Question: Green fingers

I recently got a golden albino axolotl and notice he had some green on his fingers. It looks like green stringy algae and he might have picked some up from the pet store i bought him from where there was green algae in the bottom on the tank, however he was new stock and had only come in 24 hours before i bought him. I dont know if i should be worried or not. Also im having trouble getting him to eat pellets or beefs heart. I started trying to feed him beef heart but ater a few days he wouldnt eat it and was spitting the pellets out. I then bought him some feeder fish to eat and he ate 3 of them in 24 hours and seems to love them. How can i get him to eat beef heart though?

My axies pretty picky he won't eat beef heart either. Only worms sometimes pellets but he doesn't like them muh either

Beef heart is not a good food for axolotls.
Please read all you can here

Earthworms are the best food.
Sometimes they will only react to live food.

Mel

The pet store i got my axolotl from told me that beef heart is the best food for him. I however bought some live feeder fish and he eats them so i have some frozen in the freezer and he eats from my hand now.

pet stores are generally terrible at giving sound advice

I had problems with my paddletails after doing what the pet store told me to do. Best thing is to read up as much as you can from other Axi keepers

All I know now about my newts I learned from here, from links about it all and also from other members who were more experienced. They really were such a huge huge help to me

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Well theres a lady that works at the pet shop here that i get my advice from and she has had axolotls for years and knows what and what not to do from her previous experience. Also the pet store feed thier axolotls beef heart and the axolotls eat it. I suppose mine just didnt like it.

Axies will eat anything, it doesn't mean it's good for them.

The best bet is trying to duplicate what they find in their natural habitat, worms and mosquito larvae are always gonna be good options.

Yeah i know that which is why i've changed his food nnow and he's eating fine. I think the green on his fingers (which no one has said anything about) is on the tips of all his fingers, front and back. I'm waiting to see if it starts spreading

hope hes ok. Do you have a picture of him and his fingers?

I have tried for an hour to get some photos of it but my camera won't take photos that fine. It seems to be a bit worse then when i first noticed i and its a really dark colour. his water is quite cool so its not really the right temperature to be growing bacteria so im not sure. However i have only had him for a week or so now and i bought him the day after he arrived at the pet store here. So unless the pet store was sent a sick axolotl i have no idea what could have happened.

BethanyKate said:

Well theres a lady that works at the pet shop here that i get my advice from and she has had axolotls for years and knows what and what not to do from her previous experience. Also the pet store feed thier axolotls beef heart and the axolotls eat it. I suppose mine just didnt like it.

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They are misinformed functional dull normals.

That is not a fair comment. She has owned axolotls for many years now and knows a lot about them. More then a simple pet shop owner would. She has experience in these things too. However i have posted this forum because i'm worried about my axolotls health with his fingers, i am not really concerned about bagging pet shop assistants.

Just because someone has owned a pet for years doesn't mean they know the best way to look after it.

On here you have years and years of many peoples experience not just one person, who upto now hasn't given you the best advice!?!

Regarding the green fingers, it could be some sort of algae, have you tried to tease it off with a q-tip/cotton bud?

Mel

melfly said:

Just because someone has owned a pet for years doesn't mean they know the best way to look after it.

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I fully agree - quite right, Mel.

What´s on the bottom of your and the pet shops tank - sand, gravel, stones? Algae on axies feet are very unusual - I won´t believe that - but maybe some bacteria. I don´t know. I´ve never heard of green toes.

A pic would be quite helpful. Can you try to borrow a camera?

All advice you receive, regardless of the source, needs to be screened through your own experience and understanding. There are lots of valid reasons why feeding beef heart is not a really good choice for your axolotl but I'm sure many people have been "successful" with it and that's why they continue to recommend its use. For some, merely keeping their animals alive is not the ultimate result and beef heart offers the same challenges for axies as it does for humans - high fat. The best diet, of course, is one that is varied and as close to what an axie would eat in the wild if given the chance.

As to the green fingers - no clue. But a photo would be dandy. Here's a trick that I use to get fairly good pics with a moderately priced camera. Take the picture with as much resolution as your camera will allow. Make sure that you get a picture that is really well focused. You will probably be further away from your subject then you would like but the focus is the important part here. Then, use a photo editing program to crop the photo and enlarge it to show the details you want. If you have a relatively high resolution camera (mine goes to 8 mega pixels) the enlargement should show the detail you need.

Try that and shoot us a photo. That way we could all be better informed.

You said the water is cool. What is the actual temperature?

Look i havent come here to talk about pet shop assistants, all i wanted is help with my axolotl so seriously i dont care and i dont want to here everyones opinions about pet shop assistants, honestly. I'll try and post a picture tonight i managed to get some with my phone better then i could with my camera. I got some treatment that was recommended to put in his water and i'll see how that goes. On the packaging it says to remove the padding in the filter so i have and noticed there was a fair bit of green muck on it. I have only had the tank set up for a week now and there shouldnt be that much muck in it already. I'll treat him with this stuff tonight and see if he gets any better. Also the greenish colouring on his feet has spread a fair bit now and is alot more noticeable

This site is run by a guy that has a Dr. prefix to his name. Amongst the many experienced owners/contributors to this forum, you will find registered 'vets'.
If there are, say, a hundred regular posting-members on this forum, then if they've kept specimens for 10 years on average....you are talking of a 1000 years of shared experience....most members are experienced keepers of numerous animals at any given time.....so the wealth of accurate info on the care of your animal is generally by the concensus of about 10,000 person/hours of experience.

This forum is primarily created to provide the info necessary to give your animal the best quality of life......

Everyone here will give you the best tips on your axies... his feet, etc, and feel free to ask any advice :happy:, but whilst the pet-shop owner may have some successful experiences with axolotls, this site, I feel is a goldmine for information

WHOA! Uh, you really might want to check and see if the chemical you are going to add to his tank is dangerous to axolotls! There are several chemicals and medicines that are safe for fish that are incredibly toxic to axolotls. Axies are very sensitive to medications.

Fish meds can be toxic to your axies.
Look out for Copper Sulphate, Malachite green, etc.
Here's a useful link to medication, etc Caudata Culture Articles - Illness Part 1
The bottom half of this link also http://www.axolotl.org/health.htm

Oh my gosh you guys probably just saved my axolotls life. The medication i got for him had that melachite green in it. I got him out of the water as soon as i read that into a bucket with some clean water and got rid of his stones and water and cleaned his whole tank and filter. Hopefully he'll be okay, his tail is a bit bent now he must be stressed but the only way i could get him from his tank to a bucket and back was to get my brother to really gently lift him out. Hopefully he'll be okay