Forum Newbie.

Hi folks, I've been reading here a bit and decided to join. :happy:

I recently bought a 120 litre / 90cm long tank from an on-line auction to put some of my goldfish and corydoras from two smaller tanks into to cut down on my workload* However the tank that was advertised as an 'Axolotl Tank' came with two aged and battered axolotls. My first thought was to drop them off at the pet shop the next day as I only really wanted the tank and canister filter for my fish.

Well, next day I thought "I might keep them for another day or two...". It's been a week now and I'm thinking I'll see how they go with a week or two of excellent care**, their last owner was a young lad who'd had them for five years but lost interest now he's a teenager and the axies are showing signs of neglect... I might just keep them. After all, I've got a couple tanks of goldfish and corys already.

(* I have an injured back and am limited on what I can do by chronic pain)
(** I used to have a business pre-injury, breeding tropical fish and wholesaling them to petshops, also doing consultant work on captive fish systems, designing enclosures, filter systems and setting up feeding regimes for various species, fresh and salt for the staff of public aquaria etcetera.)

Hmmm. So, "Hi!" :lick: I've learned a lot already from reading here, thanks.

welcome^^

freya said:

welcome^^

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Thank you. :happy: I'm new to axolotls and general amphibian captive care and this forum seems like just the place to learn what I need to know to look after my new charges.

Welcome ....you will soon be an axolotl addict

bellabelloo said:

Welcome ....you will soon be an axolotl addict

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Hehee! Thanks Julia. My biggest concern right now is water temperatures. It's not the hottest part of summer here yet and the tank's at 22ºC mid-afternoon. Ambient can climb another 5 or 6 degrees easily going by previous years and the forecasters are saying that we could be in for an abnormally long and hot summer here.

A commercial chiller is out of the question on my finances so currently I'm pondering the possibility of converting a second-hand compressor powered water chiller to an in-line aquarium chiller but funds are still tight so I don't want to buy one and then find that it can't easily be done. Not many sellers are keen to let me pull one apart *before* I buy it.

I won't keep them if I can't give them a good living environment. It's not my habit to torture creatures.

Thanks again for the welcome.

to be honoust: get a computer van
those things that keep the harddrive and all cool i mean
it goes on a 12 volt adapter and i got 1 on my tank!
it maybe keeps the tank cooler for 4/5 degrees and its very cheap to make! so 2 vans means more cold air ^^! or just put a normal indoor van on top of the water! but that will take more room,energy and needs to let the top of the tank while its cooling! (i got cats so not such a good idea )
so if you get 2 vans and put this on a steel bar you can hang it easily over the edges of your tank,put the wires together and get a 12 volt adapter!
ill put a link on it but its in dutch so i hope you can translate it or something but its actually about the adapter and there are pictures for that ;P
Aquarium Zelfbouw en Techniek Water Koelen
good luck!
^^

regards sandra

Hi Sandra. :happy:

Thanks for reading my introduction, the welcome and now the good advice. I have been reading the forum on and off all day and had come to the same conclusion. I rigged up a 12cm fan, blowing down onto the surface of the water and the temperature dropped from 23ºC to 20ºC. The axies are a lot more active now, so that I have a new problem; Aggression!

The healthier one of the two is bullying the skinnier one (who also has almost no gills). I think I know why he has lost most of his gills now. :sad: I don't want to have to deal with aggression between them, I went down that road enough with cichlids when I used to keep fish. I ended up just keeping them in their own tanks or in breeding pairs. I hope that these guys calm down (I think that they're both male) when they've had more time to settle in or one of them will have to go.

Thanks a lot for the link, I went there and Google translated it for me. It did a good job too, it's a very interesting page.

Cheers.

youre welcome^^
and try to feed them a bit more! usually that also will reduce the agression if theyre less hungry!
ive got 2 females in 1 tank and they also avoid eachother in the tank but when they get hungry theyre on the move and *****y when they bump in to eachother so... maybe it works ^^

regards sandra

Thanks again for the great advice. :happy: I'm offering them earthworms every day and the healthier axie is eating perhaps one every second day with the other eating about every third day. It's hard to know for sure as I've only had them here for five days and I think that they're still a little stressed from their move (although I was able to put a litre of already biologically active Siporax into their canister filter so that the tank didn't need cycling at all). In fact, from what I gleaned from the previous owner I think that they are enjoying the best water conditions that they've ever had!

They're both over five years old, a white one and a brown one (I'm still unsure of the exact terminology for my guys). The problem *appears* to be that the brown one likes company but the white one is territorial and aggressive. Whenever the brown one gets too close the white one bites at him. For a while I thought that it might be competition for hidey-holes so I've been removing the preferred one and forcing the white axie to pick another. When he does the brown one follows to that part of the tank, only to be harassed.

It's starting to bug me. Last night, just after the white one had deliberately come out of his cave to bite at the brown one, before he went back in I reached into the tank and tapped him on the shoulder area with my forefinger, hoping that I could start to train him. Luckily his reactions are a little slow because, as I removed my hand from the tank he turned and snapped at where it had been! He then glared at me through the glass for a couple of minutes before retreating into his cave!

I hope that they sort it out and settle down soon. I like to keep aquaria as I find them relaxing. I don't need yet another source of stress in my life!

Thanks for your reply. :happy: