Newbies and 2 rescued axie's

Yesterday my neighbour gave me 2 axie's and asked me to look after them, as her son lost interest. Ive seen the conditions they are kept in at pet shops, but these two look even worse. lucky my 4foot tank is set up for goldfish, i was actually going to buy goldfish today..lol. so having no experience is these little guys, im so glad i found this website! I have called up 4 petshops and they have told me live food is not really good for them, and chicken liver is best for them. Id rather feed them what they would eat in the wild, and i cant really imagine axie's killing chickens in the wild to eat their livers!! LOL. But i am giving it to them and they love it. Im feeding them 3 times a day, they are really thin, and very hungry. Ive put the tank under the stairs as its dark and cool in there. Im not sure if im doing the right thing, so if anything i have written is not right please let me know!!

Thanks

I don't know about chicken liver - it's probably okay, but I use compost worms as my staple food, or pellets. Live food is good for axolotls as long as it doesn't contain parasites. I got a compost system from KMART and bought my worms from there too, that way I don't have to keep buying worms. Lots of people feed earthworms, frozen fish, beef heart and heaps of other stuff, but you just have to be really careful about where you are getting your food from and what it is.

Have you cycled your tank yet? (How long has your tank been running for?)

Also, you probably have a gravel set up for the fish you were going to put in the tank, this is not suitable for axolotls, they will eat it. Mine ate over 21 pieces of it!

If you don't have gravel, great! But if you do you should take it out as soon as possible and switch to sand.

Your tank size is good, but don't put any more than 4 axolotls in there, usually 1 square foot per axolotl.

Wait for some more experienced axolotl owners to reply, they will be able to give you better advice than I can, I've only had mine for about 4 months.

Hope I've helped.

Chicken liver is OK, but as you suspect, it would be much better to give them something more natural to them. Earthworms and frozen bloodworms are good. Pellets made for carnivorous fish (salmon or trout chow) are good, if you can find them.

Once they put on some weight, cut back on the feedings. For healthy adults, 2-4 feedings per week is enough.

Just read as many posts on this forum as possible and you'll get a good idea of the Do's and Don'ts. Good luck!

I am using gravel but its not too small, plus im also using river rocks. I had the tank running for 3 days as i was getting ready to purchase goldfish, i hope that was long enough!
I went to living jungle in dandenong, and the manager told me to leave a bucket of water outside for a week, little baby mozzies should be swimming in the water by then, i should take a bucket of water out of the tank, and replace it with the bucket of water containing the little mozzies. Apprently thats what they feed their axolotls and they love em. I thought it sounded like a good idea as they would eat em in the wild!.

When you say chicken liver and beefheart, are you talking raw? ( Do axies cook in the wild?) lol...
also, do you completely thaw the frozen bloodworms, or hand them the whole cube? (don't think I'll be doing the chicken liver thing, but am curious?

well im feeding the liver to them raw, but i do wash it, because im worried the blood will pollute the water and kill them.
But they love the liver, everytime i come near the tank they swim up to the surface for more!

3 days isn't long enough to cycle a tank. Mine took 30 days, and that's about average.

Also, how hot is your water. It shouldn't be above 20c.

Search the forum for questions on cycling a tank - there's a link which tells you exactly how to do it.

Also I've never heard about feeding them with mosquitos - they might have parasites, not sure, but you'd be safer with worms.

Oh, and how small is your gravel exactly? An axolotl has quite a wide mouth. They can fit things that are like 2cm big! If you want to know whether or not it's small enough, think about where it's going to come out of - rocks don't break up inside an axolotl's stomach and they can damage them and stop them from eating.

You'll find out soon enough that not every pet shop worker knows as much as they profess to know. My lfs guy told me that axolotls like hot water b/c they come from Mexico - but he didn't know that the lakes they lived in didn't get above 20c!

Just read as much as you can and you'll be okay!

(Message edited by caseyb on December 22, 2005)

30 days to cycle a tank! sheesh!

My tank water is 17c, as they r under the stairs where its cooler.
The river rocks are no smaller than an inch in length and 1 1/2cm wide...but tomorrow after my work xmas party i will try and hunt for sand.
Casey if your using sand, where did u get it from??

read this on cycling- http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

you may find it hard to keep your substrate clean if you feed messy foods, i used to have river rocks too but changed to sand. much easier to keep clean. you can suck out the poos with a turkey baster and see all the uneaten food on the bottom.

you can get sand from building places, make sure its got no chemicals added though, some LFS sell bagged sand. also play sand is widely used. i have got plasterers sand in my tank and its fine.

Interesting....what about the brownish sand some petshops use for the lizards and snakes?? I think its called desert sand..

not sure... go and ask them if it contains any water altering substances... i think it would be fine after a good wash and bake in the oven

well, i went to the petshop and they closed early for their xmas party
But i stopped at pets paradise at dandenong,and one of the girls told me that she uses large marbles in her tank at home!

I say, wait for sand. mine is lovin' it and I can see his poop and clean it, and it is comfortable on his little feet.

yeah, i just took out all the pepples and river rocks, and the guys look a bit confused. Now they r sitting in the plants, they look like 2 big birds in trees lol.

lol, i just changed to sand, i got it from a building shop(bunnings warehouse) its called builders sand and its good. have you cycled your tank yet?. if not they will be burn from the ammonia, cycling a tank is VERY IMPORTANT.