Pellets over live food?

G

grant

Guest
Ok my golden normally eats live food over pellets any day but lately he hasn't been eating as well as normal. He is normally a pig but lately has only been eating pellets and refuses live food. He went back in his tank a couple days ago because it is finished cycling and he met his tank mate a wild type that is smaller than him. My wild type eats like crazy and eats anything put in the tank. Has anyone elses axies loved pellets? Or does this have something to do with his change of environment.
 
Hmm well i dont have much experience with them but my wild type seems to snap at salmon pellets right away he gets all excited. But the white one seems like he doesnt like to eat so once he goes into his cocunut i place the pellet right at his door, he eats it in 5 minutes, so it takes 15 mins just to feed him 3 pellets but i dont know he just keeps sucking it closer and closer and when he feels like it he'll eat it.

If you place pellets next to him and he doesnt do anything or eat it at all i would worry, but if he walks away which my axies do too at times you can try moving the pellet in front of his face, cause mine will not walk back and eat it. I dont know if they have poor eyesight but he snaps and misses the pellet and then gets tired of trying and moves along.
 
Yea well he is still eating so I'm not worrying about anything. But what I do for pellets so I don't have to keep dropping in single pellets is I get 3 and I smush them together really good and drop it in and he eats it so it is a full meal without taking forever.
 
Grant - My larger axolotls have learned to eat pellets off the floor of the tank. I just drop them in a pile on the sand. It takes them about 30 min or so to stop shoving each other out of the way and eat them.
 
Yea if mine are hungry they do that but I just drop them infront of them normally so I can be sure they eat them and make sure my bigger axie isn't eating them all and picking on my little wild type. I normally just drop worms (red worms) in their tank and they eat them. I drop 1 by my big goldens "house" and one by my lil wild types tree and then in the morning they're gone.
 
Where can you get salmon pellets? I've looked at pet stores around here for any sort of pellet and I can't seem to find any.
 
Thanks Lisa. I better send my order in soon. =) Does anyone know how long the food keeps? Or how far a half a pound goes?
 
I Forgot to add...I went to a pet store today and they told me it would be ok to feed them small kibble dog food. Anyone know if this is true? It sounds a little bizarre to me. They also said live plants in the tank are a waste.
 
Monica - As I recall the packages say that the food "is best" if used up in 3 months. But I think that is if you store it at room temp.

I vacuum seal and freeze mine in small packages. I have had some in the freezer about a year now and I opened a package of it last month and it smelled and looked just as "good" as when I froze it.

Half a pound would last one axolotl a long time - a 9 mos to a year would be my guess ( though that is just a guess).

I would not feed them dog food. Dog food is usually made with vegetables and what not. I don't think Axolotls can digest that.

Live plants being a waste is a judgement call. Do axolotls "need them"? No. If you want to beautify the tank with live plants and that makes you happy, then they are not a waste.
 
9 Mos to a year is an awful long time! Freezing is a great idea. I'll have to do just that.

And as for plants, I figured it would help in oxygenating the tank and giving them more places to hide. So I bought some anyway.

I bought a 'master fresh water test kit' and tested my water. The pH -> 7.8 Ammonia --> 0 Nitrites -> 0 Nitrates -> 20 ppm Do these values sound safe? I've tried looking up acceptable values and have found so many different answers. It's hard to know what to go by!
 
It's been set up for only a few days --3 days to be more precise-- I'll let it run some more and test again. I guess levels could spike.

I've hatched these little guys from eggs and have been following care instructions from the Indiana university colony. Changing the water often and keeping them in plastic containers. They've hatched and grown rather quickly. Now that I want to set up a tank for them, I'm starting to worry that maybe I haven't been doing such a good job. I haven't had any die on me and they are healthy eaters. So I'm thinking maybe placing them in the tank would be better than those plastic containers I have been keeping them in??? What I have been doing has been working--I just want to provide the best possible home.

Ok I've rambled enough!
 
I tested the water they were in now and it's the same as the tank water. So I decided to place them in and get them settled. I'll be checking the water every day to make sure it stays within a safe range. I posted pics of the little ones in the gallery. Let me know what you think!
 
Well I think you may have messed up on your testing. If you have no ammonia and no nitrites but nitrates present after only 3 days something was done wrong. Your ammonia should be starting to climb followed by nitrites then finally the nitrates. The whole process takes about a full month. And you should keep them in seperate containers while the tank is finishing it's cycle. I may have read something wrong and maybe the tank is cycled but it sounded like you said it was set up 3 days ago so just trying to give a heads up : )
 
Thanks Grant =) I'll test again today. I think I remember reading on one of these posts that changing 10% of the water daily may help speed things up?
 
Monica - Please read this article on cycling
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

While your tank cycles you should keep your axolotls in the small containers and change their water daily or as needed.

After you have added an ammonia source ( a hunk of frozen brine shrimp or something similar) to your tank let it sit for 3 days then start testing the water daily or every other day or so. You should see the ammonia go high and as it starts to lower the nitrite will go up, as the nitrite goes down the nitrate will go up.

If you are using a turkey baster on the axolotl droppings from the small containers put that in the aquarium too.

Cycling your tank will take 30 days or more.
 
Tested the water again today
and ammonia was present!
So I removed the little ones
and put them back in the containers.
I'm glad I bought that testing kit.

I did a small water change and the
tank is still up and running.
The little ones are safe!

Thanks for the link and advice
on cycling, Cynthia! I will place the droppings in the tank. It just seems so odd to do so!!
proud.gif


I'll just be more patient and let
the tank do it's work. I wanted to
have everything set up so I wouldn't
have to worry about it when the baby
is here. Oh well, these axolotls are my
babies also and they need to be taken care
of correctly.
 
There have been mixed feelings about the products that claim to speed up the aquarium cycle.

Apparently there is a frozen product that works well if you can find it "fresh" enough. However I can't recall its name at the moment.

Cycle I did try on a 40 gallon tank a few years ago.... it didn't really seem to do anything that I could see.

Adding a hunk of frozen brine shrimp in the tank to rot to start the ammonia cycle will help, as will adding your baby axolotl poo. Adding the poo is like having your axolotls in the tank to start the cycle without torturing the axolotl to do it.

I personally am leary of anything that claims it can speed up the cycle... some things just take time.
 
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