Food regurgitating and substrate axolotl questions

<font color="119911"> I have two axos - one albino and one dark-brownsih (wild color).

My axolotls are on no substrate at the moment (plain glass bottom) but I heard they prefer substrate so they can walk around more easily. What kind of substrate is best for not clogging the filter and also for not getting too much waste/food stuck in it? (I have a filter that hangs over the side of the tank, sucks in water and spits it back into the tank through a water-fall, not a below-substrate filter.)

Second question: I fed my axolotls about 3-4 earth-worms each every week. They did fine for a few months, but then started regurgitating them. Sometimes they would eat them again (after regurgitating.) I couldn't get them too keep any worms down so I thought it might be too much food. As a trial I gave each axolotl one worm to see if they would keep it down. One did and one threw it up (I don't know which one). Then the brown axo ate the pre-regurgitated worm. How can I keep them from regurgitating their food or is this normal? How much should I feed them, and how often?

Thanks,
gecko1</font>

Nina, go with sand. I use the heavy pool-filter sand, and it's great. Poo sits on top, where it's easily removed with a turkey baster, and it's easily siphoned.

With an water-fall type filter, you want to be careful that it doesn't create too much current, or this will stress your animals.

You may be feeding them too much. Mine eat about 3 inches of worm 3 times a week. They also could be spitting them out because they taste bad. What kind of worms are you using?

Thanks!

About the filter: I put lots of fake plants around the waterfall to minimize the current. When the water level gets low the waterfall seems to make a lot of current, whereas when the water is very high the current is very weak, so i try to keep the tank full.

I was feeding the axos each about 7 inches of worms a week (all at once), which is less than you but not spaced out. I am now spacing the feedings out to about every 3 days, it's helping. I was using primarily redworms from the garden and compost (no pesticides or chemicals whatsoever), now and then an earthworm (whenever i found one), and occasionally yellow worms (not sure what species.) Two days ago I fed them one or two small redworms and they both kept the worms down. Hurray! I will try sticking to redowrms and spacing feedings out. Hope it works!

-gecko1

Spacing out feedings is definately a good idea. Good luck!

How would you clean a tank with heavy-pool-sand substrate? You said it could be easily syphoned - do you mean the sand is easily syphoned out for cleaning? How often would I have to clean the cage? Also, can you wash and reuse this kind of sand as you can with gravel, or must it be thrown out after one use? Also, do you have a favorite place to get this sand?

Thanks!
-gecko1

Siphon the sand. Get a siphon (either from a pet shop, or walmart or something), and get it started: take the big part of the tube, and fill it with water. Then turn it upside down and fill the hose full of water. Put your thumb over the end of the hose, and refill the big tube. Then put the hose into a bucket. This will create as suction, or siphoning, effect. Then 'vacuum' your sand. I siphon once a week or so. The sand should be there indefinately. You can get it from any pool shop, or home improvement center. 50 pounds will cover a 4 foot tank.

An update with food: I was on vacation for two weeks and my dad was in charge of feeding my axos. He fed them "Hikari Tropical Sinking Wafers: Great for catfish, loaches, and other bottom feeders" instead of their diet of worms. Now they're really fat and have some bulges in the stomach region. I'll post photos when I can. This isn't an okay food for them, is it?

-gecko1

Probably ok for the axolotls but probably not a good staple diet for them.