Question: A couple questions from a new Axie lover

Hello There!

I adopted a female axolotl about two months ago and have a few questions that have been pressing. Fist off...I tried to use large stones at the bottom of her tank, but they ended up smelling really badly and I watched Hiccup eat a few of the rocks, so we decided to take them out. Now she is just sitting on a bare bottom and I'm not sure how she likes it. I was thinking about putting some sort of turf at the bottom, something easy to clean, that she can't swallow..(she's pretty stupid haha) but I'm not sure what my best option is...any ideas?

Also, when we first got Hiccup, we had a power filter running in our 10 Gallon tank. After a few weeks though I noticed that some of her gills were deteriorating. So we removed her from the tank, did a full water change and then let the water cycle for a day or two with the filter on. We then kept her in the tank with it half filed with water and no filter, doing a 20% water change every two days. Her gills look better without the filter, but the poop that gathers at the bare bottom is never ending. Also there is the bubbly, rainbow film that is at the surface. I want to run the filter so that her living conditions are better (the water is continuously gross, and I try to turn it on for just a few hours, but it kicks up so much gunk and scares the **** out of poor Hiccup), but I cant seem to find a common ground. If any body has filter ideas, that would be great.

One more thing, are these guys supposed to stink so much?!? Phew!

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks so much!
Alex

Hello!

Hiccup, what a cool name, very 'axolotl' - lol!

Ok, so, the filter - have you thought about a spray bar? It attaches to the end of the filter and disperses the flow. Pretty cool - thats what I have on mine, without it the water flow was disturbing ME, never mind the lotls. I've seen some folks attach a piece of foam to the end of the pipe, too... darn, where was it? I'll look for the link... here you go - it's part way down!

Other option is an air operated filter - they attach to an air pump. Pretty cheap, too, I have one on the other axolotl tank, cost me a fiver as I already had the pump. Albi loves the bubbles that come out of the top, too!

Re: the bottom, have you considered sand? You could plant some lilaeopsis in areas to make lawns (I've just done this, and it's growing like mad and the axies love it). Sand is easy to clean, too, you just have to make sure it's a suitable sand for aquariums and you rinse it forever before putting it in!

Your tank shouldn't smell bad at all. Do you know about the full process of cycling?

A properly cycled tank should smell lovely, like earth. Sounds like you have some ammonia banging around, do you have a testing kit to check out all the water parameters?

stone eating is a huge problem with axolotl's, its good you caught it and have already removed the stones. Sand or barebottom are usually the 2 choices for substrate. I've heard about people using tiles but I have no experience with it. Axolotl's don't like strong current, so maybe your filter was a bit too strong for your axolotl. The film's probably a protein film, or residue from your dechlorinator I wouldn't worry about it. You don't actually need a filter, as your benficial bacteria can grow on surfaces in the tank, and not just filter media. I'd recomend getting a sponge filter at least for bio media, but you can run the tank with just an airstone so long as you monitor the water, and change it when you have any ammonia/nitrite/<40 ppm's of nitrate.
The smell is probably due to ammonia if the tank is not cycled. This also might explain the gill deterioration. Ammonia is highly toxic to axolotls, and you want to do waterchanges whenever it goes above .25 ppm's. If your tank is not cycled, I highly recommend doing some reading about the nitrogen cycle.
Also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but a ten gallon tank is not going to be large enough for a full grown axolotl. some people will tell you a ten gallon can hold an axolotl, but I wouldn't stick an adult axolotl in anything under a twenty long. They get pretty big
edit: lol, looks like mewsie beat me to it

carsona246 said:

edit: lol, looks like mewsie beat me to it

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Haha, I was surprised I got in there first, I took so long over typing my message, lol!

I think your tank size is the biggest factor in the smell, mess, and filter issues. How big is Hiccup? A 10 gallon would work for some larvae or a very small juvenile, but its going to make cleaning up the tank a constant battle and require large daily water changes. The smell is coming from the waste build up, not Hiccup. If you can upgrade the tank and get it fully cycled, I bet you will enjoy having Hiccup a lot more due to lower maintanence and she will be happier as well.

animalloversfb said:

A 10 gallon would work for some larvae or a very small juvenile, but its going to make cleaning up the tank a constant battle and require large daily water changes. The smell is coming from the waste build up, not Hiccup. If you can upgrade the tank and get it fully cycled, I bet you will enjoy having Hiccup a lot more due to lower maintanence and she will be happier as well.

