Sorry if this is a weird question...

How often are baby axolotls supposed to go #2? I've had mine for about three weeks now and have never noticed him going to the bathroom but today he had a big, dark thing hanging from his butt. He is about 2 inches long and I have never noticed anything like this in his container before. I've been keeping him in a large tupperware container with daily 100% water changes but today I moved him to a 15 gallon tank, which has been cycled, with the filter off (I have a waterfall filter and worried it was too strong for him at this size). I decided to put him back in the tupperware container for feeding and over night so I could turn the filter back on in the tank. It looked like he was going #2 but I have never seen him do it before and I'm just worried that's not what it was and I'm stressing him out/doing something wrong. He has been eating white worms, if that helps at all. Sorry if I'm just being paranoid but my friends and I have all fallen in love with him and don't want to see anything bad happen to him; any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

They'll poo at least once a week. The poo disintegrates pretty easily, and turns into what I call 'poo dust'. If you do find a whole, fresh poo, it looks like an American football.

As for the tank: if you've just got one juvenile axolotl in a 15 gallon tank, I'd use a sponge filter instead of a waterfall filter. Turning the filter on and off frequently negates the purpose. They need to be kept running constantly in order to provide a healthy home for the bacteria to live. If you're worried about the flow being too strong, you can baffle it with an object blocking the flow (rocks, plates, legos, all sorts of things).

Yes, that is what it looked like! I've just never noticed it before and got kind of worried.

Also, how much do sponge filters usually cost?

They are super cheap. <$10

Hi M,

The only wrong question is the one that isn't asked. I have 4 who range from 1-2.5". I have 2 in a 20 with a separator - I use a Tetra 3i with them ($9.98 Wal-Mart). It is a simple air pump (a small pump comes with the filter) driven filter but I can control the force of the air pump with a little regulator. It uses little removable filters that are cheap as well. I keep the dreaded water fall very close to the surface and have it filtered through a little cotton filament. They don't seem to mind it at all and one has taken to sitting on one of the little suction cups on the back. The intake is partitioned so they can't get sucked up either. My water is clear and I further maintain with partial water changes - I remove the babies for this though. The other 2 are in plastic containers until their tank (newly acquired) is cycled. Hope this helps!

You can use a gravel siphon to help do your water changes, the flow is so insignificant that it wouldn't disturb your babies, both adding and removing the water during a change.