Very new owner and I know nothing.

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jessica

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Jessica J. Miller
I know nothing! I have a 10 gallon tank with 6 inches of spring water, no filter any tips. I need to know any thing you can tell me. I am feeding her crickets, is that okay?

(Message edited by jess426768 on December 24, 2006)
 
The best thing you can do is visit www.axolotl.org and read as much as possible about them.
A filter is reccomended, because if you don't have one you'll have to do a lot more water changes with dechlorinated water.
 
We have a couple of unfiltered tanks, and do 20-30% waterchanges using dechlorinated water every 2-3 days.
 
Is feeding her crickets okay instead of worms. If so how many?
 
A friend feeds worms one day, crickets next feed day, etc... Ours are primarily fed with earthworms, occasional strips of oxheart or ox liver.

(Message edited by kapo on December 26, 2006)
 
There are 2 problems with crickets: One, they float, so they need to be fed by hand or tongs. Two, they are low in calcium, and this can cause medical problems if they are used long-term as the primary food source. For reptiles, it is the usual procedure to dust crickets with a calcium powder - but when feeding an animal under water, the calcium powder will just wash off, so that does not work well.

If you really don't like using worms, the next best thing (more nutritionally complete than crickets) would be a good quality pellet food. In the US, the best axolotl pellets are the Rangen pellets they sell here:
http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/pricelist.htm
 
Thank both of you. I feed by hand anyway, but I will try worms. Just earthworms frim the bait shop would work or what?
 
Yes, baitshop earthworms are just fine. Some axies will refuse red wiggler worms if they are cut, but will usually eat them whole. Some people keep the worms in clean bedding for a while to clean out their insides, but this is not necessary unless the worms were raised on manure. Canadian nightcrawlers are more "palatable" to most axies, but they are very large worms that almost always need to be chopped.

If you have no filter, you might want to consider adding an airstone to the tank.

These might help:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/filters.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/worms.shtml
 
No, they never come out of the water. Occasionally an axolotl will go through metamorphosis and become a land-dwelling salamander, but this is rare.

Johnny, next time you start a new topic, please use the "Start new thread" link, don't tack on a new topic onto an old thread. Thanks!
 
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