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New axie owner :-)

anjelloca

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Hey guys I’m new here!!!!!! My name’s Jello, I’ve posted an intro post in the introductions page already but I wanted to post my general story here. This is my first time owning anything other than a cat or a dog but I've been researching axolotls for the last 3 years while I was in vet tech school so bear with me.

So I finally moved into a big enough house to keep an aquarium. It’s a 25 gallon with a medium sized Reptofilter that I’m changing out every week. It’s taken me almost a year to cycle because the store I bought my axolotl from is extremely particular about who they sell their animals to. I’ve had my water tested every week at their store and either my ammonia or nitrates were always too high (a friend had given me her old tank she kept saltwater fish in). I finally got my tank at good parameters using Seachem’s Stability & Prime and adopted my first axolotl a little more than a week ago!

Coco Chanel is a 5mth female leucistic about 4-5 inches long and I’m hand-feeding her 1 cricket every 12 hours (I’m gut-loading my crickets with oranges & apples for a hydration source, and crushed dog & cat food as a dry food source). I’ve added 2 minnows to the tank to see if she’ll be interested or at least attempt to chase them. So far she’s only ever followed them with her head. I figure she’s not trying to catch any because she’s full so tomorrow I’m gonna try not feeding her any crickets and see if she’ll chase after them. I think they might be too big too. I’ve posted pictures of my tank setup and Chanel down below. I wanted to put some type of substrate in like maybe sand but I’ve just heard so many horror stories I’m a little scared to, but I would like to add a substrate during her next water change to make the tank a little prettier, I'm just not sure what type of sand. :confused:

I checked parameters today and nitrates were a little high as well as ammonia (0.5ppm) so I changed out 40% of the water like I’m planning on doing weekly and then rechecked parameters after 4 hours and this is where they’re at right now:

Nitrite: 0-20ppm (safe)
Nitrate: 0ppm (safe)
Hardness: 75ppm (soft)
Alkalinity: 300ppm (high)
pH: 7.8 (alk)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Temp: 65 F

She’s still extremely shy – she’ll raise her head a little when she see’s me coming with a cricket (she backs away when my boyfriend does it lol :lol:) but otherwise she spends most of her time in hiding and only ever comes out to swim to the surface for a gulp of air. It makes me a little sad, but I don’t know if it’s just her personality or if it takes time for most axolotls to warm up to you. She doesn't seem stressed at all, so I don't know. :(

One of the veterinarians I work with sees axolotls so I have a place to take her if she ever gets sick or needs antibiotic/antifungal treatments.

I’m sorry if this is so long!! I just want to know that I’m doing everything right. I’m planning on getting a couple axolotl eggs as well and raising those – I already have a tiny lil tank set up for that. Hopefully I have a bigger tank before those become juvenile. Any advice or feedback would be awesome.
 

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LSuzuki

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Kudo to you for taking the time to research everything! And kudos to the store for being so picky about who they sell to!

It concerns me that it took so long for your tank to cycle and the statement you made
It’s a 25 gallon with a medium sized Reptofilter that I’m changing out every week.
What exactly are you changing out in it?

Crickets aren't the typical captive axolotl food. (Carnivore pellets and earthworms are the typical staple.) I'm not a nutritionist, though, so I don't know if they are an acceptable alternative. I'm pretty sure they don't need apples or oranges for a hydration source since they are living in water. (Axolotls are carnivores, so they might not even be able to use the nutrients in the apples/oranges.) I haven't heard of using crushed cat/dog food as an axolotl food, but again, I'm not a nutritionist. (I would guess cat food would be better than dog food, since cats are obligate carnivores.)

Axolotls usually don't chase their food. They wait for it to get close and ambush it. So, it is probably just a matter of time before one of the minnows disappears. Do keep an eye on them - fish often nibble the axolotls gills.

Play sand is usually considered a good substrate, since it is usually soft and fine.

If the minnows are nipping her gills, that could be a reason for her shyness. Or it could be her personality. Keep feeding her by hand, and she might become less shy.

She is a sweetie! But, heads up, at that age,it is hard to tell the "hes" from the "shes". :happy:
 

seandelevan

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I think the fruit and cat food is for the crickets;)

But yeah I think she was changing the filter way too much. Have to let the beneficial bacteria develop. Water changes every week are good but you were probably killing the bacteria that helps cycle the tank. If you keep doing this you could eventually start to harm your axie.
 

anjelloca

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It concerns me that it took so long for your tank to cycle and the statement you made What exactly are you changing out in it?

Crickets aren't the typical captive axolotl food. (Carnivore pellets and earthworms are the typical staple.) I'm not a nutritionist, though, so I don't know if they are an acceptable alternative. I'm pretty sure they don't need apples or oranges for a hydration source since they are living in water. (Axolotls are carnivores, so they might not even be able to use the nutrients in the apples/oranges.) I haven't heard of using crushed cat/dog food as an axolotl food, but again, I'm not a nutritionist. (I would guess cat food would be better than dog food, since cats are obligate carnivores.)

Axolotls usually don't chase their food. They wait for it to get close and ambush it. So, it is probably just a matter of time before one of the minnows disappears. Do keep an eye on them - fish often nibble the axolotls gills.

:lol: Yeah I the fruits and dog/cat food are what I'm gut-loading the crickets with. Oops. I was only feeding her those because that's what the store was feeding their axolotls and they wanted me to transition her from that if I wanted to feed something else (which is usually the case for any animal I think), that's why I put the minnows in there to see if she shows any interest. I can't find live bloodworms at any of my local pet food stores, and she doesn't show interest in frozen bloodworms which I sort of expected. And there were so many pellet options I'm not sure which I should get, which is something else I was going to ask what you guys recommended?

