Tuna

I have just put some tinned tuna into the tank and my three Axies have gone mad for it:happy:
I have been thinking of what to give them as something different and they can help themselves to rather than me hand feeding the worms, the two females are both very active however Mr Stimpy is very lazy and just sits and waits for food to just appear in front of him, the tuna is now scattered around the tank and he zipping around munching lol.

:S Fish muscle alone is already an unsuitable and incomplete food, but tinned tuna? The nutritional value for the axolotls has got to be very slim, plus i´d be greatly worried about the oil and the uneaten scraps that will foul the water.

They wont just get fed the tuna but will also get their worms, it was just a treat, the tuna was in springwater and I rinsed it before putting it in, anything left in will be syphoned out. I wouldnt allow them to live in poor quality water and give them a poor diet as I do care for them alot

I stopped occasionaly feeding my axolotls raw herring /mackeral etc despite the fact they loved it due to water fouling, after every feeding i had to do a water change.

Someone suggested giving axolotls defrosted cooked prawns. I thought I'd give it ago. I take one prawn and cut it in to tiny bitesized pieces for my adult. He loves it and its never done him any harm. But then, the majority of his diet is organic earth worms fed on donkey dung, and pellets. :happy:

Cooked prawn the natural diet of the wild axolotl lol. Asda do frozen prawns for £3.50 a bag(often 241 special offer!) , my axolotls love them, though i do feed sparingly as they are high in cholesterol, or so im told.

I do try and be sparing but he started going off worms for a while so I mixed his diet up a bit with prawns, bloodworms, and pellets. Left out worms for a week and tried him on them again and he loves them AGAIN :lol:

Another issue with tuna is the high concentrations of heavy metals, specifically mercury.

As for shrimp and prawns, most commercially available have been treated with sulfites as a preservative.

Mine goes off worms occasionally too, I WAS feeding him beef heart as a temporary alternative while he's being picky... but due to other recommendations, next time I need to vary his diet I will use blood worms in a feeding jar. Much better for them so I've heard.

I feed mine on earthworms and bloodworms, but if they refuse, they they go to bed hungry and I try again the next day. that is enough to get them eating again.

I too am interested in trying alternative foods, I'm not game to try prawns as I'm allergic to shellfish and I don't want to handle them and risk my going into anaphylaxis.

I am however a butcher, and I have access to a vast source of alternative foods, but I would only ever feed such foodstuffs if I was trying to fatten up a axie.

My axie doesn't have prawns ALL the time, he does literally live on a mixed up diet of worms, bloodworms, and axolotl pellets. I also leave him hungry sometimes when he refuses to eat the worms. I try and get him to eat the worms as I know the nutritional value of them is of great use in rearing a healthy and happy axie.

Though he does seem to prefer the garden worms than these organic worms looks like I'mma gonna have to go digging in ma garden again!

My guys were due a water change anyway so I didnt mind having to do it, I didnt put loads of tuna in it was just a little. I have fed them River Shrimp that I get from a local pet shop and they love those aswell. Will def look into getting prawns for them aswell,

If your water is fowling due to a small amount of un eaten food then it's due to poor filtration. aim for at least 4-5 times turnover of your filter.

Filtration has nothing to do with it. The filter will just accumulate the debris, but won´t eliminate it, so it will have no efect on the fouling.
Prawn is not suitable. No salt water animal should ever be offered as food for fresh water axolotls. The contents of salts and various elements are completely inadequate. Beef heart is also unsuitable as they can´t properly digest mammal tissue, and it´s way too caloric.
Stick to natural and suitable foods: terrestrial and fresh-water invertebrates.

Azhael said:

The contents of salts and various elements are completely inadequate. Beef heart is also unsuitable as they can´t properly digest mammal tissue, and it´s way too caloric.
Stick to natural and suitable foods: terrestrial and fresh-water invertebrates.

