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Axolotls dissertation

andrew

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Hi there my name is andy and i am a 3rd year behavioral biology student at aberystwyth uni, my dissertation is on axolotls studing their prey size they will take in relation to their own size and how long it takes to consume its prey. we have currently aprox 30 axolotls in the aquarum here for me to proform this study on, although i havnt even seen one until afew days ago. so any infomation you may have on them in regards to their feeding habits etc would be most apreciated
 
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kim

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Personally if i let my axies eat what they wanted they would eat about 4 8inch earth worms!

I havent fed them that many but they easly eat 2-3 8inches every couple of days.

Have you seen frozen blocks of bloodworms? My axies will eat a hole block at once if they can be bothered.. lol

Anymore questions.. Just Ask!

Good luck with your dissertation!
 
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aandrew

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Thanx but for the diss ive been told to feed them on sqid and to vary the lengths of the prey from 5 to 35mm what i really need to know is about the tendencies of the axolotls to go for varing sizes of prey so i can have a theroy to test and how long they will take to eat their prey, if there is a time limit to this and how the size of the axolotl will effect the prey size choice... that kind of thing any ideas? or do you know any research that has already been carried out on similar topics any info is appreciated thanx for the reply..
 
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kaysie

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they'll eat anything that moves and can fit in their mouth. If they can see it, they can try to eat it. It depends on how hungry they are as to how fast they swallow it, but they do swallow their food whole, usually in gulps. I dont think there has been any research because there isnt much to research. If they can eat it, they will.
 
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mik

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Andy, take a look on the main axolotl pages on this site there's good background reading.

Your typical axie will try and eat anything that fits in it's mouth. If it can't consume it in one go or a couple of gulps it will usually spit it out. As for how long it takes less than a second for a big axie to consume a worm 3-4" long best get your stop watch measuring in milliseconds ;-)

Perhaps you should try and relate max'm size of food consumed in a single mouthful against size of axie.

Please let us know how they respond to squid. Always looking for different food varieties. Personally I hate calamari tastes like cheesy rubber bands.
 

andrew

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Thanx everyone for the help, will keep all up to date about the research, im about to start to write my plan for the experiment tonight and thought i would take a gander on the web of knowledge for any journals regarding handling time of prey in relation to size. already looked for info on axolotls but not too much out there, tonns on fish handling times though and same theroys may apply here. what a way to spend my friday nite eh! aparently a similar study was undertaken afew years ago in the department so am hopefull that this will yeld some possitive results... will also take a look at the main axolotl page here thanx mike.. hear from ya soon Andy
 

andrew

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P.S like the idea about relating the max size of a single mouthfull as will give more quantifiable results, thanx
 
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mik

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Andrew to help you along the path - you can buy pellets in many different sizes from an angling shop. That way you can be consistent with food size, flavour, texture and limit your variables whilss trying to identify a meaninful relationship.

I like the smaller ones about 1mm dia 2-3mm long for all my axies. The more pungent the better.
 

andrew

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ive writen my plan for the exp, for anybody who is intrestesd i will send them my proposisl. keep in touch as its good to hear from ya! all the best andy...
 
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