Axolotls acting weird after water changes -worried

[ClockworkParrot]

I have been having issues with my axolotls after my normal water changes. At first I thought the last time was just some kind of mini cycle crash but now I am not so sure.
Their gills seem to shrivel up and go pale and they start to thrash a bit within an hour or two after. I have had them for over a year and this only started happening within this month. My male has not been wanting to eat much either which has me worried. He's only eaten two maybe three times during the past two weeks which isn't like him at all. Im starting to worry that he's losing weight.

I did my normal water checks today and noticed my nitrates were starting to get high so I did a 30% water change and now they are acting strange again. It took the two weeks from the last change for my girls gills to heal back up to their usual fluff.

I dont know what to do. I dont know why my water changes are suddenly bothering them. I am adding dechlorinator right into the buckets with each one I bring in. I've been doing this on a regular basis for a year and my water is always perfect until now.

If anyone has any info it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ClockworkParrot]

So I did some trouble shooting on my end and I guess that my water treatment company has changed the water because its now reading what I believe to be 1ppm of ammonia in the water where it used to be 0.

Ive always changed my water the same way and I dont know what to do. My water conditioner says that it detoxifies heavy metals, ammonia and other elements released from fish waste and it removes chlorimines which am guessing they switched too. I use a 5 gallon bucket to add and remove water. So I always just instantly added the dechlorinator to the water and then put it in the tank before getting more.

I dont know if now I have to let the dechlorinator sit in the water. I thought the ammonia it detoxified was instant like the chlorine and chlorimines.

I dont want my guys to have their gills burned anymore from me trying to keep their water clean and them healthy.

 

[cabbysarus]

does your dechlorinator treat for chloramine? I think ammonia readings from the water means it has chloramine instead of chlorine. You might wanna try letting the water sit for a while before adding it back in, and see if that helps.

 

[ClockworkParrot]

does your dechlorinator treat for chloramine? I think ammonia readings from the water means it has chloramine instead of chlorine. You might wanna try letting the water sit for a while before adding it back in, and see if that helps.

It does treat chloramine. My tank was cycled so it leveled out and someone told me to try seachem prime instead of the conditioner I have. I am still unsure of how much to add since it says you can add more if you have high levels of chloramine.

 

[cabbysarus]

I always add just the minimum amount it says to add... I know that adding more to the water can hurt them... if its only a couple hours that they thrash around, maybe wait a couple hours before adding the new water back after putting the conditioner in the water and see if that helps... hopefully someone with more experience will help you out

 

[ChristineB]

Double-check your conditioner label, too: my brand (API) needs 1 drop per gallon to remove chlorine, but 3 drops per gallon for chloramine. Cabbysarus is right that chloramine reads as ammonia on water quality tests (I read it's a mix of chlorine and ammonia), so all signs point to your conditioning process not getting it all out before water changes.

 

[Creepella]

I recently lost my first axie due to a cycle crash. She seemed fine for months, then one day she stopped eating and was dead within 12 hours. I bought the API master test and found extremely high levels of ammonia and nitrites. I felt really bad that I "let" the water get to that state, and did a lot of research to try and prevent it from happening again.

API has a product which has helped me. It's called Ammo Lock. It doesn't remove the ammonia but it does "lock" it so it doesn't harm the animals. Your reading will still show high ammonia because the ammonia is still there. It works immediately and can save a fish that's in distress until you can get the water changed.

The only sure way to get rid of the ammonia and nitrites is to do frequent water changes, test often and use a good water conditioner like Seachem Prime. There are also filter inserts available, but I'm personally not a fan of those as they can also remove beneficial elements from the water.

I hope this info will be helpful!