Ok This morning i found Axel (my axolotl) on the floor behind my bookcase . Luckily he was still alive . He must have jumped out the gap between the HOB filter and the lid when he was darting around the tank. I changed back to the old internal filter i previously used so there is no gap and i put Axel back in the tank. Now he has a small cut on his tail and he just looks terrible. I read that they often escape if the water quality is bad or too hot. I did a 20% water change and the temp is reaching 24c.

Is that temp too high :-? ?

If so how can i safely keep the tank cooler :-? ?

How can i help him recover :-? ?

Thanks a lot

Temp is to high it should be about 18c for axolotls you could try covering the tank or floating a bottle of frozen water in the tank you should be doing a 20% water change at least 2-3 times a week the cut should heal by itself over time

Best of luck trying to keep the tank cool, I know from experience with my 50 litre that it's pretty hard to keep it 8°c+ below ambient. A 2.25 litre bottle of frozen water will cool my tank about 4 degrees and keep it that temperature for about 3 hours, then it'll climb back up to ambient.

That said, if you wrap your tank tightly with a acrylic fleece blanket, it'll keep the tank much cooler for longer - provided there's no internal heat source.

Power saving tip, when you take the defrosted bottle out of the tank, don't put it straight back in the freezer. Fill it with cool water from the tap and it'll freeze in half the time (and save you power!).

Apparently you can keep them axies in the fridge when it gets uber hot (or when they get really sick), may be worth investigating that ;P.

Would adding an airstone and pump help? I heard this can decrease the temperature.

Ok now he is floating allot and has fin rot also he is not eating. What can i treat the finrot with. malachite green and many metals in medication are toxic to amphibians. Also the tank contains a freshwater mussel but that can be put in another tank if needed.

stress coat, and aloevera gelly if you have some will help.

i woulda thought that him being out of the water wouldn't have hurt him that much as in Mexico Axolotyls leave their water and wander across the ground to get to new habitats (I asked a mexican who came to stay with us and she told me this).

Best of luck with yours and hopefully he gets all better and doesn't attempt a silly stunt like that again!!

He fell about a meter and has a few cuts. I got some malafix as it was the only recommended medicine that did not contain malachite green or metals. Otherwise I would have just used wunder tonic.

I also added stress coat

you should be ok to use tonic ive used it before on axies just dont overdose and do the waterchanges as directed. putting him in the fridge will slow his metabolism which can be helpful sometimes when they are sick but i have limited knowledge on this ,somebody will know how do this safely. they can last for a fair bit out of water but it is stressful and the heat will not be helping

Well I am sorry to say Axel passed away tonight. He will be greatly missed. Thanks for all the help.

sorry to hear

oh that is a shame my sympathies

We buried him out in the garden.

Now i have a 50 litre 60cm by 30cm by 30cm aquarium And i dont know what to do with it.

These are my ideas:

1. Have a couple of fire bellied newts.

2. Turn it into a hillstream loach aquarium. (if i can find somewhere to plug in a power head and heater next to the 13 plugs the other 5 tanks use)

3. Make it brackish with a few mollies, orange chromides and bumblebee gobies.

What do you guys think i should do? :bounce:

option 2 :bounce:

It really does help planning the replacement when this happens!

Option 1: Newts are very cool intially but very very very very slow. How they survived evolution I do not know!

Option 2: Totally! :bounce: Tank is pretty small to do much with when it comes to fish. I have tried doing fast flowing water in a 2foot and you wind up with a massive whirlpool. Do-able though. You really only want a few little fish in that. Remember hillstream loaches have a higher oxygen requirement than other tropical fish (because of the fast flowing habitat they come from) so have fewer than you would expect.

A rule of thumb for fast-flowing tanks is a MINIMUM total volume turnover of 16-20 times each hour. My riffle tank has 32 times an hour

Option 3: I don't know those fish.

Sorry about your loss

Caper

On 1/17/2009 at 4:10 PM, phoenix44 said:

stress coat, and aloevera gelly if you have some will help.

Aloevera is toxic to axolotls, do not use this.