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Well I'm beginning to a little frustrated with one person telling me one thing, and then another telling me something else. It makes me feel like a bad owner when I think I'm doing something right then it turns out its wrong. I will stop the prawns right now, as I trust your opinion more gathering on the amount of rep you have been given, and the fact you are a moderator. So thank you for helping me clear up that food situation, I just want my axolotl to be happy and healthy :happy:

Seeing as you have quite a wide knowledge on axolotls, please can you suggest to me a food for an axolotl, that isn't worms, pellets, blood worms, or live food? The reason for this is when I go away for a week sometimes my mother looks after them and she doesn't like feeding them worms, which is understandable. Bloodworm is too messy for my adult axolotl, and he won't eat the pellets unless taken from someones hand. Im not risking live food because the last time I did it, it made him sick, and I'm too scared to risk it. I thought I had finally cracked it with the prawns, but obviously not. I need a food source that is fairly large, dead and can just be plopped in the tank for him to hunt. For some odd reason he won't hunt pellets.

Sorry for the long message!

Don´t take it from me on the basis of my rep. or my supossed knowledge! I could be lying xDD
You already know of different sources and different opinions, now try to understand them. The reason why salt water animals are unsuitable as food for fresh-water animals is simple, the contents of salts and various elements are substantially different. The contents of iodine can be particularly troublesome as they can affect hormonal production (potentially ending in forced metamorphosis) if accumulated in sufficient quantities. Again, research this stuff if it really is troubling you, don´t just accept it because i say so xD
There is a lot of bad information out there and a lot of people who make claims about certain foods being suitable. Funnily enough, they almost never justify their advice they simply put it out there. As a rule of thumb, beware of people who just make claims but don´t justify them. If someone says "chicken is good for axolotls" and doesn´t justify it, be suspicious of the value of their knowledge.

About the alternative food item, it´s tricky as you have mentioned the four basic foods xD You can use "prawn", just make sure to use a species that is fresh-water. Crustaceans in general are excellent choices, nutritious, rich in calcium and also in carotenes. Daphnia, gammarids (scuds), fresh-water shrimp (red cherries are the most popular species), anostraceans, isopods (woodlice), etc, all make excellent choices.
If you could find a fresh-water alternative to prawns, they would make a good alternative. You can also culture some of those which should eliminate any problems that you might have had with live foods in the past.
You might also want to consider creating a partition in the tank in which you can offer bloodworms without fear of them being scattered around the tank. It´s worked very well for me in the past (not with axolotls, though) and for many other people.
Or you could work on your mother´s opinion towards earthworms xD

Im only saying I trust you a bit more than the other source I found!

Thank you for the heads up on salt water animals as food sources.

Ive only ever fed him worms, bloodworms and pellets. I have to keep switching because he gets extremely fussy and difficult. which almost makes me feel he is bored with those 3 sources. But its also hard because as you said, they are the main ones! But thank you for the other information you gave, I will go have a research into them and see what I can do.

As for my mum and earthworms, its not that she doesn't like them, she thinks its cruel to feed the earthworm to my axolotl. I have tried to explain there has been studies which shows that earthworms don't feel pain, and that if my axolotl doesn't get worms, he will starve which is equally as cruel. But it doesn't get through to her!

Weird question, but can you buy 'dead' fresh water shrimp? When I put shrimp in with my axolotl last time, it really distressed him, they constantly sort of looked like they were nibbling at my axie, and he would kick and flick them away.

Scooty, I don't know if this is OK, but just a suggestion for when your mum's feeding. What about egg yoke? I've just been reading the thread about feeding it to babies, so I presume (please someone correct me if I'm way out) that if it's good enough to raise babies it would be ok as a temporary or occasional food. Just a suggestion????

Ok so no prawns and it does seem obvious now, mine do eat their worms and enjoy them. However I do like to offer them other items aswell, I have given them river shrimp which they also like but nearly £5 for a small pot and it doesnt last that long, again the bloodworm they only bother with if I hand feed.