Newbie with unexpected axies

Hi everyone. The other day a co-worker gave me a pair of axies she could no longer care for, since she knew I had a large tank. I have all kinds of questions about these little guys now, because I promised her I'd take good care of them.

I'll start with info on my tank: it's a 55-gallon glass tank, canister filter (the water current is directed at the top of the tank, which is deep and calm at the bottom), lots of hiding places with natural wood, a cave, and fake plants (I don't have good enough lighting for real plants), and gravel substrate.

I've kept tropical fish for about 5 years, and fancy goldfish for 5 years before that. I'm knowledgeable about proper water changing and tank cleaning techniques. My tank was already cycled with only one fish - a long-finned black skirt tetra. I'd had other fish prior to him, but they had died off from age. Being busy with the kids, it was a while before I was ready to replace the school. I had planned on adding more in the next month or so, but the choice of inhabitants was unexpected. Ordinarily I wouldn't put axies in with a tetra - mixing a tropical with coldwater fish. I think I'll have to rehome the tetra, since I don't have room in my house for another aquarium. So far he is not going after the axies' gills though.

So she gave me a group of fish that I now realize probably shouldn't be kept together: a few guppies, a 3-inch fat fantail goldfish named Tubby, and the two axies. She was especially fond of the goldfish so I promised never to rehome him. I had planned on buying two more fantails for a good display, but I did my research and now it looks like I shouldn't, but I'm waiting to hear advice from the members here. Tubby pays no attention to the axies.

I had also thought about buying a white or albino axie but I don't know if I should mix colors. The other two are natural-colored. Oh, and I do quarantine when getting anything from the fish store.

Lastly, should I replace my gravel with sand? I've wanted to do that for a few years, but no place in town sells aquarium sand. Will sanitized sandbox sand work? And how do I keep sand clean? I usually clean the gravel with a siphon, but I worry that a siphon would suck up all the sand.

Sorry about all the questions. I just want the guys to stay healthy.

Hi, I'm only fairly new to axies as well. I have a bare floor with a few stones, the gravel needs to be bigger than the head of the axolotls otherwise they could swallow them which can cause all sorts of problems. Sand seems to be a popular choice on this forum so someone else should be able to shed more light on this. I personally use a turkey baster to clean. Also with the other fish it is quite possible that they may nip at the gills on the axies or the axie may eat or at least try to eat them. Also any new additions should be quarantined before adding, I believe about a month is a generally accepted time period. Adding a albino one shouldn't be a problem as far as I know, it seems a number of people have a mixture of colours, however you want one about the same size as those you already have or it could become dinner. Sorry I cant help more but make sure you check out http://axolotl.org/ it has some great advice on there

Ugh, these guys seem like they're going to be really hard to take care of. I will, though. I always try my best. Oh hey, how much do they eat anyway? I'm still researching food but haven't come across anything that says how much they actually eat. I'm also a little worried that I won't be able to find what they need. Freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex are no problem, although I've read that they aren't very nutritious. Earthworms from my garden would be a big NO, because of fertilizer. Frozen brine shrimp maybe? That's about the only frozen fish food I can ever find in the pet stores.

Hi Kristin!

Sand is better than gravel because it's finer and thus easier to pass should/when the axolotls swallow it while feeding. Sand is actually easier to clean than gravel because the filth does not get down as deeply inside of it as with gravel, and a siphon is perfect for cleaning (turkey basters are also excellent for spot cleaning).

I originally had goldfish and the man at the pet shop sold me axolotls as something to help maintain the goldfish population (as in, eating them). The axolotls did, indeed, eat the small and medium-sized goldfish. The larger goldfish did not get eaten ad did not nip the axolotls's gills, but they were in direct competition for food. Goldfish eat everything and are faster than the axolotls, and ted to be quite rude (pushing and shoving), which is effective against the axolotls, the axolotls had a hard time getting to food at all.

You can buy salmon pellets (also sold as axolotl pellets) - if you can't find these in stores they are very easy to order online. Earthworms are considered the best food and are also easily found at pet shops, angler shops, and in the back yard. Doodle bugs (or pill bugs or rolypoly bugs depending on where you live) are also very good. Guppies and other fish that remain small and bear live young are good food. I find the frozen stuff like mosquito larvae messy and insufficient for my adult axolotls. I didn't like live tubifey either, because it just wriggled into the sand and was ignored my my axolotls.

