Can you house Axolotls with Anderson Salamanders?

I recently got 2 Andersons and was hoping to house them in my large tank of Axolotls. Has anyone had experience in housing them together? I was told that it's fine but I have heard some stories of the Anderson being introduced and suddenly all the axolotls go belly up...
I am hoping that these situations were a matter of poor water quality/ cleaning or bad food.

Anyway I just wanted to see if any of you have history or opinions on the matter.
thanks.

We dont have anderson over but I have read NO dont put them together. The only thing you should put with your axie is another axie(except shrimp for food of course).

Mixing different species together is a big no no. Why risk either your axolotls or your Anderson's? You could also get crossbreeding and this also highly undesirable. I'd go for getting another tank and enjoy them both separately.


Regards Neil

Nice to have some Andersons though. You don't see them often here. I'm a bit jealous.

Never mix species...just a bad idea.

Neil C said:

You could also get crossbreeding and this also highly undesirable. I'd go for getting another tank and enjoy them both separately.


Regards Neil

Click to expand...

Its only highly undesirable if you are worried about keeping a species "pure". You could actually get some very cool animals but a lot of people are against it. The general rule is to never mix salamander species, like others have said, but in this case i think its because the Andersons and the axolotls have quite different mannerisms and behavioural characteristics, even though they are quite similar physically. Andersons are apparently more aggressive.

So I googled Anderson's salamander and two very different animals came up. One looked similar to an axie (very good looking) and this very armored looking salamander.

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/i...otos_fauna_com-Amphibian&seq_num=169862&one=T

Which is which or do they just morph, unlike the typical axie.



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I have read other posts on here about andersons morphing, but they do not look like that!

there is a picture at the bottom of this thred.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...num/71728-anderson-salamanders-metamorph.html

Unmorphed andersons look like a really spotty brown axolotl, with a more newt like head. They are very pretty. It looks like they morph eisier too, and i think their spiecies has not been as geneticly watered down as axolotls, which are now very disimilar to their wild counterparts - which are on the brink of extinction anyway.

suztor said:

So I googled Anderson's salamander and two very different animals came up. One looked similar to an axie (very good looking) and this very armored looking salamander.

CalPhotos

Which is which or do they just morph, unlike the typical axie.

Click to expand...

As yellowpebble showed, they do morph. The salamander in the calphotos link is Echinotriton andersoni, a very different species indeed.

wow!...

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ty-sure-hes-morphing-ambystoma-andersoni.html

sorry off topic from OP

So is the biggest concern the cross breeding or or is there something more the mixing? I am not breeding them..I just enjoy having them. I am pretty sure I will keep mine separated but I know others are keeping them together and have so for years. Should they be worried?

You can keep them together. They are similar and their husbandry is much the same. Their is a risk of crossbreeding. Crossbreeding is frowned upon by most serious hobbyists. Their are Ambystoma andersoni and Ambystoma mexicanum crossbreeding experiments going on for research purposes. I would not keep them together because I am interested in breeding pure lines.

If you can sex them you could keep male with male and female with female? ... On a side note, i now male/female axolotls breed together at the drop of a hat, but if you did keep a "breeding" pair of Andersons together, do you think they would mate as easily considering they are different species? It might not even happen?

And it is your decision, it is frowned upon by some, but like everything there are a lot of people who do not find it a worry. I know you said it is not for breeding but if you kept an opposite sex axolotl/Andersons it could happen.

I think Rayson summed it up nicley in this thread:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...ion-free-all/51411-metamorphed-axolotl-7.html


"Actually i can see the valid points from both sides.

There is a concern that intentional cross-breeding will result in a decline of pure lines of axolotls and tiger salamanders and therefore 'contaminate' the gene pools. Releasing of such hybrids into the wild would also affect the ecosystem as hybrids tend to have hybrid vigour and would outdo pure axies, competing with them for food, more resistant to disease etc. Research involving axolotls can also become confoundered with external variables such as impact of tiger salamander genes.

However, cross-breeding can also bring forth new findings, by introducing new genes into the very limited in-breeding axolotl gene pool. New colour variants, hybrid vigour, improved resistance or feed conversion rates etc can result. If the F1 progeny are crossed back to axolotls and subsquent progeny again backcrossed, the axolotl line can become 'purer' again, while at the same time selecting for desirable traits."

on cross breeding axies/tiger sals. In my oppinion the "pure" axolotl lines can't really get any more geaneticly different from their wild counterparts annyway. I'm not sure about the andersons though.

I have kept A. mexicanum with A. Andersoni with no problems. Proper feeding is important.

I do not however keep adults together, for the reason stated of cross-breeding.
A. Andersoni are pretty rare, and though a cross between the two would prob be interesting, I think it's more important to build up their captive colony first.