New Axolotl, Shy?

I just moved my first axolotl into his new home today and I haven't seen him since!

Any idea how long it takes for them to get accustomed to a new tank (from the shop) before he/she starts swimming around a bit more and eating nearby food? (i put a few bloodworms in and they got ignored)

Will get pictures up when he stops hiding

Thanks

Hi Alexx,

Firstly welcome and congrats on your new axie

Axies are just like any other pet and it is down to the individual so you cant really put a time frame on it I am afraid. Am guessing by the fact you have not seen him that you have hides for him which is great that will help him feel secure

Try not to worry I am sure he will come and say hello when he is ready & look forward to seeing the piccies.

Zoe

Thanks Zoe!

I have a little Leucistic (too young to sex yet) about 5 inches long.

He has lots of plants and bogwood and a cave to hide in, I just worry when he's hiding somewhere I can't see him that he's got stuck somewhere.. just being paranoid I suppose

There's a couple of baby white cloud minnows (about 1cm in length) that he/she can chase around if he/she gets bored/hungry!

ah bless sounds perfect am sure your axie will love his new home How is he now?? Does he come out when you feed him? Any pics of his tank would love to see set up

I've just had to move the tank (meaning I had to put him in a bucket for a bit :[ ) so now I think he's pissed off with me again.. He ate one Cichlid pellet that i managed to drop right onto his nose earlier so I know he's eating a little bit and won't starve. But now he's hiding again as I had to rearrange the tank so I'll give him some time

Only got a rubbish phone camera atm but here's a couple of pics!

Setup and axie hiding in the bushes

oh dear sure he will be out tomorrow for you (cute axie by the way)

Tank set up looks good but not wanting to dampen your spirits as I also to had to find out the hard way be so so careful with those stones, not only will your axie end up swallowing one of those when he/she gets bigger but they also will trap a lot of mess from food and poo inbetween the rocks making it so hard for you to keep the water quality good which as I am sure you know is vital to an axies good health. Sand or bare bottom is the best options (not all axies like a slippy bottom though).
I hope you dont see this as criticism just want to help you as I was advised to use very small gravel with my axie and he ended up impacted so as I say I learnt the hard way but thats the great thing about this site loads of axie lovers & willing people ready to help if you ask!

Plants and wood look great well done :happy:

Also with food not sure about cichlid pellets but sure someone else may jump in on that, have you tried earthworms (there fave & best staple food) bloodworm & any other axie pellets??

Speak soon Zoe

Cute little bugger, isn't he? =)

I'd try to get him off the cichlid pellets. Most of those types of foods are fishmeal ("extra" parts of the fish that sellers don't want), spirulina algae (good for cichlids), and other types of stuff axies don't eat, haha.

Worms are definitely the best way to go. You can either buy them online, get them from a bait shop, find them at a petstore, or even dig them up in your backyward if the weather/soil's right and you don't use any chemicals in your yard. There are also axolotl/salamander sinking pellets you can buy, but earthworms or redwigglers/tigerworms should be their main staple. It has everything an axolotl could ever need in one sleek, easy-to-swallow, wriggling package. ^_^

And I agree with Zoe about the rocks. Bren, another member on the forum, just had to have surgery on his daughter's axolotl due to it eating rocks that looked way too big to be eaten. Caribsea sand is the usual choice, but you can also use regular washed play-sand from any hardware store. Play-sand is dirt cheap, and very effective.

Good luck on your little one! We expect lots and lots of pics.

+1 re: the rocks! The amount of gravel mine pooped out when I took them off it was alarming... :S

What a sweet, shy little thing! You might find hes out and about when its all dark and quiet. My Chester is normally quite timid and hidden, but a couple of times I've been in at 3am and found him prancing around the tank, swimswimming about, quite happily!

Looking forward to more pics when the little fella gets more brave!

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Yes I've read a lot about impacting, I made sure the stones were large enough to not fit in an axies mouth until fully grown if at all, by which time I shall have a larger tank with a proper filter and a sand substrate. Lack of funds has caused me to use a tank I already had with an undergravel filter, thus the layers and mesh.

About mess being stuck between rocks, I thought the suction of the UGF may bring it down into the bacterial media and then the plants can benefit. I am always cleaning the bottom when I siphon for water changes with a plastic tube so I think I'll be okay there.

On the food subject, I know earthworms are supposed to be the best, I don't have a garden in my current residence so I'll try my local bait shop (though last time I went fishing they only had ragworm which are terrifying!) The aquatic shop where I bought my axi had loads of them, all looking very healthy. I spoke to the owner, he said he'd been breeding them for over 50 years! He recommended the cichlid pellets to me (soaking them in the tank water then squeezing them so they sink) and giant blood worms as a treat. As much as I'd love to grow my own earthworm culture I doubt my housemates would be best pleased. (I had a banana worm culture in a maggotbox for guppy fry once and only just got away with it!)

Again, thanks for all the comments, I'll get some more pictures up soon!

Ok glad you know just read some horrid stories recent one being on sick axolotl at the moment

Anyway am thinking I read something bad about undergravel filters and axies but am not sure but as long as keep do weekly tests to make sure your water is ok you should be fine just keep an eye on those rocks :happy:

As for worms lol you should see my small garden it has been wrecked with trying to find enough worms for my 3 and I gave up in winter and bought some off ebay, search on there for them or there is another company called worms direct that you can buy them from. As for a worm farm I have about 100 worms in a medium container which just has soil, cardboard and shredded newspaper in it and some food for them and occassionaly I add some water to make it moist and turn the soil every few days to keep it aerated and mine are fine so you could get away with that.

Pellets again you can use salmon pellets, shrimp or earthworm pellets again from ebay or as you say bloodworm all will please your axie.

Good luck