Xenurine
New member
I have now had my Axolotl for several months, and even though I am inexperienced in keeping caudates; I feel that through extensive research, constant monitoring, and excessive worrying, I have been doing alright in trying to provide a pleasant life for my axie. However, I have had difficulties from the beginning; I purchased my animal before having time to cycle a tank, and this has been a major problem. I have been buying purified (reverse osmosis) water to fill her tank and to do water changes with, I have never used anything but purified water with her.
So here is my issue. I have a 7 inch axolotl in a 10 gallon tank that already seems far too small. The tank has never cycled through despite having daily water changes and weekly cleanings. To this day there have not been readable amounts of Nitrates or Nitrites in the water to combat the ever fluctuating ammonia levels. I have attempted to use Tetra SafeStart with no luck, and I started to use Prime every other day to keep the ammonia from spiking too high, but regardless of what I do, I have not seen the ammonia below 2.0 for at least a month now.
With these constant cleanings, water changes, and Prime, I was able to keep the ammonia from rising above 4.0, but it only barely. A few days ago, there was an inexplicable ammonia spike and within a day my little Axie began to show signs of burns on her body. Her skin is very pink and peeling on the sides, her usually full and frilly gills are now drooping and degrading. I removed her from the water into a small bin so that I could thoroughly clean her tank, and as of now that is where she remains until I can ensure I am not putting her back in to a deathtrap.
Here is the basic information on her tank. I bought a new 10 gallon tank before buying her, and filled it with water I buy from a store that is purified through reverse osmosis. She has no substrate, four fake plants, a small ceramic vase thing, and some lucky bamboo growing inside of a submarine decoration she grew out of. I also have two bio sponge filters running off a 50 gallon Tetra Air Pump in the back of the tank. Her temps are always between 61-68 Fahrenheit and I have multiple bottles of frozen water in varying sizes to ensure it stays about 63 Fahrenheit at all times. She is usually a very active animal and never showed signs of stress until now. She usually eats a large earthworm in the morning and another large earthworm at night but has not been interested in them very much for a couple of days now. I change 20% of her water every other day and add 5mL of Prime on the days in between. I use API test strips to check her Nitrates/Nitrites/pH and API liquid solutions to test her ammonia. As I mentioned before, her ammonia is typically between 2.0 - 4.0 and there have never been any readable traces of Nitrates or Nitrites. Her pH is usually at 6.5 as well.
Please send feedback. I try my hardest to be a responsible animal keeper and to give the animals under my care the best possible life I can provide. If there is something I mentioned that you see is an issue, please let me know what I can do to correct it. If I forgot to mention something or you see there is something I am not doing that I should, ask me questions and alert me to where the problem is.
Here are pictures of her before and one of how she looks currently.
So here is my issue. I have a 7 inch axolotl in a 10 gallon tank that already seems far too small. The tank has never cycled through despite having daily water changes and weekly cleanings. To this day there have not been readable amounts of Nitrates or Nitrites in the water to combat the ever fluctuating ammonia levels. I have attempted to use Tetra SafeStart with no luck, and I started to use Prime every other day to keep the ammonia from spiking too high, but regardless of what I do, I have not seen the ammonia below 2.0 for at least a month now.
With these constant cleanings, water changes, and Prime, I was able to keep the ammonia from rising above 4.0, but it only barely. A few days ago, there was an inexplicable ammonia spike and within a day my little Axie began to show signs of burns on her body. Her skin is very pink and peeling on the sides, her usually full and frilly gills are now drooping and degrading. I removed her from the water into a small bin so that I could thoroughly clean her tank, and as of now that is where she remains until I can ensure I am not putting her back in to a deathtrap.
Here is the basic information on her tank. I bought a new 10 gallon tank before buying her, and filled it with water I buy from a store that is purified through reverse osmosis. She has no substrate, four fake plants, a small ceramic vase thing, and some lucky bamboo growing inside of a submarine decoration she grew out of. I also have two bio sponge filters running off a 50 gallon Tetra Air Pump in the back of the tank. Her temps are always between 61-68 Fahrenheit and I have multiple bottles of frozen water in varying sizes to ensure it stays about 63 Fahrenheit at all times. She is usually a very active animal and never showed signs of stress until now. She usually eats a large earthworm in the morning and another large earthworm at night but has not been interested in them very much for a couple of days now. I change 20% of her water every other day and add 5mL of Prime on the days in between. I use API test strips to check her Nitrates/Nitrites/pH and API liquid solutions to test her ammonia. As I mentioned before, her ammonia is typically between 2.0 - 4.0 and there have never been any readable traces of Nitrates or Nitrites. Her pH is usually at 6.5 as well.
Please send feedback. I try my hardest to be a responsible animal keeper and to give the animals under my care the best possible life I can provide. If there is something I mentioned that you see is an issue, please let me know what I can do to correct it. If I forgot to mention something or you see there is something I am not doing that I should, ask me questions and alert me to where the problem is.
Here are pictures of her before and one of how she looks currently.
