Question: New owner of terrestrial axolotl

Sorry, it seems my first post here will be quite a long one. I've got quite a lot of questions!

I used to work at an aquarium pet store. Anyway, a few weeks ago, we somehow got a few salamanders in stock. At first my manager told me they were newts, but later on he said that they were definately terrestrial axolotls. I don't know the full background story. There was a gorgeous solid black coloured/melanistic one and knowing that I'd probably never get the opportunity again, I decided to do the hypocritical thing and buy her and the tank on the same day (hypocritical because I was constantly telling customers not to do that... not that they ever listened ).

Here's a pic of Nessie:

And here's the start of the endless questions!

First of all, she is a melanistic Mexican Salamander, right?

I've been trying to read up on how I should take care of her, but all of the books I've borrowed about axolotls only have a paragraph about the terrestrial form. So unfortunately I've sort of been making up the husbandry as I go along. Currently she's in a tank by herself, with a hang-on filter, 13L of water (temp around 15 to 17 degrees Celcius) with a floating turtle dock. She's quite small, only about 10 to 15cm in size. I've been feeding her once every two days on a rotating diet of bloodworm, beef heart, small crickets and just recently, earthworms.

I've found the page on this website concerning their husbandry, but that has only gotten me more confused. The reason being is that it says that she needs more of a terrestrial set up, however I've witnessed otherwise. When I bought Nessie, there were two other salamanders in the tank (they were temporarily placed in the plant tank - about 300L and quite deep). While Nessie tended to be the one who liked to stay out of the water the most (she hung out near a horizontal filter grate), the other two (who were tan in colour with darker speckles) were perfectly fine in the water. I've seen Nessie stay submerged for a few hours at a time, and I've seen her take a swim in her tank three times now on her own accord. I find that provided she has something to hold onto (like an ornament or plants) she seems quite calm. However if she's just suspended in the water, she does tend to freak out after a while and swim frantically. So despite all that, should I still consider more of a terrestrial set up?

If the answer is yes, then what type of substrate should I buy? Also, how would I clean it? Currently I've been having problems with the ammonia levels in the tank (up to 1ppm), even though it's filtered, had any waste regularly removed (I hand feed her on the turtle dock so nothing should be going into the water) and had 30% water changes. I've also used ammonia detoxifiers, added the bacteria regularly and just recently added a plant that should survive the conditions in order to combat it. So that's why I'm a bit concerned with turning it into a terrestrial set up, because then the water level would be so low that having a filter would be impractical, hence I fear that the ammonia level would then sky rocket.

I've also discovered four different types of excretement:
1) In the water I've scooped out clear little balls with a brown centre. I'm guessing it's the same with axolotls in that it's regurgitated food? I only found it in the first week though.
2) Probably the oddest one - on the ornament, twice I've found a clear-ish moss-like thing, attached by only a few strands. I don't think it's just algae, 'cause it seems to just spring up over night (and also there's very little traces of algae anywhere else).
3) As you can see a bit in the photo, occasionally I find black film-like strands on the turtle dock. Is this skin shedding? It can be picked up in one piece.
4) Once a week I also find on the turtle dock one oval, pea-sized black ball. I'm guessing that this is faecal matter?

Also, should I be feeding her once every three days, not once every two? She's eaten every time, though never the full amount (like only 1/4 of a beef heart cube, 1/2 of a bloodworm cube). Should she be getting food supplements as well, similar with what you have to do with reptiles?

Once again, sorry for the long post! I hope you guys can clear a few things up for me!

I'm afraid I can't answer a single question here, but I'm writing to put your thread back at the top of the list so someone with more experience can better find it. (And to let you know you're not alone or being ignored )

Nessie is stunning, by the way.

-Eva

Hi,

I can not definitely tell if this is a metamorphed Axolotl or if it is melanistic by the photo but it does look like an Ambystoma. It is rather unusual to find several metamorphed Axolotls in one delivery (at least as long as no one was playing god with hormones...). Could you make another photo, maybe from the front/side?

You should provide it with a terrestrial or semi-terrestrial setup as described for Tigersalamanders. A suitable substrate would be coconut fibre and/or top soil. If you think that she is more than usual in the water, you can have a bigger water part in there. Here is a short step by step description on how I built a semiterrestrial setup for Tigersalamanders. The morphed Newts (the ones in the shop, too) should always have the possibility to easily leave the water or else they might drown, this could be the reason with the "freaking out".

If you have less water, you may regularly change a bigger part of it instead of filtering it. This will fight the ammonia. Besides that, there won't be a similar high bioload in the water when the feces are dropped at the terrestrial part. I would not recommend any chemical detoxifiers apart from water conditioners because some ingredients could be toxic to amphibia themselves.

As for the excrements:
1. sounds like eggs
2. no idea
3. shed skin, you could be right with that
4. feces

Feeding her every second to third day should be fine, depending on the amount she (?) gets. I would not recommend beef heart and the crickets could be dusted now and then since they have a poor amount of calcium. Earthworms are fine.

Hope this helps a little bit given the short time I have!

