young axolotl floating while tubbing

[eday]

Hello everyone,

About a month ago, I purchased a young axolotl for my classroom. I had him in an aquarium that I thought was fully cycled but I had water issues and decided to tub him while I stabilize the aquarium. I have been tubbing him for several weeks with preconditioned water and changing the water daily so I am not worried about water quality issues. He/she is now floating and occassionally seems to get disoriented and flips over. He is able to correct himself but he seems to want to go to the bottom but keeps floating up. Is this due to gas issues?

How can I remedy the situation? I have a bare substrate and do have a little hide that he seems to like to anchor himself to. Should I lower the water so that his feet touch? I feel badly making the water level too low so that he doesn't have enough water to swim in ... but would he prefer this so that his feet can touch the bottom?

I am concerned that he's gulping lots of air when I feed him... any other idea what could be causing gas if that's the issue?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer!

 

[wolfen]

surface gulping will cause floating issues especially if the air isn't expelled and gets trapped, make sure that the water is oxygenated enough and cold enough.
if he is struggling to get to the bottom then the water will need to be reduced, trying/struggling to stay down can be more stressful than having a limited movement area.
young axolotls tend to be prone to floating issues, this can be due to surface gulping, water to warm, being fed hard pellets without softening first.

 

[eday]

surface gulping will cause floating issues especially if the air isn't expelled and gets trapped, make sure that the water is oxygenated enough and cold enough.
if he is struggling to get to the bottom then the water will need to be reduced, trying/struggling to stay down can be more stressful than having a limited movement area.
young axolotls tend to be prone to floating issues, this can be due to surface gulping, water to warm, being fed hard pellets without softening first.

Thanks so much for this reply. I am using a chiller so I think the water temperature is good but I am using dried bloodworms so I will either soak those or switch to the frozen ones and let them thaw out. I will also take your advice and lower the water level.

Would you recommend an air stone as well?

Thanks very much for your feedback - I really appreciate it!

 

[wolfen]

a fine airstone would be ideal

 

[eday]

a fine airstone would be ideal

Thank you