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Question: Need some general feeding advice.

ZHD

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Hi! I have had my little GFP leucistic axolotl for about 3 months now. He is around 7 inches now. Ever since I bought him I have been feeding him shrimp pellets that I was sold with him. I am wanting to branch out some form of worm, for a treat if nothing else, and I am worried about introducing any form of parasites with the new live food.

From some things I read before posting, it looks like earthworms are good choice for nutrition, but what precautions do I need to take, if any, to prevent introducing anything nasty? I work at a Petsmart, so I have easy access to a bunch of different worms including night crawlers.

Just in case your curious, here he is:
zhd-albums-cosmo-picture36887-gfp-leucistic-axolotl-under-black-light-my-little-buddy.jpg
 

sully

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hah a fellow petsmart employee, i have used night crawlers from there and had no problems but i would watch for when a new shipment comes in so they are a little fresher, i know sometimes they sit in the fridge for quite a while because people dont know we sell them. but i also use frozen blood worms with no issues as a treat, i dont think anything can be passed from worm to axie. if youre worried about the night crawlers you could blanch them in hot water before you feed them to kill the worm and get rid of any dirt and junk on it. i would stay away from the red wigglers because axies dont tend to like them. you could also try ghost shrimp because hes a bit bigger catching them might be easier. keep away from the feeder fish there, ive noticed the ones in my store come in with ick and problems sometimes. if youre going to put in some shrimp (not rock shrimp, too big) quarantine them first in another tank to rid any parasites that they might carry. amano shrimp and cherry shrimp will work too but i dont know if the states stores sell them (canada doesnt)
 

ZHD

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Thanks, that really help. I think I will try the night crawlers when a new shipment comes in. My store does carry ghost shrimp, but I would rather try to stay away from anything that needs a quarantine because I have pretty limited space for tanks.

Do you have an opinion on what size I should cut the worms?
 

sully

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I'm pretty sure at that size they can take a whole worm. It me being a paranoid axie mom and the fact that he looks disappointed if I give him too big of pieces I cut mine in thirds for my guy who is roughly the same size and then I cut the thirds in half for my 4 inch gfp Leucy. And as for the shrimp I'm probably gonna get scolded for saying this but I don't quarantine mine because I'm there to watch how they act and see if there issues with them and if the fish in those tanks look sketchy I won't buy them. I also have limited space for that so I get where you're coming from. I would keep an eye on the shrimp to see if there are any issues and maybe throw one or two in. Or if you have a quarantine tank at work throw them in there for a few days before you buy them. I don't know if it's just my store that has that though because we were converted from another chain store. Good luck!
 
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