Axolotls are actually considered quite easy to keep. They eat many diverse things anbd they are fairly tolerant of temperature (colder temps; warmer temps for extended periods are to be avoided), pH, and water hardness. If you get all of your information from a forum (this one is truly the best, no flattery intended at all), you will certainly get good, reliable info, but you migt also get the impression that axolotls are tricky because of all the posts about problems. This is misleading, because people usually write for the first time only when they have a problem/question.

Hope some of this helps.

-Eva

That helps very much, Eva (that's my daughter's name too!). I'm really starting to like these guys, and I want to be able to tell my co-worker that her babies are doing fine. I also fell in love with Tubby, who is quite a tame goldy - he likes to swim up to the glass and get attention when anyone is near. I'll just plan on trying to train the axies to handfeed, or make sure that they get food and that Tubby doesn't get all of it.

We have plenty of roly-polies, but since my husband fertilizes the grass, I don't want to risk it. Our Walmart sells worms though, so I'll check to see if they were raised without any kind of additives in the soil.

I'll get some sand today and replace the gravel before I even feed them, because I'm paranoid of them getting hurt!

Hi Kristin!

Sorry about all the typos; I thought I had checked before posting.

It might sound nerdy but you can buy or build a worm farm. They are very low maintenance and great in winter when it's harder to find worms in your yard - and it's a mini-turbo-compost heap - the soil from the bottom of the box is excellent fertilizer. The link below is from my home state but you can find loads about them online: http://www.deq.state.la.us/portal/tabid/2101/Default.aspx

It was very easy to get my female to eat from my hand. Actually, she started it herself and now will even swim up and sit on my hand and nip about looking for food (it doesn't hurt, it's more like fast kisses). In fact, I have trouble getting her to eat food that I've dropped.

I forgot to mention that a diverse diet is considered best, like a staple (pellets) with goodies (worms, slugs, soft-shelled snails, tiny fish, roly-polies...).

I know you'll love the axolotls. They are so gentle and soft and they always look like they're smiling... Ok, I'm infatuated, what can I say. In any case, welcome to the club!

-Eva

No worries about the typos, I didn't even notice them. LOL

Knowing me, I'll probably start a worm farm. I am very nerdy about that kind of stuff. When we had frogs, I bred crickets. I'm even thinking about doing that again just because it was fun to freak the kids out with all the babies. And sometimes the fish liked to eat the tiny crickets. I wonder if axies would like them?

I got the little guys to handfeed today! They didn't seem to like the dried tubifex very much. They grabbed the cubes, shook them around like little dogs, then spit everything out. I'm going to the pet store tonight to get better food. Can you give me a general idea of how much they should eat each day?

Also, I've been reading a little about their gill and tail positions in relation to stress. Apparently a curled tail tip isn't good? I haven't seen that on my guys yet. Often their gill feathers stick out around their heads, and I'm not sure what's normal and what means they're stressed out.

Hi Kristen,

yes, the gravel should be changed asap as others have mentioned so it is good that you are changing it. It might cause a minicycle though so keep an eye on your water parameters. You can even use a bare tank floor if you want to make the tank really easy to clean.

Axolotls will eat crickets for sure, they are a good food for them. Earthworms are probably the best. I also feed my axolotl salmon pellets and frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. I have heard people feeding slugs and snails too. As far as how much food, well adult axolotls should be fed about twice a week, juveniles more frequently (maybe every second day). I tend to feed mine 1cm x 1cm cube of frozen food twice a week or 6 little pellets and mine is about 23cm long (an adult). On occasion I use feeder fish and just let him eat them in his own time.

Curled tail tip or gills pointing forward is a sign of stress. There are more at this page: http://axolotl.org/health.htm

Also, I was a bit confused about if you are keeping the fish with your axolotls, if so, you probably should separate them unless you don't mind if the fish get eaten. With almost certainty at some point your axolotls will try to eat them and might lead to a bit of a disaster!

Got the sand and I'm planning on cleaning and changing it tomorrow. I've never been really fond of bare tank floors though, I like a natural look with lots of rooted plants and caves.

Thanks for the advice on how much to feed. I would have been really overfeeding them otherwise!

They haven't pointed their gills forward that I've seen, but sometimes they sit there with them sticking up, occasionally flicking them back and then up again. It's cute, and hopefully nothing bad.

