Question: Zophobas?

I'm about to start up an aquarium in a few days and hopefully I can finally get my first axolotls in a few weeks. I've been reading everything I can find about them but there's one thing I can't find anywhere. When it comes to feeding most seem to give their axies earthworms and pellets.
I know the petstore I'm going to get mine from give the axies zophobas (zophobas morio). I don't know how nutricious they are but the animals really like them and seems healthy.

It's the only live food the petstores here have except for mealworms. I'm thinking about continuing giving them zophobas and adding some frozen or freeze-dried food.

What do you think about this diet? I don't know what kind of frozen food the store has, what is appropriate to give to the axies when I get them (I think they are about 12-15 cm, ~5-6 inches), and what do I give them when they grow up, if the food I start out with gets too small?

These Zophobas (also known as superworms) are not the sort of food I would be looking at to feed to my axolotls. However if they have been eating them it may be one of your options to continue.
These creatures are to be fed with care though. Although rare it has been known for superworms and mealworms to actually be eaten alive and then to eat the insides of the creature that has swallowed them.
In this instance its better to remove the head of the superworm/mealworm.

You could try sourcing frozen food such as bloodworm, fish, prawn.
Some people feed a little beef heart now and then. Mine like a treat of liver maybe once a month although they would eat it everyday I'm sure if it was offered.

Some keepers feed their axolotls soft salmon pellets or you can even buy axolotl food (pellets) online.
Their diet can be quite a varied one if you are prepared to do a bit of searching. The freezer is an excellent place for storing prawns, liver and the foods I have mentioned( with exception of pellets) and this way you know the food will be fresh once thawed.
As your axolotls grow they will in fact need to be fed not as often but still enough to maintain them.
Mine at 12 months old are now being fed every 2nd day (sometimes every 3rd). They have nice round bellies but they are not too fat, they are able to move easily.
You will be able to estimate your axolotls food needs as you become accustomed to keeping them.
Good luck!

Earthworms should be easy to find, too - you will find them at a bait shop (for fishing), and you can also order a worm farm online and set up your own food factory.

It may also be possible for you to order other types of live foods online. If you have a garden, you can also find many tasty foods - assuming that no chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers) are used in the garden.

This section of the forum has lots of information about live foods, including how to raise them yourself:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11

Another good food is salmon pellets (sometimes also sold in pet shops as axolotl pellets). These are highly nutritional, so a little goes a long way. You may be able to find salmon pellets at a feed store (for livestock), and you can certainly find them online.

Good luck,

-Eva

I think morios are a bad choice of food. They are nutritionally incomplete, have a negative Ca ratio, large, high in fat and have extremely powerful jaws (They can painfully nip human skin). I wouldn’t feed them to anything that wasn’t going to crunch them up before swallowing.

Earthworms are the way to go.

Woaaaaa I never heard of such a worm!! Other then on a horror movie on the Sci-fi channel LOL When I was readying that these worms can eat the inside of the animal that ate them, something just is not right with that LOL

I will stick with harmless earthworms. LOL

I'm not interested in a worm farm at home. Don't think my roommate would be so happy about it either.

It's hard to get earthworms from gardens here. My parents (the only ones I know here with a garden) live 10 km away and with the snow here half the year it's a bit tricky that way. I've never heard of a bait shop with live bait around here. But maybe I can get the petshop to order in for me and then ask for pellets at the same time. They already have bloodworms so that won't be any problem to get.

Thanks for the answers, I'll make sure to tell the pet shop about changing the food for their axies

I've been reading some more and have another question.

I would like to get guppys as a feeder fish (to let them hunt, save some money and I still like the fish), if I start out with a few guppys in the aquarium (3 or 4 in about 100 litres), how long do you think it can take before the nitrite cycle is complete? Since the fish itself should be quarantined for about four weeks (if I got that part right) I would really want to get the axies as soon as possible after that. At least the cycle should have come a bit on the way, right.. I want to do this right and let the tank cycle before I put the axies in, but a started cycle is still better than nothing I suppose, and I've already waited for 2 years to get this far.

I've had aquariums before but never tested the water since the fish were fine, so the practical part of it is new to me.

How did you cycle your aquariums and how long did it take?