Prospective Axolotl keeper in New England

Hullo! I’m Adrien, from Massachusetts. My amazing girlfriend got me a thirty-gallon tank for Christmas, something I’ve been wanting since at least before September (my birthday). I’ve always had aquariums in my life (my father kept a large saltwater tank in my youth, and we recently installed a pond in our yard for koi), though I only recently began seriously keeping fish by myself. I’ve kept many bettas over the years, but only a couple years ago learned better than to believe the horribly-promoted Peace Lily vase setup. For my birthday last year, I got a white, red-spotted betta and housed him in a live-planted, five gallon MarineLand hex tank. He passed away the semester before last unfortunately, from a curious disease we couldn’t halt (among other things, he refused to eat, and his spine started bending). Soon after, our second betta together passed from dropsy. I was very saddened, and somewhat disheartened, but it’s been long enough for me to try again, and this time with more knowledge.

I’ve done a lot of reading on axies, but there are many differing opinions (especially when much comes from scientific keeping). I’ve always thought they were awesome animals, and am hoping that I can provide the proper setup. I will post shortly in the appropriate forum to start asking questions.

Oh, and also, I currently have three guppies that my girl’s keeping (two cobras, one tequila sunrise, all male) in my old five gallon. We found an amazing aquarium store, Tropical Isle in Framingham, though they don’t carry axies, but we intend to get most of our supplies there. We’re considering breeding the guppies and possibly housing some with the axie over time, either way we’ll be putting them in the thirty-gallon tank first (before any other animals) to get a good biological balance going.

p.s., my girl is baroque on the forum.

Nice to meet you, and I apologise in advance, because I bet most of my posts will be way too long like this. Hi!

oh. you mentioned me.
what a lovely novel you have composed there.

Welcome to both of you!

Welcome aboard! This site has tons of info that will help.

If you've had the guppies for a while, now, and you're pretty sure your guppies are healthy, and you're pretty sure you'll go the axolotl route, why not put old filter media in the new tank to get the cycle started now? That way, you don't risk your guppies.

(Not that I want to reinvigorate your Betta addiction :wacko:, but there's a pretty decent fish store, Aqua Life, in Providence, and the owner said he used to judge Betta competitions. Their betta selection is pretty impressive, if you ever travel out that way.)

jclee: I'm in the process of removing furniture from my room and replacing it with the tank (it's at my girl's house), so I won't get it in 'til this weekend, but hopefully by then, the guppies will still be alive and healthy (we got them maybe two or three days ago) and that's exactly what I intend to do.

Are you talking about the aquarium store on Wickenden street? I don't know the name offhand, but that's where I got Atlas, my white/red spotted betta. I do like that store. I'd love to get another betta...hahah, but I'll stick to the axie for now.

Also, I posted another, more informative about my situation thread in the beginner axolotl forum, if you want to catch up with me there! Nice to meet a Rhodie, I did a lot of my schooling in Providence.

Welcome!

Yes, I'm talking about the place on Wickenden.

I didn't realize the guppies were new, though. I might vote for a fishless cycle in that case. I've been paranoid about fish-water and amphibs since I lost my 4 ADFs after adding one new loach to my fishtank. The loach was in a tank that didn't have any amphibians in it when I bought it, but it must have at some point before I bought it. All four ADFs died 24 hours later, with a white film over their skins. It might not've been chytrid fungus, but after reading that chytrid can live in water without an amphibian host for ~7 weeks, I've changed my ways. I'd quarantine the guppies for 7 weeks before inviting them to share a tank with an amphibian, just to play it safe. (I've actually got a quarantine tank with some feeder guppies that'll be ready to go into my axolotl tank by the beginning of February.) If the main point of the guppies was to cycle the tank, it might just be better to do a fishless cycle, which would be finished in less time than a 7-week quarantine would take.