Yeah, my co-worker gave me the big fantail and the guppies with the axies. Tubby is a big guy, about 3 times as big as the axies and wouldn't even come near to fitting in even an adult's mouth. I've been watching him carefully to be sure he doesn't attempt to chomp on the axies' gills, but he completely ignores him. I know I may have to separate them, but I hope not since I don't want to divide the tank, and have no more room for another one.

I'm okay with the guys taking a swipe at the guppies though, for extra nutrition. I bought a breeder tank today, one of those that you hang inside the main tank. So if the guppies want to make babies I'd keep them in there until they were big enough to release into the tank as feeders or breeders. I'm not too worried about losing all of them, since the axies seem to love the bottom of the tank and the guppies hang around the top.

Hi Kristin!

When gills signal distress, they curve forward toward the nose. Fanning the gills back and forth is just breathing. At the link Sarah sent you is a good pic of a curved tail - it's a curved tail tip that signals distress. At least, I hope I'm understanding that right! haha

I definitely overfeed my axolotls but they beg and their will is simply stronger than mine. They really do push me around, honestly...

From what I hear, they will also discover (and hunt) the guppies sooner or later. But that's what guppies are for, right?

Hello Kristen,

It's great to see that are doing a heap of research on axolotls, especially when they were given to you unexpectedly.

I just thought I would address some of your posts:

Kristin said:

And sometimes the fish liked to eat the tiny crickets. I wonder if axies would like them?

Click to expand...

Providing a nutritional diet is essential because many problems can stem from imbalanced diet. Crickets are said to be a good source of food but too much can result in metabolic bone disease (MBD) which is primarily due to an imbalance in calcium. Two methods are commonly employed to counteract this deficiency in calcium:

1). 'Gut loading' the crickets 48 hours prior to giving them to your axolotl. This involves feeding the crickets a high nutrient diet that way when the axolotl ingests the cricket, it will also be supplemented with these nutrients.

2). Calcium dusting. This method basically involves dusting the crickets with a powder before giving them to the axolotl. However, it has been proven ineffective because the calcium powder tends to dissociate when it enters the tank.

If you would like some more information on the nutritional content on a variety of foods, I strongly recommend the following pages:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/worms.shtml

The amount of food given is also important. You do not want an overweight axolotl because this will slow down its metabolism, put strain on the internal organs, and other problems that I won't list now (too much detail ). I feed my axolotl a single worm every second day and every couple of weeks I will give her beef/chicken/mealworms as a treat. I personally, would also regard crickets as being a treat as well.

Kristin said:

So she gave me a group of fish that I now realize probably shouldn't be kept together: a few guppies, a 3-inch fat fantail goldfish named Tubby, and the two axies.

I had also thought about buying a white or albino axie but I don't know if I should mix colors. The other two are natural-colored. Oh, and I do quarantine when getting anything from the fish store.

Click to expand...

Axolotls are very messy and will produce much waste (i.e. ammonia) and the same is true for goldfish, so it would be beter if you remove Tubby (if you haven't already). You can keep a range of coloured axolotls together but the main issue is size. Larger axolotls can intimidate/dominate over small axolotls and thus attack the smaller ones or prevent them from eating.

Kristin said:

Got the sand and I'm planning on cleaning and changing it tomorrow. I've never been really fond of bare tank floors though, I like a natural look with lots of rooted plants and caves.

So if the guppies want to make babies I'd keep them in there until they were big enough to release into the tank as feeders or breeders. I'm not too worried about losing all of them, since the axies seem to love the bottom of the tank and the guppies hang around the top.

Click to expand...

I hope you did not purchase marine sand because some people make this mistake and it's an honest one. Marine sand is out the questions because it will most likely contain carbonates which will raise your pH, thus leading to elevated pH problems.

You can feed guppies but once again these should only be given as a treat because fish have an enzyme called thiaminase which will catalyse the thiamine within your axolotl and will eventually lead to deficiencies in thiamine.

Best of luck with your axolotls. It sure looks like everything is coming together :happy:

Jay.

Hi Kristin

Have a look at www.axolotl.org it has heaps of good advice about all things axolotl

Good Luck and Welcome

Thanks! I read through the site and learned a lot. Tonight I spent hours removing the gravel from the tank, but didn't put any sand in yet because I don't want to do too much at once and mess up the balance.