Juvenile axolotl staying near surface

[Axolovetl]

Hi,

I got an axolotl about 3 weeks ago. It is a little less than 3 inches long. I have small fans keeping the temperature at 64 degrees, and a filter. (Water flow is mostly blocked by a small plastic cover that we made)
Yesterday, it was floating around the surface of the tank, with the rear end seeming to be pulling it up. I tried to feed it before realizing this, and it struggled to stay down long enough to get to the food. For the rest of the day, it used various places around the tank to support its rear end and not float up. Last night it burped and started to float down a bit, and by this morning it was fine.

Just now, I noticed that its only been swimming at the surface. It seems to be able to go down, but it doesn't seem to want to. It's swimming pretty fast, and often it bumps into walls. Every couple of minutes it takes a gulp of air from the surface. This also happened last week. My test kit should get here Monday, so I can give more information then.

Is this normal, healthy behavior, or should I be worried? If its not normal, how can I prevent it?

Thanks!

 

[Axolovetl]

S/he is floating up by the rear end again.

 

[Axolovetl]

It isn't moving... still at the surface. I'm crying because I think it might be dead. Please help...

 

[Axolovetl]

EDIT: We just moved it to a slightly smaller tank with the water a little less than an inch above its head, with no sand or anything inside. It's moving again, and now we're cleaning the entire original tank.
We're going to do 100% water changes every other day. The current temperature of the new tank is 53 degrees Fahrenheit (12 Celsius), and he looks pretty happy. His rear end is still floating up a bit though.

Should we give him/her food tomorrow? Please reply!

 

[Hayleyy]

Do you know if he has pooped? Sometimes this happens when they are constipated.
Keep up normal feeding and see how he goes. Keep him in the shallow water for now so you can easily observe

 

[Axolovetl]

It hasn't pooped too much since I got it- only once or twice. I thought that might be the issue- is there some way to get it to poop more?

 

[Axolovetl]

S/he just pooped a bit- we cleaned it up, however the axolotl is still floating.

 

[Hayleyy]

Not too sure about how to get them to poop more but just keep what you're doing and you should see improvement. Maybe someone else here knows about inducing the poop