Illness/Sickness: What"s wrong?

[Beaniepompom]

I've had my axolotl for about a month now. He is about three months old and seems perfectly healthy apart from his recent behavior.

He has always spent most of his time near the filter (the sucking part) and used to wrap his tail around it to hold him up when he was a lot smaller.

Recently, seeing as he has grown a significant amount, he has tried to prop himself up in between the filter sucky thing and the wall of the aquarium. He is happy to stay completely still like that for hours.

When I got home an hour ago, I noticed he was sitting on top of the filter pump right at the surface of the water. Usually when the water level hits against him he swims away rather quickly so I decided to do a 20% water change (I am doing this almost daily to help with cycling).

While siphoning, I realised he wasn't moving once the water level started to decrease - he seemed to have tipped to the side and his eye was out of the water and this made me assume he had died.

After a bit of nudging the filter out of place, he seemed to slowly descend back to the bottom of the tank.

He seems fine now, but I have lowered the depth of the water so that he can't tuck himself back into that little ledge on top of the filter.

He has ALWAYS hated it when any part of his body was above the water's surface but today he seemed to prefer it (even when I took him out for a water change - he just laid there when his body was out of the water, holding onto the container to stay there)

His eating habits are perfectly normal, except for the fact that he's seemed quite lethargic today and the ammonia strip seems to show that there is basically no ammonia and that cycling has taken place, finally.

Please let me know what the problem could be, I am very worried.
Thank you for your help

 

[Kaysie]

What's your water quality like? Do you test your other water parameters, nitrite and nitrate? Liquid reagent test kits are much more accurate than 'dip strips'. How warm is your tank?

 

[Beaniepompom]

It's usually around 18-20 degrees. I get the other stuff for my water checked at the pet shop and its always fine. his gills are all curled up today though. could water conditions go crazy overnight? this behaviour seems so sudden

 

[Kaysie]

Water levels can go bad quickly. How big is your tank?

 

[Beaniepompom]

it's about 60 litres. 50 cm width, 40 length and 35 height.
do I just have to keep doing frequent water changes, too when it comes to nitrates and nitrites? or do I have to buy some sort of medication?

I would prefer not to get any sort of chemical to fix the problem if at all possible as I don't think my tank has properly cycled yet unfortunately.

 

[Kaysie]

As I re-read your post, I noticed you said you take him out for water changes. Any particular reason? It's not necessary, as long as you add water that's the same temperature and you add it slowly.

Water changes must be done in order to keep your parameters in check, even after your tank has finished cycling. If you've got no ammonia, you will still have nitrites (indicating your tank is still cycling) and nitrates (the end-product of cycling). You should be testing ammonia and nitrites every couple of days and doing changes as necessary. This may be as much as 20% every day while your tank is cycling, or as little as 20% a week once the tank is fully cycled.

Do you use dechlorinator?