Darkened tail and persistent attempts to swim up?

[raidsnake22]

hi all,
I've just gotten my first axolotl almost a week ago and for the past few days he's been very devoted to swimming both into the tank walls and doing his best to swim up to the surface, he has succeeded quite a few times and he makes little bubbly noises when he does make it, but he never jumps out the tank fully even with the cover lifted. he has also made it atop his filter unit quite a few times and he seems to stop and relax up there.

his tail also seems quite red to me and the transparent part off his tail seems to be darkened/ slightly yellowed to me, although I can't recall if it was always like that. could it be sore from how much he keeps swimming around?

he still eats fine when he notices his food, and ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0ppm, nitrate is around 40-50ppm but I only have a colour chart to go off.
I am worried for my little buddy and really hope he's all good:/


edit: should also add that I was told he is around 3 months old when I got him.

 

[axie owner]

from my knowledge the darkened tail is from the blood flow. the lighter shade of colour in the axolotl the darker the tail. your axolotl could just be playful at that age. mine had that same thing happen when he was growing. nothing bad ever happened.

just remember i am not a pro with this kind of thing.

 

[Calgarycoppers]

HI

Is your tank fully cycled?

What are your ...

water temp
ph
high range ph
tank size

I would tub your axolotl ASAP and do 100% daily water changes as this could be reactions to the high nitrates which can be quite harmful.
Nitrate toxicity can be reversed with salt and and airstone.

some axos are super sensitive.

You want to immediately water change at 20-40

Ideally after a water change it should be 5-10ppm

hi all,
I've just gotten my first axolotl almost a week ago and for the past few days he's been very devoted to swimming both into the tank walls and doing his best to swim up to the surface, he has succeeded quite a few times and he makes little bubbly noises when he does make it, but he never jumps out the tank fully even with the cover lifted. he has also made it atop his filter unit quite a few times and he seems to stop and relax up there.

his tail also seems quite red to me and the transparent part off his tail seems to be darkened/ slightly yellowed to me, although I can't recall if it was always like that. could it be sore from how much he keeps swimming around?

he still eats fine when he notices his food, and ammonia and nitrite levels are at 0ppm, nitrate is around 40-50ppm but I only have a colour chart to go off.
I am worried for my little buddy and really hope he's all good:/


edit: should also add that I was told he is around 3 months old when I got him.

 

[AMurry24537]

The swimming to the surface issue may be because you have an axolotl who particularly likes to do that, in which case you're fine. Alternatively, it may mean that they're not getting enough oxygen from the water. I had an issue a while back where my sponge filter output was very low, so it wasn't adding much air down below. That was the only time period during which my axolotl would occasionally come up to the surface and gulp air. If this is the issue, I would set up some kind of airstone to oxygenate the water.