Click to expand...

I dunno... I have an axie approx 13cm in a 10 gallon tank and cleaning and maintaining the tank is no hassle whatsoever. I certainly dont need to do daily water changes, 20% once a week is sufficient. I'll move him when he's older, of course, but I haven't had a single problem keeping this tank spot on

Thank you so much everyone!!

I thought a ten gallon would be too small too, but the man that sold her to me said it would be plenty of room.
I will have to try the spray bar, that sounds much better. Between the fish tank and Hiccups tank, it all gets very noisey! lol

Im thinking sand is going to be the way I go, I feel like she doesn't like the bare bottom because sometimes she frantically waves her feet, as if looking for traction. But is there a good way to clean the sand when doing tank cleaning? It sounds like a hassle. Also, I;ve read on here that some peoples Axies float, others say its not normal. I do find Hiccup floating around the surface wiggling her legs sometimes.

As far as the amonia goes, that would make sense since it is just still water now. Would a Ph tester be the tools I use to make sure levels are adequet?

One more thing, I know I'm low on room in Hiccups home, but do they prefer vegitation around? Because I like the idea of planting some in the sand if I go that way.

Thank you all again, you're so helpful! :kiss:
(p.s. Spell check isnt working, so sorry if there are errors )

Honestly I wouldn't worry about ph. What you want is ammonia/nitrite/ and nitrate test kits. You want ammonia below .25 ppm's and nitrite below 3 ppm's(I think? you might want to google that one. Nitrates should be below 40 ppm's. While still water is not ideal, it doesn't cause ammonia. You're going to want to check out the nitrogen cycle, a quick google search will give you tons of sites. The beneficial bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite to the safe nitrates colonizes on surfaces in your tank, such as filter media, or tank decorations, or even sand.
Cleaning with sand takes some getting used to, but it's not difficult. You just hover right above the sand, and if you get a little sand in your bucket it's no big deal, you can always dump it back in the tank. How old is hiccup? as long as she doesn't look like she's struggling to go to the bottom it's not a problem, and younger axies tend to float more.
Plants are always a good addition to a tank. They'll help lower ammonia/nitrates and look better than fake plants in my opinion. My axolotl's actually spend more time in my plants than in my hides. Water wisteria and cabomba have worked well for me, I suggest lowlight plants, as axolotls don't have eyelids and don't appreciate tons of light.

What Carson said!

Plants are lovely! When I first got my lotls, the shop sold me some plants, too, which promptly died as they were entirely unsuitable, so after spending 6 months of my life browsing here, I braved real plants again, and they look superb, and as Carson says, are good for your ecosystem!

I know I keep linking to this axie aquascaping thread, but I found it very helpful!

I have a mixture of silk and real plants now, and the lotls are always lounging on something!

hi there,
I found this thread really helpful with regards to cycling!

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-set-ups-filters-substrate/74324-cycling.html

hope it helps

One more thing please;

I've been considering getting a siphon for the bottom of the tank. If I do decide to go with sand; will that pose a problem?

Thank you all again, I wasn't sure who to turn to with these questions, But you all are so helpful.

I'll post updates about her tank and a picture as well as soon as everything is settled.

Thanks again!

I use a siphon on my tanks with sand, just hover it a few inches above and it should get all the debris, but hopefully not much of the sand. I usually just dump the sand I suck up back in the tank after I've dumped the dirty water

You can siphon with sand. With coarse (pool filter type) sand, there's very little that gets sucked up. If you go with finer sand, you'll suck up some of it, but then you can just rinse it and put it back in the tank.

So I'm having some issues with the sand.

I bought two 5 gallon bags of sand, and the man at the pet store said to put the sand in the bottom of the empty tank, put it under a hose, or in my case my shower head, and let the water run for 15-20 minutes, over flowing the tank and cleansing the sand.

I did all this, cycled the tank all night and the water is still murky and brown.

What am I doing wrong?!

probably didn't rinse the sand enough. What I usually do is stick it in a bucket, and run water over it, sift it with my hand and drain it all out. Then I repeat like 20 times.

I did as carson, only twice as many times and let the showerhead run through it for about an hour^^. Then it settled immediatly and was crystal clear and has been since =).