IWishIWasAFish
New member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2017
- Messages
- 12
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- Location
- Bellevue, WA
- Country
- United States
I'm a long time aquarium owner, and a newt was one of my most enjoyed childhood pets. I had so many pets growing up, but as an adult I became a teacher of 6-10 year old children, and my focus has shifted. Now I mainly have my pet experiences in my classroom.
Recently, I was offered axolotls bred by another classroom teacher. I have always been fascinated by them, and they fit my criteria for classroom pets. If you're wondering, they need to:
-Be able to live a happy life in a smallish enclosure in the busy classroom environment
-Not make a bad smell
-Not be noisy
-Not bring very serious health risks such as salmonella or biting off a finger
-Be able to survive the weekend without attention
-Have simple enough needs that the children can be their primary caregivers
-Have engaging habits
So far, the best pets have been a saltwater reef aquarium, a caterpillar we found and raised into a moth, slugs, and walking stick insects.
I love the resources on here and on the axolotl.org site. I'm inspired to finally make time to join and post because I have three young sibling axolotls, and we need to adjust that to two that aren't siblings. Ours are the "white" kind described on axolotl.org. I'm thinking it would be neat to have one white and one wild type, as a genetics teaching tool and to make it easy to tell them apart.
Our axolotls live in a 30 gallon planted aquarium, and based on many past experiences setting up resilient low-maintenance aquarium systems I'm working on a biological filtration system with the students in my class. Our objective is not to need so many water changes. The first line of defense is hand feeding. Then we have the plants, and I need to add a bit more substrate for them and a few more plants. The next is pulling the water through a filter that is actually the size recommended for the tank, and reducing the water flow to keep the axolotls happy by sending it through a filtering "swamp" of plants and mossy substrate just above the tank's water level. We're still improving the "swamp."
Recently, I was offered axolotls bred by another classroom teacher. I have always been fascinated by them, and they fit my criteria for classroom pets. If you're wondering, they need to:
-Be able to live a happy life in a smallish enclosure in the busy classroom environment
-Not make a bad smell
-Not be noisy
-Not bring very serious health risks such as salmonella or biting off a finger
-Be able to survive the weekend without attention
-Have simple enough needs that the children can be their primary caregivers
-Have engaging habits
So far, the best pets have been a saltwater reef aquarium, a caterpillar we found and raised into a moth, slugs, and walking stick insects.
I love the resources on here and on the axolotl.org site. I'm inspired to finally make time to join and post because I have three young sibling axolotls, and we need to adjust that to two that aren't siblings. Ours are the "white" kind described on axolotl.org. I'm thinking it would be neat to have one white and one wild type, as a genetics teaching tool and to make it easy to tell them apart.
Our axolotls live in a 30 gallon planted aquarium, and based on many past experiences setting up resilient low-maintenance aquarium systems I'm working on a biological filtration system with the students in my class. Our objective is not to need so many water changes. The first line of defense is hand feeding. Then we have the plants, and I need to add a bit more substrate for them and a few more plants. The next is pulling the water through a filter that is actually the size recommended for the tank, and reducing the water flow to keep the axolotls happy by sending it through a filtering "swamp" of plants and mossy substrate just above the tank's water level. We're still improving the "swamp."