Hello, I've been looking around at tank critters recently as I had some blobs that I couldn't identify. The 'clear moss like things' you've found could be hydra. I've looked them up online before and they have long strands that they hold onto surfaces with, as far as I know they only live in water and eat any left-over bits of food. It's an idea, but I'm not sure, perhaps if you look up hydra online and compare them to what you have discovered in your tank.
By the way, I love your newt/salamander/axolotl (whichever it is), Kerry.

Thanks for the responses!

I took a few more photos (though I just realised that I should have taken one that was more front on).


She photographs quite badly because of her colour. There never seems to be enough light to pick up her finer anatomical points.

While I was fiddling around with the camera, she thought it was a good time to start climbing out of her temporary container.

I tried another side-on view while she was in that position. Hopefully it's a little bit clearer.

The reason why I think she's a girl is because there's absolutely no bulge around her cloaca. It's quite bare down there actually; I can barely see any opening.

Thanks for all the info Daniel. That's a really cool set up you've got. I've got a few more questions though.

How important is it for her to be able to dig? Originally I wanted to have the water level much lower, but I only put it that high so that the filter could work without risk of the motor burning out. I had an idea last night, where I drop the water level (the turtle dock floats so it adjusts accordingly), buy an extension for the filter's intake pipe (so I can still use the filter at that water level), and then buy a small lightweight shelter to put on the turtle dock, so that she has somewhere to hide on land. Right now the turtle dock takes up about 60% of the tank's surface area, so if I were to redesign it, I suppose she wouldn't get that much more land than what she's currently got anyway (as a side note, I saw this pre-made aqua-terrarium on the weekend. I could get that, but the land area wasn't much bigger than what I've already got ).

If that idea isn't any good and she does need to be able to dig around in soil, then I'll try to mimic your set up once I find where I can buy all the materials from.

With the ammonia detoxifier, it's part of a water ager product. I just overdose it (it's not extra strength so it's safe to overdose - at least it is for fish) when doing water changes. Is that still alright? Last weekend I bought the crickets crystalised drinking pebbles with calcium included (the label says it gives crickets 25% more calcium content). I haven't used it yet, but would that work the same as dusting them? I've also got daphnia and pellets, though I've only given either to her once since it was too hard to feed using forceps (I use forceps because I don't want her to associate my hand with food. So far it's working; when she see's the forceps, she starts snapping right away, while she doesn't do that to my hand). Should I consider swapping either of those with the beef heart?

The other problem I wanted to bring up was what I'm going to do in summer. It'll get over 30 degrees, and apart from moving the tank to a cooler place and adding ice cubes/ice packs to float inside a bag, is there any other way to stave off the heat?

Sorry for all the questions.

It really is important that you move her to a terrestrial setup. Morphed ambystomatids are poor swimmers, and can easily drown.

Definitely an axolotl - the toes are the give away. That's enough in and of itself but the fact that you're in Australia means that the pet shop owner would be looking at prosecution if he/she had anything but axolotls for sale. The advice you've gotten so far is quite sound. Daniel's suggested setup is nice but I honestly find the water to be a waste of space for tigers.

Foods and Cooling

Hi Venus,

The Caudate Culture page (http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml) includes several articles on food, including types of food (1) and their nutritional values (2). There is also a very detailed article on cooling methods (3).

(1) http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml
(2) http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods2.shtml
(3) http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml

-Eva

John said:

Daniel's suggested setup is nice but I honestly find the water to be a waste of space for tigers.

Click to expand...

Meanwhile this is true. They have been very fond of water as juveniles, much more addicted to it than Tigersalamanders usually are. Now that they are adults they rarely take a swim and I will rework this setup and provide them with a bigger terrestrial part and only a small water pond.

Thanks for all of your responses!

I finally got rid of my ammonia problem! I was doing as much as 30% water changes every day, but every day when I tested it, it was always 0.5 ppm. I decided to take out my filter wool/carbon cartridge yesterday and replace it with just some filter wool that I cut to size. Today the ammonia reading was suddenly testing 0. So even though the cartridge wasn't that old (I think I've had it only 3 to 4 weeks, although it says to replace every 3 weeks anyway), it must have been pumping out toxins. Though a part of me is wondering if it was doing that before the 3 week mark.

Anyway, I discovered that I can lower my strainer for my filter without buying an extension piece. So I lowered the water level to 8L. Along with having the turtle dock, all of the ornaments and plants, both real and fake, are now protruding the water line. I've also put in a sterilised jar in order to catch the water falling back out of the filter, so it doesn't hammer back into the tank like a waterfall, and also so that it doesn't make a lot of noise at night when I'm trying to sleep! Basically the jar overflows and becomes a bit like a flowstone. I'm going to add some noodles soon so that I can start reculturing my bacteria.

At the moment I'm going to leave my set up the way it is now. Nessie does still go into the water and she can swim quite well. Also, it means I can still have the filter at my aid, and when summer comes around, I've got a few more options when it comes to controlling the temperature. When I see that she no longer wants the water, then I'll convert to more of a terrestrial set up. I've researched and found places where I can buy the polyurethan-ether reticulated foam, along with coconut fibre. I'm probably going to buy all the things I need during the week, so that if I want to suddenly convert my tank for whatever reason, then I'm able to do it. But right now I just want to observe Nessie and see how things go with what I have.

Wow, this is interesting!
I did not know you could buy metamorphed axolotl,
I thought they only do it accidently.
Thank you for the pictures.