Looking for advise

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schoozoo

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I've recently added an axolotl to the collection of displays in my science classroom. Our axolotl seems to have a clear tail on the end, and one of its toes is black. It also has white-cloudy patches on its body. Is this a sign of stress, or just how this one is? Its been this way since I purchased it.
I'm also looking for advise on what I should be feeding it, as I've read mixed reviews.
In general it seems fairly active and spends a lot of time swimming in its tank. It is housed in a 10 gallon, with a small filter.
 

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It looks fine. The white bits are likely to be iridophores - they should reflect if you shine a torch on it. The tail looks bitten and healing - reasonably normal for axies.

Food - you should feed it worms as a staple, or axolotl pellets if your school would frown on live food.

Is the tank cycled?
 
What kind of worms are best? So far its been eating crickets, feeder fish, and frozen blood worms.
Yes the tank was cycled before I added it. I change about 10% of the water once a week. The water that is added has been dechlorinated (we have several fish tanks in my room also).
Thanks for the help.
 
schoozoo said:
What kind of worms are best? So far its been eating crickets, feeder fish, and frozen blood worms.
Yes the tank was cycled before I added it. I change about 10% of the water once a week. The water that is added has been dechlorinated (we have several fish tanks in my room also).
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

I have never heard much about crickets. Feeder fish can possibly hold disease, and have little to no nutrients. Bloodworms are a good treat but not a good staple diet. You should be feeding any earthworm, but the species itself depends on your axolotl. I went out in my back yard, turned over stones, and dug under the tomato plant and found 10-16 worms back there. I put them in a coffee tin with dirt, paper shreddings, and left over vegetables from dinner. I stabbed some holes in the lid and viola! Now you have a small worm farm. Every time I go to get one or two for my axolotl I find babies, so If you have a big enough resource of worms, It can be self-sustaining with a little food and LIGHT watering!
Good Luck
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to wait till spring to dig some up from my garden. (Its currently under a lot of snow, and the ground is very frozen.)
 
I don't know what they have in Canada, but I buy all of my worms from the fishing section at Walmart, but some petstores carry them too. I usually get Canadian night crawlers opposed to red wigglers though
 
In some of the cities I might be able to find them, but I'm a couple of hours away from Edmonton. I know that my local pet store doesn't carry earthworms, they do have the super worms - but I assume that I shouldn't feed my axolotl that seeing as I shouldn't feed my tiger salamander that either. Hence why I'm feeding crickets.

An update on my Axolotl the transparent part of its tail seems to have "fallen off." I think that it must have been injured at the pet store and that it has now molted so its tail is a bit smaller, but healing. The white cloudy patches on the rest of its skin still seem to be there - maybe its just how it is. Other than that it seems healthy - its eating well, and is very active in its tank.
 
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    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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