Concerned - frantic swimming

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xscarymsmaryx

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Teh Niarr
The week before last my axolotl spent a few days swimming around his tank extremely frantically. Then one morning he was floating and barely responsive - I actually thought he had died until he made some very weak movements.

We put him into a temporary tank with a little tank water and some dechlorinated tap water. He was very sluggish for around a day but seemed to get better, and appeared to be eating normally.

We tested the water and ammonia is 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 40ppm. These are usual levels for the tank and have not seemed to be causing any issue. The temperature is a pretty consistent 16 Celsius.

The axolotl has been back in his usual tank for around 5-6 days now. He has seemed fine but today has started the frantic swimming again. It's not all the time - maybe for 20-60 minutes at a time before going back to normal, and it was the same before he did the scary floating the other week.

No signs of injury or fungus that I can see. We're really worried, it's so strange! Hope someone can help...
 
How old is your axolotl? Sometimes the young one will swim in a frantic-looking manner.

Did you test the conditions when the lethargic behavior first happened or later?

Here is a possibility - could he have stunned himself swimming into a tank side? If that is the case, hopefully the swimming is just normal juvenile swimming and it won't happen again.
 
xscarymsmaryx said:
The week before last my axolotl spent a few days swimming around his tank extremely frantically. Then one morning he was floating and barely responsive - I actually thought he had died until he made some very weak movements.

We put him into a temporary tank with a little tank water and some dechlorinated tap water. He was very sluggish for around a day but seemed to get better, and appeared to be eating normally.

We tested the water and ammonia is 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 40ppm. These are usual levels for the tank and have not seemed to be causing any issue. The temperature is a pretty consistent 16 Celsius.

The axolotl has been back in his usual tank for around 5-6 days now. He has seemed fine but today has started the frantic swimming again. It's not all the time - maybe for 20-60 minutes at a time before going back to normal, and it was the same before he did the scary floating the other week.

No signs of injury or fungus that I can see. We're really worried, it's so strange! Hope someone can help...
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my male axolotl swims around his tank like a madman sometimes, while the female in the same tank mostly just chills underneath stuff. i really wouldn't worry about it.

how big is he and how big is the tank? could be time to go up a size if he seems restless or bored. like you said, your water quality is fine. there's no need to go isolating him.

i find the time that mine are swimming around the most is when they're hungry. try feeding him more.

make a note of what time of day he's most active and feed during those times. should be later in the day.
 
Sorry guys - thought I'd get an email notification when I got replies so didn't meant to ignore you!

He is around a year old now and has been in the tank the whole time we've had him - since last June. The tank is totally cycled and has been fine. We tested the water when he seemed unwell and have tested lots since. Nitrate is consistently around 40ppm and we can't get it any lower because that's just how much is in our tap water. Nitrite is always 0 and ammonia too.

Maybe that one time he did stun himself but I don't know, he doesn't hit the side of the tank that hard!

He's in about 35l of water and the tank is 18in wide and 24in long. He's generally been frantic of an evening (and this today increased again after he seemed calmer!) Appetite also seems fine.
 
I am thinking this is probably normal "let's-scare-our-keepers" axolotl behavior. As soon as lights go out, my males tend to swim all over the place and court each other. Do you have any way to post a video?
 
Two separate experiences.....
Having spent about ten days being a mad man.....frantic swimming, leaping, bashing into everything.......I now find spermatophores everywhere in his tank.........and peace reigns once again.

Secondly I had a frantic swimming female of about a year old .......spinning, hitting the tank glass etc........suddenly her head swelled and she died so thinking brain abscess or the like.

Hope yours is the first one!!
 
xscarymsmaryx said:
Sorry guys - thought I'd get an email notification when I got replies so didn't meant to ignore you!

He is around a year old now and has been in the tank the whole time we've had him - since last June. The tank is totally cycled and has been fine. We tested the water when he seemed unwell and have tested lots since. Nitrate is consistently around 40ppm and we can't get it any lower because that's just how much is in our tap water. Nitrite is always 0 and ammonia too.

Maybe that one time he did stun himself but I don't know, he doesn't hit the side of the tank that hard!

He's in about 35l of water and the tank is 18in wide and 24in long. He's generally been frantic of an evening (and this today increased again after he seemed calmer!) Appetite also seems fine.
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if its a male then he ould be doing a mating dance even if he is alone, or you could have a frustrated female. even if there is no male and she is full of eggs she gets the frustrated swimming actions she would if she was going to lay even if she does nothing.

sometimes they float on surface motionless usually they are asleep and you scare them as you poke them
 
He's not done it for a few days now so hopefully it is all OK. Axolotls are strange creatures!
 
There's nitrate in my tap water too. It sucks. Water changes do almost nothing to get rid of it and they actually raise my pH quite a bit if I do a big one.
 
I've begun planting my tank to absorb some of the NitrAtes, as well as using Seachem Prime as my dechlorinator, as it bind NitrAtes in the water for upto 48 hours, apparently making it easier for plants to absorb the NitrAtes.
 
I have moss balls and added a leafy plant to try to deal with the nitrate but it seems not to be putting roots out - maybe because my axolotl loves sitting in it and swimming through it!

I had added some Tetra NitrateMinus, which apparently adds nitrate-processing bacteria to the tank but that was not long before the time when Max seemed like he'd died so I got worried that it is bad for him.
 
Moss balls and one plant wont touch your Nitrates, you'll need a fairly decent amount of plants for them to take affect.

Not sure about 'Nitrate processing bacteria', I can imagine that potentially affecting your cycle, I've not read anything about it and I spent weeks trying to find ways to remove Nitrate from my tap water.
 
I would be leery about adding any product not proven to be axolotl-safe to a tank, especially something that sounds too good to be true like that NitrateMinus.
 
I think that qualifies as "normal weird axolotl behavior", so unless he gets lethargic again, I think you don't have anything to worry about. Keep up with the good water conditions. :happy:

I hope someone has a chance to study that NitrateMinus. If it actually works and is axolotl safe, that would be a big boon to people who have nitrate in their tap water. The only down side I see is, people would use it as an excuse to change less water or change water less often, and I suspect that the other things that build up that we can't test for would then become a problem.
 
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