Fridging

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Lisa

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Merry Christmas all. I am in Perth and we are in the middle of a heat wave that looks set for another week yet to be over 35 degrees celsius. Have been maintaining our axies tank at 21c (room temperature is 29) using ice bottles and three sided foam esky around tank and leaving lights off. The foam prevents fluctuations which is great, but I'm getting thru ice bottles faster than I can freeze them and considering fridging him for a couple of weeks.
So I need dechlorinated water in shallow container, lid, a bottle of spare water in fridge and to change his water daily. How often should I feed him while he's in the fridge? Obviously clean up poo/food as needed. Will the bacteria in my tank survive two weeks without him?
He seems fine in himself, but I'm worried that won't last.
It is 43 degrees celsius here today; wish I could go in the fridge!!
Airconditioning is looking better and better....
 
Hi Lisa;

it's a stinker hey? Do you have aircon? Our tank is sitting at 21 celcius with ice bottles and a pedastal fan blowing across the top of the tank. My female golden albino 'Chimera' is feeling the heat today. Most people couldn't imagine 43 degrees celcius at Christmas, my pond is suffering too!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

SHARON
 
At 5C, the minimum temperature you should keep axies at in the fridge, I think they are unlikely to eat (and tend to regurgitate already eaten food). But you can try offering your axie food and see what happens. If he doesn't eat for 2 weeks in the fridge I would not be too concerned as their metabolism slows considerably. Not sure what happens if you keep them in the fridge for longer, like how they will eat...

Not sure what happens to bacteria with no axie around, never thought about it! If you are concerned you could put a bit of food in the tank and let it decompose to provide ammonia for the bacteria. But yea, not really sure if that is a good idea or not... maybe you don't need to worry at all.
 
Maybe you could put a gold fish in the tank whilst axie is in the fridge, this would continue the cycle, let axie eat the fish once the fish has been quarantined for a month after purchase. If you're fridging axie over summer this might be a good idea; although I'm no expert!

Cheers
Sharon
 
perth as well

Hi Sharon & Lisa, i am also in Perth, geeze!! it's hot ,our tank is at 21c with the air con on 24/7. Ice bottles melt so quickly, can't keep up the supply!!!. It's a testing time for us axie owners.
 
Tara,

I wouldn't feed your axolotl while it is in the fridge because its metabolism does slow down therefore the rate at which it digests food is practically nothing. Hence, if the axolotl does ingest the food and it remains in its stomach for too long, the food will spoil within its stomach before it has been fully processed. Besides, I've heard of some axolotls surviving without food for 7 weeks...

Jay.
 
Thanks guys, No Sharon, no air con. Have put the little guy in the fridge in a lunch box, fridge at 7 degress celsius in the spot I measured it. Probably wrong thing to do, but gave him a few pellets in the lunchbox, which he's eaten, so hopefully that won't trouble him. He'd had a good poo today though. Going to remove plants from tank whilst he's in there, stop using light completely over summer and get some other hides for him, or maybe seek out some low light plants so that is set up when he goes back in. By the look of the weather report, he'll be there for 10-14 days.
 
I kept a juvenile in the fridge for 2 weeks and he ate daily... and poohed too. At lower temps they may not want to eat at all.
 
You can support the bacteria in your filter by emptying the water from the fridged axolotl into the tank as a water change so it maintains its cycle. Feed less but as it sounds like you face a long hot summer do feed. In the warmest part of the Fridge (front top 7 Celsius in mine) a juvenile ate about a quarter of "normal" and remained healthy looking while healing an injury.
 
I got a bunch of guppies for my tank whilst my axie is in the fridge! But that is a good idea oceanblue, to use the water from the fridge container.

Just thought I'd ask on this thread as I am planning to keep my axolotl in the fridge for most of January (my cooler is fine for temps 30C but not 40C! so I figured it's less hassle that way): but seeing as my axie won't eat, how long can I keep him in the fridge for? The fridge is at 8C and he regurgitated his meal from before fridging and will not eat any more food. I'm pretty much happy to keep him in there as long as they can go without food, but another thought I had was to keep him in there week days and taking him out on the weekend and feeding him then. He eats within about an hour of being removed from the fridge so he could get a decent feed easily on the weekend. I can easily keep the temperature under 20C on weekends as I won't be at work all day. Any thoughts? Which way is likely to be least stressful?
 
Axolotls can and do go weeks without food, but I suspect that if you are going to have to prolonged fridge a healthy axolotl that will not eat in the cold occasional warming and feeding is a good idea. (That is not to say that giving a sick stressed axolotl peace is not a good idea.) Do a water change before warming. Ammonia toxicity triples between 7 and 17 Celsius so a good way to stress an axolotl is to warm it in unchanged water. This point aside I don't think gentle warming and cooling is stressful in the 5-20 Celsius range. Personally I would not "Yo-Yo" an axolotl in and out of the fridge on a daily basis but in the fridge weekdays and fed and warm but not hot at weekends sounds like good animal care to me. It will also give you a chance to see your pet!
 
I put mine in the fridge for all of a day but realized our fridge wasnt consistant so had to get them out... Im having to face the weather with them in the tank till the chiller arrives.... changing ice bottles every hour or so .

No lights, no lid, fan blowing, filter aimed at the surface so the area is agitated to help evaporation.no curled tails no hair blowing over their faces so We are doing okay... today and tomorrow will be a test.... 40 today and 43 tomorrow...... and humid to boot!!!!!
 
I'm getting ours out on friday night and will try and keep him out thru next weeks hot weather, with the aid of ice bottles, foam wrap for tank, no lights etc. I'm hoping that changing to an external filter when I get my bigger tank happening in the next month or so will drop my tank temp by a couple of degrees. Good luck dancas!
 
ya..
When i go shopping tomorrow i think i will look at an external filter...prices seem good at pet magic in cannington, we are going to make a temporary chiller till the proper one arrives ( ice in esky, coiled up tube in there, pump to push water through etc etc)
 
My axie ate in the fridge a few days ago and he didn't throw it up for once :) So looking like he will get thru the summer unscathed if he keeps this up! Meanwhile my guppies are enjoying the warmer tank :p
 
I had a question about fridging... I have put my axie (white albino) in the fridge twice now, and both times on around the fourth day his gills were very pale (almost no colour) and the tips had darkened to almost black... he seemed ok in every other regard (even ate a bit as you can see from the post above). The temperature was 8C and I had been keeping him in a Tupperware container with 1.5L of water changed once a day. I had a lid coving most of the container and it was wrapped in a tea towel.

He is back in his tank now and about half an hour after removing him from the fridge and warming him up in the container his gills were back to normal. Is this discolouration something to be concerned about? Or is it a normal response to the cooler environment?

Currently he seems happy enough and is eating a lot again. He will be going back into the fridge in a few days when we get another heat wave.
 
Last edited:
Hi Sarah

No that is entirely normal in an axolotl when they're in the fridge - blood flow is reduced due to cooler temperature. Our wildtypes look like dark paling grey , our leucistics go very pallid and looked washed out while in the fridge.
 
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