Hot Scottish summer

I have recently acquired an axolotl for my Biology classroom at school and am a nervous new owner. I am worried about my tank temps in this rare, warm summer for us - day time it has got up to 21C with windows open and a fan on (in a north facing room with no direct sunlight). At night it can fall to 15C. We teach a 6 day week so the axolotl is only on its own one day a week and will not be left at school during holidays but come home with me. From what I have read, such temp changes will harm the beastie. Does anyone else have this problem and how do you cope with this? I leave the windows open at night because the room temp is still 25C at 7pm. I have tried using ice bottles during the day but worried about making the temp bounce around too much. Any ideas (trying not too get too panicky here!) Roz

Hi Roz,

This article provides many cooling tactics

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

14-18 degrees celcius is ideal temperature for axolotls so the night time temp of 15 degrees will not be a problem.

Axolotls tolerate with temperatures at 21 degrees - as long as the temp is not going higher than this, axie should be fine.

I have three large tanks at home - the larger the water volume the easier it is to keep the tank temps down. I also use external filters - Internal filters can heat the water up to 5 degrees celcius and in Australia we have enough trouble keeping the tank temp down with our heat waves, we don't need an extra serving from a filter.

Freezing water bottles are a temperary fix to water temperature, if it gets hot at night and there is no one there to place the bottles in - then you may need to consider moving axie to the fridge and keeping in the fridge until your heat wave is over.

Hi Roz

Have a look at www.axolotl.org it has heaps of info on all things axolotl

Good Luck

Very helpful! Many thanks and sorry for not replying sooner!

Hi Roz,

The method I have personally found most effective is to close windows (and curtains) at midday and keep them closed until evening cools, then leave them open through the night and morning. In doing this I have actually been able to keep the rooms almost chilly despite high temps outside.

-Eva