Tank advice for a newbie?

Hi all,

So a while ago, a few weeks perhaps, I had bought my second axolotl, (the first that I had bought had died in less than a day, due to unknown circumstances ) and at the same time, I bought it a new tank.

The tank is an Aqueon MiniBow 1 gallon tank, mainly used for bettas. I put in gravel, too large for my axie to swallow, but as it gets bigger, I will start putting it in a bigger tank with bigger rocks. For a hiding place, I have a Spongebob pineapple house.

I also have a few tank mates, like a female Fan-tailed guppie and 2 baby Chinese trapdoor snails, to clean up a bit.

If there's any advice anyone could give, I would be greatly appreciative I am also attaching 2 pictures of the tank and my little axie.

Using that tiny of a tank should only be for a very short amount of time. While you do that age the water in the new tank a bit by running your filter media and putting in the guppies and snails. Keep in mind that axies can grow a foot long and need space. I recommend you get a larger hide away as he will quickly grow out of the one present. Also he will eat your guppies in a heart beat. If its small enough to fit in its mouth it will be eaten. Take a look at the galleries there are some great axie tanks to spur ideas from

For some reason I cannot pull up ur pics, but congrats on getting ur new axie!! I would make sure to atleast have a 10 gallon tank for that lil one as Natural designs stated they can get 1 foot long and fast
I would be careful with guppys in with ur axie they can carry disease and kill ur axie.. plus axie will more then likely eat the guppy.. Again congrats!!

Id go as far to say triple a 10g. Or a 20 long. I just like giving my animals more room. I want to stress this though

Fish should be avoided with your axie. Especially catfish.

A good clean up crew would be ghost shrimp or some cheap, non-agressive cherry shrimp. And then give them a plant cover so that they can breed in your tank, clean, and your axie will have a steady stream of food that he can chow on between meals.

If you end up using a light use low wattage, and make sure that your axie has cover, he doesnt have eyelids.
I had a problem loading the pics too, I assumed it was my phone, I just assumed the spongebob cover was not very big because I havent seen anything larger then the 4" pineapple hut
I wish you luck I hope I helped

Thank you all for such a quick reply!

I'll definitely take all this in mind. I do have a 10 gallon tank, currently housing a crayfish, (I would never put them together, trust me ) and since it's spring time, I'm going to be releasing him soon. I plan on cleaning it out really good, and like it was mentioned, I'm going to filter the water for a day or so with the guppie and snails.

I have 3 other fish with the crawdad, but they seem aggressive, so I'm not sure what to do with them until my axie's transfer. I'll see if my pet store will take them back, or something.

Thank you all for your help, I appreciate it immensely!!

If you posts pics of the silver fish I might be able to ID them. They might be able to get along with your guppies. For some reason im thinking they are either bala sharks or tinfoil barbs.

And now that you say you have had critters in the 10 gallon I think its sufficiently aged. Aging just means letting a new tank run for a few days.

Good luck with your axie

just so you know, in all states in the USA it is illegal to release wildcaught or captive born animals of any kind into the wild. Some become invasive, others are a no-no for reasons stated below.

This includes your crayfish if it has been in captivity over 90 days. It could easily introduce foreign pathogens, diseases, or parasites from your house/tank into the wild populations that have in some cases almost wiped out entire species. The wild animals dont have built up immunity to these things.

If you dont want it and its been longer than 90 days, you should find it a new home. DO NOT release animals back into the wild that no longer belong there.

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This is taken from Melissa Caplans site: Releasing Captive Reptiles and Amphibians
She is referring to reptiles and amphibs in this document, but it is the same for any other species of animals.
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Releasing Long-term Captives: Why you can't do it.
It is illegal to release non-native wildlife into any area. Nonnative is any species that is not native to the area you are thinking of releasing it in. Many people do realize that there are many species of box turtles, for example. Just because there are box turtles where you live in Texas does not mean that they are the same species as the box turtle you brought back from your trip to Virginia.

It is illegal to release native wildlife without a permit. Even wildlife rehabilitators require special permits and licenses to operate.

It is morally unethical. Assuming you want it to live, giving it to a pet store for resale is probably not an option. The reason the California desert tortoises are under threat of extinction is because those populations not disturbed by habitat destruction are being decimated by a viral infection spread into the wild populations by sick former captives who were released into the wild to either live or die - the former owners didn't particularly care which, and had some foolish notion that if they were meant to get better, they would.

