Metamorphosed Axolotl at pet store

Jaws · Jan 31, 2012

MY local pet store has started selling axolotls that have been induced into metamorphosis, I am very keen on buying one (since there are no terrestrial salamanders in Australia), but do not know the proper housing/care/feeding requirements. Can someone please help me!?!

SirKristoff · Jan 31, 2012

IIRC it's pretty much the same care required for Tiger salamanders should be plenty of info around on the web for that...

esn · Jan 31, 2012

I wouldn't support this by buying them. It shortens the axolotl's life span, and as I have heard, many morphers don't make it. Choosing to support this forced morphing is supporting a form of animal abuse - just saying.

danchristopher · Jan 31, 2012

esn said:
I wouldn't support this by buying them. It shortens the axolotl's life span, and as I have heard, many morphers don't make it. Choosing to support this forced morphing is supporting a form of animal abuse - just saying.

Kind of have to agree. How were they forced into metamorphosis?

Also, out of curiosity, this pet store doesn't happen to be in northern Sydney does it? I saw terrestrial salamanders in a pet store up that way a month or so back and didn't think to ask what they were cause I didn't realise at the time Australians couldn't have terrestrial salamanders, doh. I'm very curious to know how they got them...

Chirple · Feb 1, 2012

Induced metamorphosis for pet trade seems like animal abuse to me, and I couldn't support that.

You're cutting the animal's life short, possibly killing it right then and there. For what reason ? Having a cool pet ? Meh (I'm also not a fan of breeding for aesthetics at the expense of health if it's avoidable, but that's a broad subject with lots of factors).

I don't know what's legal where you are, but I'm sure there are some cool creatures you can get your hands on.

Also, if no terrestrial salamanders are legal, this seems like exploiting an exception that could come back to bite everyone.

Niels D · Feb 1, 2012

I've read a topic here on caudata which said that if the metamorphosis is induced while it's still a juvenile the life span isn't shortened, but I have no knowlidge of this myself.

kerosseno · Feb 1, 2012

Why not getting a normal axolotl? In my humble opinion, they look much better in their regular state. Cutest thing ever.

Besides, the fact that those axies have possibly been suffering to become morphed makes me very reluctant.
If people start buying induced-to-metamorphosis axies, it's an encouragement for the pet shop to keep doing it.

I personally would not get them.

danchristopher · Feb 2, 2012

Earlier today I went into a pet store at the shopping centre near my uni and saw this salamander in a tank. They were selling it for $120. I asked the girl what kind of salamander it was and she went to ask then returned and said it was a "mexicana salamander" :/ I'm guessing that this is a morphed lotl then?

Seeing as this is the third salamander I've seen in the pet trade recently and all other salamanders are illegal in Australia...it makes me wonder if someone is purposely morphing axolotls then selling them to pet stores who don't know any better. I can't imagine these axies would just be morphing on their own. Is kinda sad really.

Bellabelloo · Feb 2, 2012

It does seem that there are people selling morphed axolotl in Australia for a while now. While there is a demand for them, there will be somebody happily supplying them. My biggest concern however is that there seems to axolotl being sold , that morph unexpectedly later on.

GazerOfStars · Feb 2, 2012

I know little about Aussie law, but why are salamanders illegal in the first place? To prevent removing them from their natural habitats?

I agree it's inhumane to purposely metamorphosize an Axolotl (at least if your as inexperienced in this act as most of the population is), but what worries me more is if law makers catch wind of this and decide to outlaw all forms of axolotls in Australia.

Chirple · Feb 2, 2012

GazerOfStars said:
but what worries me more is if law makers catch wind of this and decide to outlaw all forms of axolotls in Australia.

This is exactly what I'm thinking.

My Lottie · Feb 2, 2012

danchristopher said:
Earlier today I went into a pet store at the shopping centre near my uni and saw this salamander in a tank. They were selling it for $120. I asked the girl what kind of salamander it was and she went to ask then returned and said it was a "mexicana salamander" :/ I'm guessing that this is a morphed lotl then?

