Advice please!!

OK, so my axies have laid eggs, And I am about to set up another tank to transfer them into, I have had to do a complete clean, as last week we had a male die, of unknown causes (we are new at this) The water PH was only around 2, the temp dropped to about 9 or 10 in the night (it is winter here) and also to top it off, we use gravel And squashed shaped glass marbles!! Soooo Advice please, how can I set up their home safely?

Should I get rid of the gravel and have a bare floor until I get some sand?

I have got PH up for the water to fix that problem, and will throw away the marbles.

They are my husband's axies, and he is away, and I don't want him to come home to a disaster!

Don't use any ph up or down stuff in your tanks! There are other ways to lower/raise your ph without using that.

Did you cycle your original tank, one with the adult axies in?

Did you test the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates at all? If you don't have the test kits for these try and pick some up; esp. as you will now be starting to cycle your tank again. This is extremely important to test for these 3, more so than PH during its cycling! If ammonia and/or nitrites get too high then waterchanges need to be done to bring levels down, esp. if your axies are residing in it. If unable to pick up test kits then you will need to take a sample of tank water to your petshop and get it tested regularly, every couple of days, to monitor the ammonia/nitrite levels.

BTW do you age your water or use dechlorinator/water conditioner?

For your eggs, I think you can just transfer them to tank water with bare substrate/no sand. Have you checked out www.axolotl.org This also has a lot of helpful information

Also, yes remove the glass pebbles (you could always add them to a potplant!) You can pick up a huge bag of play sand from landscaping places, Mitre 10 /Placemakers, Bunnings etc... fairly cheaply.

Invest in a turkey baster if you can, it helps with spot cleaning.

Axies are fine in colder temps down to 5 degrees celcius (so that wouldn't necessarily be the problem). When it gets hotter above 23/24degrees then they can get stressed.

(Message edited by kapo on August 21, 2006)

Thanks Kapo, We didn't have any test kits at all, I will get one of each that you have mentioned, We use Aqua plus water conditioner.

We also have a tank vacuum, but a turkey baster sounds like the one for small clean ups.

I will also go and get some of the sand you talked about, we have mitre 10 here, so hopefully they stock it.

We only use rain water for our tanks, collected in a bathtub outside, fish don't seem to like our Runanga water, even though it is spring water that comes up through limestone rocks! It is a coal mining area, though, so maybe pollutants leech into the water supply?
Anyhow, rainwater seems to be the one.

What do you mean by cycle the water?

If you can get a hold of some bird grit you could put it in your filter in a stocking or something and it might help bring the pH up a bit.

I think the advice already given is excellent, especially the for ph.
Before you get into rearing the axolotl eggs, you need to ask yourself, how many can I successfully raise and what am I going to do with them later? Axolotls can lay 100's of eggs. Starting out with 50 eggs can give you a good 25-30 juveniles in a couple of months. I say this, because most keepers don't realize the daily requirements to rear 100's of babies. I always start out with one large rubbermaid container (36x18x20) with about 200 eggs. In a month or two I'll have upto 6-8 containers as they grow I start dividing them! I practice culling, that is not easily taken to by most keepers. This is when you thin out larva that are smaller or have noticeable defects. This is what happens naturally in the wild and ensures you raise a genetically strong stock.
I use sponge filters connected to aerators and do daily cleaning of excess waste/food with weekly water changes. I use large stones and fake plants in the setups to keep the babies devouring each other. I do not use a substrate, because it only hides the waste build up, and it will be easier to clean. I feed them after day 3-4 of hatching, baby brine shrimp. You will need a supply of live micro food twice daily until they get some size.
I work up to chopped black worms, then whole black worms, then small ragen pellets according to their size. I will even split the ragen pellets into smaller pieces. By 2-3 months, they will be ready to find new homes.
If all this sounds wonderful and exciting, you will have a great raising them! Breeding caudates is one of the best parts of this hobby.
Remember, you don't have raise all the eggs. just take out what you want to work with. The others will be consumed by the parents (I know this sounds gross, but it's normal for them)
If I can help out in any way, please e-mail me.
Al

Thanks for all the advice everyone,


Anna, I have some Vita pet natural mineral bird grit, it looks like crushed oyster shells, is this the right type? Or is there another type of bird grit?

BTW I got some sand yesterday from The Warehouse, called propagation sand from the gardening section, 7.00 for 20 litres, it was a bit stoney, so I washed it through one of the fish nets, and ended up with lovely clean soft sand.

The axies seem to like it, though were a bit shy of it at first, after only being on gravel all their lives, a few stones later, and a couple of live plants, and their home made plastic cup tunnel, and they are quite at home!! :~D

Yeah, that grit should be fine! sounds like your set up is coming together nicely!

