matter or whether any of these symptoms are connected, and I'm not sure what to do