I'm keeping a good eye on the minnows, I've read about the nipping too. So far they've pretty much been wary of her, mostly staying on the opposite side of the tank.

I didn't know about ambushing, maybe that's why she's been hiding in her skull and following them with her head?

Oh my gosh, I don't know why I said I change the filter out every week. I change it out every month.

I think the tank took me so long to cycle because I was so busy with school, it was harder for me to keep an eye on it, and I was living in a tiny apartment then that cat hair kept getting into it and affecting the nitrates, there were a few times my kitten got too curious he actually fell in. Luckily nothing was living in there at those times. I didn't even complete cycling until I graduated and moved into a house.

Thank you guys so much for your feedback and help!!
 

LSuzuki

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Oh my gosh, I don't know why I said I change the filter out every week. I change it out every month.

Are you replacing all of the filter media at once? That will cause problems, as every time you do it, you are taking away lots of beneficial bacteria. If you have to replace all of the media at once, put the next replacement in the tank when you do the replacement so that beneficial bacteria can colonize it before you use it. Otherwise, you are likely to continue to see ammonia and nitrite spikes after you change the filter media.

Thinking about it, you should check and see if that filter would be ruined by sand if you put a sand substrate in there.

Enjoy your new friend. :)
 

anjelloca

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Are you replacing all of the filter media at once? That will cause problems, as every time you do it, you are taking away lots of beneficial bacteria. If you have to replace all of the media at once, put the next replacement in the tank when you do the replacement so that beneficial bacteria can colonize it before you use it. Otherwise, you are likely to continue to see ammonia and nitrite spikes after you change the filter media.

I'm not sure what you mean by media? The only thing I'm changing out are these disposable cartridge filters and they're labeled to change out every 2 weeks.

http://www.amazon.com/Tetra-25845-ReptoFilter-Filter-Cartridges/dp/B000HHLKRI
 

Cacique

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The cartridges are the filter media. Filter media is anything you put in the filter, like filter floss, sponge, ceramic media, etc. If you can figure out how, I would recommend you forget about those disposable inserts and stuff the filter with filter floss and sponge at least, if you can also some ceramic media in there. These are much better at holding bacteria, since the disposable inserts are mostly useless charcoal. The majority of the beneficial bacteria lives in there, so by tossing it out and putting a new one in you're getting rid of most of the bacteria keeping your cycle going. Being able to only replace the media half at a time, and only when it's falling apart, will keep the cycle strong.

I've had my tanks for months. The majority of them just have filter floss as it's the easiest to fit in there, and another with also a sponge and some ceramic media. All I do is swoosh it in old tank water and give it a few squeezings and it's clean and good to go. If it looks stained and dirty that's good, just needs to not be clogged.
 

rachel1

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Crickets can be a good diet, but they have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio. I would add a calcium source to your gutload, since you can't dust your Axolotls crickets. Spinach is a good option, or there are many commercial options available. Earthworms are an excellent staple and a great source of calcium.
 

anjelloca

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The cartridges are the filter media. Filter media is anything you put in the filter, like filter floss, sponge, ceramic media, etc. If you can figure out how, I would recommend you forget about those disposable inserts and stuff the filter with filter floss and sponge at least, if you can also some ceramic media in there. These are much better at holding bacteria, since the disposable inserts are mostly useless charcoal. The majority of the beneficial bacteria lives in there, so by tossing it out and putting a new one in you're getting rid of most of the bacteria keeping your cycle going. Being able to only replace the media half at a time, and only when it's falling apart, will keep the cycle strong.

I've had my tanks for months. The majority of them just have filter floss as it's the easiest to fit in there, and another with also a sponge and some ceramic media. All I do is swoosh it in old tank water and give it a few squeezings and it's clean and good to go. If it looks stained and dirty that's good, just needs to not be clogged.
Oh okay I see. Do you know about Seachem stabilizer? Because before I was adding about 20mls of that with each water change because I was told it'd keep beneficial bacteria but I wasn't sure.
 

anjelloca

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Crickets can be a good diet, but they have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio. I would add a calcium source to your gutload, since you can't dust your Axolotls crickets. Spinach is a good option, or there are many commercial options available. Earthworms are an excellent staple and a great source of calcium.
Yeah I'm gonna be looking for earthworms here pretty soon. I'm gut loading my crickets with oranges for calcium and I just added spinach and dry figs.
 

Cacique

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It seems like Seachem Stability is just another bottled bacteria. This is supposed to be the bacteria that you need on your filter, but because of the way it's packaged you have no idea if the bacteria in the bottle is actually alive and would help or if you're just wasting a bunch of money.

I used Tetra Safe Start and MicrobeLift Special Blend, both are the same thing as Stability, or close to it. They're supposed to do the same thing. I cycled 4 tanks together and I saw no difference between using the bottled bacteria and not using it. It still took weeks to cycle the tank, still had to do frequent water changes to keep the parameters safe for my critters, so in the end it was just a waste. They tell you you need to add a specific amount every time you do a water change, so it's literally just money down the drain.

There's also the possibility of there being something in there that could irritate the axolotl, so his tank I just monitored. I believe his, without any bacteria, cycled at a similar time or quicker then the other, smaller tanks with the bottled bacteria.
 
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