Question: New Axolotl Owner Questions

Hi,
I’m new here and new to axolotls, but I have had aquariums and African clawed frogs in the distant past.
I currently have 2 axolotls, each in their own small tank, but they’re being moved together to a larger tank soon. NO idea on the sex, so I’m hoping I don’t end up in the breeding business!
I read in the comments on a blog that you can get axolotls to eat on their own! I’d love advice on accomplishing that since in the larger tank, I’ll need long tongs and still get my arm wet. I’ve been hand feeding mine since I got them, and haven’t had much luck even when dropping food directly in front of (or on!) their faces. I’ve tried feeding frozen bloodworms, frozen krill, live crickets (I didn’t like that), and now I’m feeding frozen silversides (small fish). They ate all of them well, but I felt the krill constipated them. Has anyone else had that happen? Or have other recommendations of foods? Can I overfeed them? I’ve considered mealworms, but I worked at a pet store where we had the nasty experience of someone feeding mealworms to a lizard that didn’t have strong enough jaws to smash the mealworm’s head. I don’t care to discuss the rest, but I will say it ended in a live worm and a dead lizard. I could cut the heads off the worms prior to feeding, but I’d rather not. I also don’t want to cut up earthworms/nightcrawlers unless they need those specific foods to survive.

I also am planning on making this a live plant tank, and I'm wondering if any of the plant supplements will harm the axolotls (I figure if they say safe for invertebrates, I should be ok). Any live plant advice would be great!

Lastly, are there any aquarium chemicals/additives (Prime, AmQuel, Stress Coat, etc.) I need to avoid?

I'm assuming I'm not making any mistakes so far, as my little guys have grown from 2" when I got them March 10th to about 7" today.

I feed one of my axolotls with tongs because she'll just snatch the food right up, but the other takes forever, so I keep a glass baking dish in his tank. I drop live worms in there - no mess, no fuss. The worms don't even leave the dish. Typically after 12 hours, I remove the leftovers with tongs (they stay alive a LONG time!) and feed them to my more gluttonous wild-type, then I dump out any waste, and return the dish to the tank. It keeps my tank super clean, and makes it easier for Falkor to catch food, which has helped him gain weight. When he is hungry, he climbs into his dish.

Some people use a mason jar instead, but when I tried it, Falkor was scared to go in, and would bang his head on the glass trying to wrestle with the worms. I wouldn't recommend it, the dish is just easier for everyone.

Plastic containers also work, but you need to put a rock or something in them to get them to sink, which gives the worms a place to hide.

(edit) If you don't want to have to cut earthworms, you can just buy smaller ones. It's really the easiest, cheapest and healthiest way to feed them, imho.

Thank you so much! I'll get a small glass dish and put their food in there. I have noticed in the past two weeks or so that one of them will find food on the bottom that was missed when I dropped it, so I think that one will do fine. My albino though, SUCKS at eating! Food literally sits on it's face and it won't eat it. I have to work getting enough food into it. I think lowered eyesight may be the issue.

I use a turkey baster to feed mine frozen blood worm as a treat, they come right to it and just wait till I squirt a bit out near each of their noses! It's also handy to have one as a waste sucker too to get out uneaten food and poop. The earthworms (best staple thing to feed them I've found by the way) they prefer by hand though. But I've had some luck getting frozen cut up worms down a baster with the end cut off (to make it bigger) too. Generally though both Claptrap and Lonestar will hunt down food themselves, so any extra treats or worm pieces hanging around they'll always find.