My axolotl tank

I finally got my axolotls into their tank. It is a 40 gallon breeder size. I still have to "patch" between the slate with sand.



These are my axolotls blingbling (gold) and jude (green)


and this is echo (green) looking at its self in the glass

I will try and get some better pictures after they get used to their tank. They are still kind of flighty.

I'm just wondering, with those big slabs of slate, even though the edges look rounded off and not sharp, can a spooked axie that's thrashing around doing laps around the tank damage themselves on 'em? It just looks like an axie could cop a nasty gouge in their sides if they crash into one.

The edges are pretty smooth, I ran my hands around all of them and left out any that felt sharp. I tried fitting the pieces up to each other and the glass to avoid the axolotls cutting themselves on any edges. I think once I fill in the gaps with sand (its soaking now) it wont "look" as bad. It looks worse in the pictures than it actually is.
If anyone gets hurt I will remove the slate and rock and just use sand.

Cynthia, you might want to take out a couple of pieces and have more sand. So that as much of the whole of the filter area is utilised. I had a tank set up like yours a while ago and the filter was stifled. But the problem quickly resolved itself when I cut down the amount of slate area to 50%.

On the edges thing just try and bury the edges in sand or gravel as you see fit. If there are any high points they will try and burrow underneath.

What I really want to use for substrate is a pretty blue sand. I have had no luck finding any however.
I stopped at yet another LFS last night to check out their selection. 5 lbs of sand is $3.99 they had black, green, white, off white. I figure I would need about 50 pounds of sand. They only keep in stock 20 pounds of each color. I would have to have them order more, and I am just not sure that is what I want. I did buy a bag of their childrens play sand after looking it over last night and soaking some in water... I don't think I will be using it. It contains a lot of "dirt".

So I did some more searching on sand. I have called around looking for Southdown brand play sand as that is recommended on many sites. No stores here carry it. I did find this though
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/safesand/ornatplaysan.html
I have emailed them to ask if their blue sand is aquarium safe. Their white sand is and its $50 for 50 pounds shipping included. The colored sand is a bit more. I was thinking of mixing blue and white together making it a softer blue.

Well my white sand should arrive today so I can finish my axolotl tank over the weekend. Yea!

I went to the hardware store today and got some large PVC pipe connectors for them to use for caves.

I have some of the planting rocks in their tank and I stuck one up on the back of the tank with suction cups so it makes a cave and they love sitting under it. The planting rocks have rough surfaces though so I am not sure if I will leave them in there or not. Has any one else tried using the planting rocks?

I think will keep 1 big piece of slate as they have learned to pick salmon pellets off of it. Unfortunately "Jude" also picks the snails off it and eats them too. I hope that it can break down the snails and they don't plug him/her up :|

Lol on snails...generally they are a pain. They seem to do nothing but reproduce. If he's got an appetite for them it might help keep the things under control.

Just keep an eye... I haven't fed snails but I guess they must come across them in the natural habitat. Never really gave it much thought.

just picking up on something you said earlier, mik, is there a problem with axies burrowing under the slate? i have a set up very much like the one in the pictures and one axie in particular likes to hide his head under one of the pieces. whats wrong with that other than the stabbing possibility? (im taking out a few pieces now)

For what it is worth, mine didn't try to burrow under the slate. But there wasn't a place left big enough for them to get their head in to try.

Tonight I removed all the rocks and slate and put in white sand. I got them some big pvc fittings for "caves".

The sand has been in for about 3 hours. The axolotls are still in smaller containers. I put them in there while I tore up their tank.

I really do not like the white sand. It shows all the "dirt" like having white carpet, but I will keep it because I just fed the axolotls worms about an hour ago and I went back in 30 min ago to see if they had cleaned up their dinner. I saw Jude (the snail eater) gagging and gagging. He had eaten his worm pieces and I thought maybe he would choke up a snail. Well he choked something up alright a big rock! I took a picture of the rock next to my tape measure I will post it tomorrow as my batteries went dead as soon as I took the picture. This rock is bigger than I expected an axolotl to swallow.

So I am glad I have the sand now even if it will make me clean it excessively.

interesting story! cant wait to see the pic of that rock! do you have to use white sand or can any old sand be used as long as its clean? i think white sand would annoy me too.

I used Marine Sand From CaribSea because it is advertised as saying it won't alter the pH. My water already has a high pH so I didn't want it any higher.

CaribSea also makes a black sand they call Tahitian moon. I have been thinking of getting some if it and mixing it with the white. But I am not sure yet.

The white just might take me a while to get used to. It did pack down very nicely. And when I put the axolotls back in their tank this morning they seemed to enjoy walking on the new smooth sand.

I ordered a battery operated aquarium vacuum today so I can "hoover" the sand to pick up debris on a daily basis and not have to dig out my large tank vacuum.

This is from Caribsea web page:

Marine Sand # 00820
Tahitian Moon # 00821

Our most popular decorative sands, Tahitian Moon black sand and Marine Sand white sand are a great way to accent your brightly colored tropical fish. Can be used in fresh or saltwater. These products will not affect pH.


I will post the rock pic when I get home from work.

apparently the balck one shows up the dirt too. maybe a mix of both would make it look a little better? maybe mixing both together will make an equilibrium? im getting some sand tomorrow so ill tell you how it looks. better still, ill post pics with my new camara!

Mine shows up debris because I put plants in the tank and I just changed out the old rocks. I vacuumed before and after changing the tank but you can't get every speck.

I have the floating plants (see original picture post) and I planted a bunch of moneywort in the center of the tank. Parts of them fall to the floor and leaves get broken off.

If you don't add plants you would only have the axolotl poo and uneaten food to pick up. But they are going to show up good on white sand so you can find them lol

The solid black sand might not show it up as bad as white. I have no experience with solid black as a substrate. I thought maybe mixing the black and white would help a bit.

as promised ... "the rock"



Jude is only about 4.5 months old tops, had he been full grown this size rock would not of surprised me.

Here is a pic of the tank now that it has had its "make over". New sand and pvc caves.



(Message edited by cynorita on December 28, 2004)

Very nice setup you having going there!

Thank you Mercedes, it is a work in progress

:: im getting some sand tomorrow so ill tell you how it looks. better still, ill post pics with my new camara! ::

I'll be waiting to see how you like the sand once you get it in. New camera? Right on! I want a new one too.

I am going out tomorrow to find some sand for the axie tank I'm setting up at the moment. Is it okay to get sand that is not specifically for use in aquaria. Of course I would thoroughly clean it before putting it in. Thanks a lot.