Ideas for basic care sheet? water being the main worry

sheena22

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I have a lady who has been looking into axolotls for a few months now, she wants to have a couple of my larvae off of me.

She has a tank but doesnt know much about water quality.

Im just wondering how to put it to this lady because when i first got told about water chemistry with ammonia and nitrite and nitrate it confused me a bit..

Im wondering whether I should tell her to just do water changes daily or every two days?

The tank isnt set up i dont think, the babies wont produce as much waste as a full grown axolotl she is having 2 small larvae.

Ive told her about dechlorinator so how would you guys explain this, because i dont want to go into full blown nitrogen cycle for a newbie ill provide the info though x

Thanks in advance just plain simple explanation needed if you can so the babies can survive and live well xx
 
I would get her to do weekly water changes. I would also have a bucket marked with a fill line so she knows how much to take out and fill up again. I would write the number of drops needed on the bucket so she doesnt get confused when working it out, just until she gets used to doing it.
Then I would sign her up here and get her apart of our group so she can explore the site, ask questions and learn things at her own pace.
 
I'd encourage her to google the nitrogen cycle, but tell her all she needs to do is a waterchange every other day, so long as her tank is large enough(if it's pushing the bio limit i'd say every day). I honestly don't think people should be getting aquatic animals without at least researching what goes into keeping them in a good environment. I wouldn't even think about getting a cat/dog without finding out what their diet/exercise should be, let alone get an animal without figuring out how to keep it in livable conditions.
 
- The poop makes ammonia, which is toxic and can kill the axolotls
- "Good bacteria" turns this into nitrite and then nitrate, which are less harmful for them (but still can be dangerous)
- nitrate must be removed by water changes

Tell her that this good bacteria needs time to grow and accumulate in the tank, especially in the filter media, and that without it the water can very quickly become toxic and that there will be a spike in toxins before the tank is stable - and that this can stress and harm the axolotls, or even be fatal. I don't want to scare her, but it's important to understand how important this is and how serious.

I'd tell her how to clean her filter - to not use un-dechlorinated water on it. And to replace the media in a timely fashion or it can leach toxins back into the water (depending on the type of filter).

I'd advise her to stick with easy-to-feed-cleanly foods and get a turkey baster to suck up the poop and leftovers. Tell her to watch out for murky water and to do a water change right then if it happens.

If possible, is there any "live" substrate/material from the tank you could give her ? Is there somewhere local she could acquire this from a good shop ? Is she interested in live plants ?
 
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    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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