Twitchy gills

[rb6k]

Long story short I'm wondering if I've stressed out my axolotl:

Gills twitching
Floating up to the top of the tank for a bit then falling back down
Slightly curved tail

I moved her out of the tank while cleaning it yesterday trying to be kind, giving her some alone time with a load of food. I think the move across might have wound her up (I used a net) and then back again. I've cleaned out the tank and changed a few bits about.

When I moved her she also had a random bit of white fluff on her gill. I thought it was fungus at first but it came off when I lightly touched it with a small pointy object. Nothing has regrown in the past 24 hours which would hopefully suggest it isn't fungal? I would have expected my filter to remove things like fungus from the water (external cannister with carbon filter etc) is this not the case?

Any recommendations? Should I just leave the poor lil bugger alone for a day or so (obviously monitoring for fungus on the gills in case I am wrong) or do signs point to something else?

She is going to be quite low anyway at the moment as she lost her front legs a month or so back. So I know the stress of growing them back is hard on them. I may be making things worse by being overbearing though.

 

[Petersgirl]

The three symptoms you list simply sound like they could be normal axolotl behaviours. Axolotls often 'flick' and ''twitch' their gills - it's how they remove carbon dioxide from them. They also often have curved tails even when not stressed - this seems to be more of an indicator of illness in larvae than juveniles or adults. Floating to the top indicates needing to gulp air, constipation or simply being 'floaty.'

If no further fluffiness has occurred since the fluff fell off, the fluff may have been debris from something falling into the tank (I often find tiny bits of shredded paper because my worms are kept in shredded paper as well as dirt, and even though I wash the worms paper occasionally falls in regardless), or perhaps a tiny bit of dead skin or even a bit of slime coat. This generally heals up by itself.

I would simply do what you are doing: nice cool clean water, worms, peace and quiet and dark. If the front legs have left a visible wound a tea bath may be beneficial. Simply brew a plain black tea (without flavourings such as herbal or fruit), one cup per 10 litres of tank water. Leave the tea bag to stew until the water is cold. Then pour the tea in to the tank. It has no negative effects and will soothe the slime coat. It will be gradually removed with your usual water changes and will also prevent fungus (although, if you do see fungus, stop the tea baths asap as tea prevents medication and treatments such as salt baths from penetrating the skin).

Hope this helps, but to be honest, I wouldn't be over-worried.

 

[rb6k]

Thanks mate, I think I am just worrying as she's kinda the runt of the pair. She never normally floats around like this, and I just thought that she was twitching more than normal, but tbh I could just be worrying. She can swim back down when she wants, so I guess that rules out any kind of illness causing the floating. I'm just a pansy, we lost a pet rabbit a week or so back completely out of the blue so I'm on red alert whenever the pets start acting differently now.

 

[spot26]

It's probably best not to take the axolotl out of the tank while cleaning it. The temp and ph will be different which can stress it out when putting it back in.
Your canister filter containing carbon will help keep your water clean and clear but it doesnt remove fungus or any parasites from your axolotl or your water.

 

[Petersgirl]

I understand what you mean - our Little Jack is a bit of a runt and I'm super-protective of him because he's so small and I just want him to get fat and healthy. But axolotls generally do fine and with time you'll learn to see the difference between what is unusual and what is simply being an axxie (it does take a while, though. Axolotls are pretty odd creatures).

If she can get down, don't worry overmuch. It's when they can't get down that you suspect the floater genotype or a potential constipation problem.

As for not taking the axolotl out of the water while cleaning, I agree it does stress them out and that they prefer to be left alone, but I do also think it is a personal preference. My father lost a few cichlids during a water change because the temperature in their halfway tub was too low, so I'm super-aware of that while water changing my tank. But if I am doing a deep tank clean (I do one every week as I have four axxies, and you'd be amazed how much poop gets behind things!) I must remove the axolotls since I have heavy slate caves and I am so petrified of squishing them. I always make sure to do it as quickly as possible, and in the meantime they are placed somewhere dark and cool. I do wish I could do it without taking them out but with so many axolotls and heavy tank furniture I can't risk it for a deep clean. For small water changes they stay in though

 

[Sweetie]

I would have expected my filter to remove things like fungus from the water (external cannister with carbon filter etc) is this not the case?

Carbon is probably not the best medium to have in your filter, as you will lose most/all of your beneficial bacteria every time you change the carbon. Stuffing the filter with sponge or ceramic rings that you can rinse out in dechlorinated water (chlorine will kill your good bacteria) would be better.

 

[Skudo09]

As long as there are other filter media beside carbon in the canister such as ceramic rings and sponge and not all the media is changed at once the cycle shouldn't crash.