Awesome! Thanks, I have got two filters, one with sponge filter down the middle, and the other with carbon and filter wool, so I will add it to that one.

Kiwis, if you need Axie supplies, I have found trademe brilliant, I am getting a shrimp hatchery kit, for 30.00,

and also found a master test kit, with 5 different tests, All of the ones Kapo has mentioned, and that was 45.00, which I thought was really good,

you can also get micro worms there for 6.00 a culture, all delivered to your door!

Thanks again everyone, you all make this site awesome!

Yaay! I also just got a turkey baster from good old trademe!

+Hubby is very pleased with our wee brood!

i was just wondering, my axolotl has a furry substance on its tail, is sluggish and does not eat more than once a week. The nitrate is 5 ppm and i dont know the ammonia or nitrite levels and the pH is fluctuating between 7and 7.8
the temp is also jumping from 16 to 21 through out the day
can someone please tell me how to keep the water at a constant temp and also, what is up with my axie, i have two of them and only one is ill.
cheers
adam

Welcome to forum Adam, just a word of advice try not to tag onto end of someone else's thread if you have a problem or question best if you start a new thread and Post all this info in the new thread under sick axie section and you're more likely to get a quicker response from someone otherwise your questions may be missed.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting adam allen on Thursday 24 August 2006 - 09:56 (#POST104293):</font>

i was just wondering, my axolotl has a furry substance on its tail, is sluggish and does not eat more than once a week. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Your axie may have fungus on its tail, only a guess, but are you able to post a pic in the sick axie or beginners section under your own thread please so others can help you out? If it is fungus you will need to give it saltbaths.


Some questions I have that you can add to your new thread are:

* how old or big is it and how often do you usually feed it?

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting adam allen on Thursday 24 August 2006 - 09:56 (#POST104293):</font>

The nitrate is 5 ppm and i dont know the ammonia or nitrite levels and the pH is fluctuating between 7and 7.8 <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

* If you don't have the tests for ammonia and nitrite, take a container of tank water and get it tested at your local petshop for these two. Extremely important to know your ammonia and nitrite readings too. Ammonia is most toxic of the 3 and I think can affect/effect (*sp?) your ph levels.

* How long have you had your tank running with axies in it and was it cycled?

* <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting adam allen on Thursday 24 August 2006 - 09:56 (#POST104293):</font>

the temp is also jumping from 16 to 21 through out the day<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

* Where is tank situated in a warm room, by a window or heater or do you still have quite warm weather there? Just wondering about fluctuating temp.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting adam allen on Thursday 24 August 2006 - 09:56 (#POST104293):</font>

tell me how to keep the water at a constant temp <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

* Can be kept down with a fan blowing across the surface of the water, remove any heated sources and /or if tank is in warm room try and move it to coolest part of house if able. If it gets above 24degrees cel. then it isn't good, but having the fluctuating temp. during the day is probably stressing it too . You can also cool it with frozen bottles of dechlorinated water rotated before it completely melts to keep constant temp. Don't use icecubes.

Thankyou heaps Kapo
Sorry bout the whole tagging thing
i will post a thread on the sick axie site
cheers
sorry again
adam

Don't be sorry adam, it is great that you have come on here to ask about these things, good luck with him/her!

UPDATE: After adding the bird grit to the filter, the ph is perfect!! When we were using the PH up, it seemed to only stay good when we added it, and then two or three hours later, would be back down, but now, it is perfect!! Thankyou Anna!

I just added it to the carbon, and it has worked a treat! Our test kit should be here end of next week, so until then I have been doing daily partial water changes,about 2 1/2 litre,just to make sure, and the water is looking lovely and clear!

I am just using straight rain water, so don't see the need for any additives to the part change, trying to keep it natural as possible.

Glad I could help. The pH up and down are only temporary which is why it went back down so quickly. It really does more harm than good cause it causes fluctuations.

If you can use the bird grit to bring the PH level back up, what can you do to bring it down, if you don't want to use the stuff in the test kit?

In most cases, it's not necessary to bring the pH down. How high is it? Anything up to pH 8.0, or even 8.2, is perfectly fine. If the tank pH is high, but your tap water pH isn't, then you need to think about what's in the tank that's affecting the pH.

I will add... it is possible to use peat moss to bring aquarium pH down. But as I said, it's usually not necessary.

(Message edited by jennewt on November 15, 2006)

Thanks for that. The PH isn't high. I am new to axolotls, but have fish tanks, and I've always used the kits to monitor and control PH levels. I was curious to find that I can use the shell grit to bring it down, and if was ever high, what I could use then.
Our current axie is very very ill. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I fear she won't last much longer.

Sandra, Dispite this being so far off thread that I hate to jump in now, I would say that if you want your axie to live put it in the fridge and come back with more detailed info on what is wrong.