Question: Winter forage

Hello everyone,
I know axie's love earth worms. And I also feed my axie's with them. But the winter is coming. And it is already a bit cold. So no worms in the backyard.
I tried frozen food, but it just gives such a mess is their tank.
So I give them mealworms, is this a good nutrient source?

grtz Diho

Apparently mealworms are not good as staple diet for axie and should only be fed to them occasionally. Also you have to crush their jaws before feeding them as they can bite your lotl from the inside!

Have you tried looking for pellets? There are many mentions of "soft sinking salmon pellets" in this forum. They seem hard to come by in the UK but maybe its different in the Netherlands. I think people have also had success with chichlid pellets, there are some which are produced for carnivorous chichilids which contain approximately the right balance of protein, fat and nutrients for axolotl.

Yes, I have looked for Axolotl pallets. You can get them from the Indiana University Axolotl Colony. But I also found, that sturgeon pallets are an excellent replacement.
At the other side, axie´s mainly eat food that is alive. I could move the pallets with a tweezers. But I dunno if that would help.
Of course I can give it a try So I will buy some sturgeon pallets next time at the pet shop.

grtz Diho

Just make sure the pellets are 100% carnivorous.
Also, have you considered culturing the earthworms? You can keep a steady supply in a smallish container year-round. That way you´ll always have earthworms at hand (and without digging in the garden) no matter the season.

Hm that could be a nice solution , but one question, I have found this method:
Cheap and Easy Worm Bin!
But wouldn't this go smell stinky? XD

If done properly, not at all.
I use what is basically the same method and i actually like the smell xD It smells of fresh earth.
Bad smell is an indicator of bad conditions in the bin.

Bait stores here in the US sell earthworms year round. Also, frozen foods are a good alternative if you thaw and rinse them before putting them in the tank (I like mysis shrimp prepared this way). Pelleted food is an alternative that my axies accepted without any extra effort on my part. There are several types available but make sure that you choose the pellets that sink. Cichlid pellets formulated for carnivores are an excellent choice.

I bought a bunch of earthworms and kept them in a bin that looks pretty much like the one you've posted and I keep it in the shed where it's not too cold or too warm, just enough for them to live in and also breed a bit. (I've found a bunch of worm eggs and white babies already!)

About the sturgeon pellets. I've used different kinds too but only as a snack when my axies are looking at me with their begging faces. The first ones I used did have some vegetable kind of... stuff in it... I stopped using them because I don't know if it's actually good for axies to 'digest vegetables and other... green stuff'. The ones I have now don't have any of that goo in it.

Hi - just a quick tip about the whole "dead food not moving thing" - my axies are exactly the same and if something isnt moving they just dont know its there! (no wonder theyre nearly extinct in the wild eh...) so with pellets, i drop them into the water, one by one, directly above them so that it floats down right past their faces and they snap them up! it takes practise to get it just right but if you miss then just pick it up and try again!

Wow, thank you all for the information !
@Azhael: Well then I surely will try to do this, like Dick Willis said, I can buy some worms at a bait store, and I will try to keep them like it is discribed here:
Cheap and Easy Worm Bin!m

@Snake, then I will try these sturgeon pellets too, and like seksee said, trying to make them eat itXD.

my axie's and I are thankful!

grtz Diho

seksee said:

(no wonder they're nearly extinct in the wild eh...)

Click to expand...

Interesting statement. The reason they are nearly extinct in the wild has nothing to do with whether they will eat dead things or sturgeon pellets. The reason they are nearly extinct in the wild is because people, in all of their wisdom, have introduced species into the lakes that they inhabit with which Axolotls are incompatible - Tilapia are aggressive and large fish who are busily displacing all manner of natural flora and fauna in Mexican Lakes and many other places. We know better but we continue to make these selfish choices in order to totally exploit the world we live in.

Then, we amuse ourselves with the remnants of the poor dumb creatures who don't seem to be able to get along without us. Seems to me they were doing fine as they were before we got involved in the first place.

Better, I think, to enjoy our animals for what they are, beautiful and unique creatures perfectly suited for an environment that we have made uninhabitable to them. It seems to me that the solutions to all of our problems here on this forum, then, would be to do our best to understand what that environment is and to replicate it to the best of our abilities. Axolotls are opportunistic, carnivorous feeders and will eat most anything that makes itself available to them. They are also clever enough to learn to eat lots of different kinds of foods. Their eyesight is quite poor and their eyes are on top of their heads so they frequently hunt by smell - then quickly suck up potential food items (that's why they "eat" so many stones - oops).

Axolotl research facilities (people whose job is to make sure these animals are healthy) feed pellets almost exclusively to their animals.

Yeah but that´s because pellets are very convenient.
In the hobby i think we should make an effort to provide as much variety of live foods as possible, particularly crustaceans (as a complement to the earthworms).
And it´s certainly true what you say, they are going extinct because of us, it´s all our fault. The species was perfectly adapted to its environment before we changed it dramatically.

Ah, just for your information, I mailed with the AGSC (Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center) about if sturgeon pallets are a good replacement. Their answer was this:

Do you know the content of the sturgeon pellets? Amount of fat/protein? Our pellets are actually salmon pellets and have a high Fish Meal content. Our pellets have 45% protein and 19% fat. If your sturgeon pellets are similar, then they should work just fine.

Just that you know

grtz Diho

If only we could find somewhere that stocks salmon pellets!

Having said that theres some excellent and easy to find websites out there that deliver earthworms ... so who needs pellets anyway?

(Poor earthworms:lol