In addition, long term captives may be carrying organisms against which they have developed immunity but against which wild populations have not - thus a release such as you plan could be devastating to the native turtle populations. And, conversely, the wild populations may have immunity against organisms against which your foundling does not - again, a release could be lethal. Other animals may be affected as well, as many of the infecting organisms will happily inhabit many different types of hosts.

Releasing long term captives outside their normal range, even if it is in similar habitat, may also prove fatal as many of them fail to learn to feed, hide and generally survive. (One study of wild rattlesnakes resulted in most of the study group dying, despite the fact that the biologists released them into what they considered to be prime habitat for that species, an area which was devoid of any other rattlers.) Also, they have little natural defenses against predators which may be different than the ones in the locale in which they evolved.

Here's what my silver fish look like, they kept moving so I couldn't get a clear picture.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb249/Knucky2/?action=view&current=IMAG0076.jpg

Oh my, I never knew that! Thanks for informing me. I've had the little guy since December, but I'm guessing that time frame has passed. I'll definitely try and find someone willing to keep him. We've always let our pets go, but it was just the two turtles. Thanks for the info

Edit: I just found out how my pictures couldn't be seen ;___; here they are.

http://m206.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/Knucky2/IMAG0056.jpg.html?o=1

http://m206.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/Knucky2/IMAG0063.jpg.html?o=2

Photo bucket doesnt work here could you upload the pics. And I have to agree with sapphire tigress. Thats how the Florida Ball python endemic got started... Basically the ball pythons are killing everything. Releasing animals nonnative can be devastating. And since your crawdad was in with fish from the store there is likely a transfer of exotic disease and parasites. If only you lived here I would take your crawdad... I have too many tanks and am too cheap to buy anything to live in them.

I had to switch over from my phone to the computer, haha. It's much easier for me.

And I do agree with that, I wouldn't release anything if I knew it would harm the ecosystem. I wish I could send him to you, too. He's a whopper.

And, I did take the guppie out of the tank with my axie, it seemed to not get along with him very much. Also, it's pregnant. (confused laughter)

Here's my tank:

Here's my Axie with the guppie:

And here's those silver fish:

Yes I see the pregnant guppy. And thats awesome your axie is tiny. The silver fish are australian rainbowfish. They are very tame although they do bicker with one another from time to time and they may nip a little bit with slower moving fish.

Your axie is just a little baby. It looks like he has plenty of room for now.

Hahaha and completely joking about the crawdad, just about all crawdads are illegal to transport here, since we have a highly invasive red swamp crawdad infestation.

All the axies at my pet store are this size, except one wild type. He does have room, so I'm hoping to just keep him in there for a little while longer My fish are about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches long, so I don't plan on putting them all together. Do you think they would be okay with my axie when he grows a bit bigger? And how big should he be?

Oh, haha. Too bad though I'll look around though, I'm sure I'll find a good home for him.

Usually a foot long. And I wouldnt advise the fish be in with him. He may eat them when he is older. I would put all the fish in one tank and keep him seperate when he is older.

Okay, that's what I was going to do thank you so much for all the advice, I really will take it to heart. My axie appreciates it too <3

Thanks OP for making the right choice about the crayfish! <3's

@asfouts

SMH

Photo bucket doesnt work here could you upload the pics. And I have to agree with sapphire tigress. Thats how the Florida Ball python endemic got started... Basically the ball pythons are killing everything. Releasing animals nonnative can be devastating. And since your crawdad was in with fish from the store there is likely a transfer of exotic disease and parasites. If only you lived here I would take your crawdad... I have too many tanks and am too cheap to buy anything to live in them.

Click to expand...

There is NO BALL PYTHON epidemic, first of all. The ones they are having issues with are the BURMESE python. The initials are the same, however a BALL python hits about 5 feet tops while BURMESE pythons hit 15-20 feet.
Also, BALL pythons are native to AFRICA, while BURMESE live in south-ease ASIA.

Second of all, the BURMESE pythons were NOT released into the wild. A huge breeder facility was decimated by a hurricane, letting hundreds of BURMESE pythons out into the wild. Dont believe me? there are multiple scientific documents tracing DNA and genealogy back to the original stock from that facility.

Try and be informed about what you are talking about. I'm not trying to be rude, or condescending...but people who are misinformed react with fear, and that is how species that should NEVER have been banned are getting added to/have been added to the Lacey act. Spreading misinformation is literally one of the worst things you could ever do to both animals and other people.

No problem thanks for the correction.

Burmese sounds much more accurate. I got the info from time, but it was an old magazine so the info might not have been available at the time of release. (burmese and ball was my mistake)

Also I am not trying to spread fear, I wish people would look at things logically, and not fear everything they do... Just be SMART about it...