Seeing as this is the third salamander I've seen in the pet trade recently and all other salamanders are illegal in Australia...it makes me wonder if someone is purposely morphing axolotls then selling them to pet stores who don't know any better. I can't imagine these axies would just be morphing on their own. Is kinda sad really.

A good piece of "detective work"

... I presume the pic is of the salamander in the pet shop ??

I reckon something should be done to STOP this..

it is just another way of making money, and not considering the poor Axies, that are MEANT to be Axies

irate: !!

danchristopher · Feb 2, 2012

Yes that is the salamander in the pet shop. It might be hard to see from the pic but it looks like at some point in it's life it had been attacked as it's tail had a big split in it. Poor thing.

Unfortunately I don't really if there's much that can be done... like Julia said, if there is demand for them then people will keep selling them. I think the fact the people in the pet shop think there's such thing as a "Mexicana Salamander" (I am still rolling my eyes

) speaks volumes. And whilst people will keep selling them, people will keep forcefully morphing them. And the cycle continues D:

iChris · Feb 3, 2012

I doubt it's a morphed axie.

correct me if I'm wrong, but don't salamanders that change from the larval water-dwelling form to land animals loose the ability to live in water? this animal is clearly in water.

could it be a newt?

Neil C · Feb 3, 2012

It does look like a morphed axie to me but I think the pet shop is taking a big risk keeping it in water that deep. Does it have some land it can climb up onto? Morphed salamanders usually return to water to breed although their swimming abilty is much reduced after morphing.

Regards Neil

danchristopher · Feb 3, 2012

Neil C said:
It does look like a morphed axie to me but I think the pet shop is taking a big risk keeping it in water that deep. Does it have some land it can climb up onto? Morphed salamanders usually return to water to breed although their swimming abilty is much reduced after morphing.

Regards Neil

Yeah it had what looked like a turtle dock and something else that made up a little land area, but most of it's habitat was water. The area it was sitting in was the deepest part, the other parts were a little bit shallower. In the other pet store I saw salamanders in they didn't have any aquatic space and it was all just a moist soil.

LeFarge · Feb 3, 2012

it looks like a newt to me. how big was it?

Kaysie · Feb 3, 2012

That's definitely an axolotl. Given that 1.) only axolotls are legal in Australia, 2.) it looks like an axolotl, and 3.) this is the 3rd or 4th time this exact topic has come up, I'm going to guess it's a morphed axolotl.

iChris, they don't 'lose the ability' to live in the water, they're just not adapted to living in the water. You could keep a human aquatic too and it wouldn't die right off. It would linger and suffer and become ill with all sorts of issues before it finally gave in to environmental issues.

LeFarge · Feb 3, 2012

definite is a strong word based on one pretty dark photo! It clearly isn't a regular axolotl (look at the eyes) and it sure doesn't look like any other morphed one I have seen in pictures. It has land areas - surely as a morpalotl it would stay on them rather than submerged in the same way a standard terrestrial salamander would?

Just because something isn't legal it doesn't mean you will never see it for sale in a shop.

Also why would a pet shop go to the trouble of deliberately morphing an axolotl (a difficult, uncertain and life-shortening process)? Something that can only ever make it a less attractive pet (in terms of health and lifespan)?

Sorry to drag this OT, I don't want to get into an argument about this, I just don't think it looks like an axolotl in any way.

Kaysie · Feb 3, 2012

It's not a dark photo at all. The eyes are different from a normal axolotl because they grow eyelids during metamorphosis. Many morpholotls remain somewhat more keen on water than their terrestrial cousins. Perhaps the land area is nothing more than a gravel landing pad - not very attractive to a burrower.

Pet shops don't care how long it lives; they do know that something 'different' is much more likely to sell.

Metamorphosed Axolotl at pet store

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