Question: Axolotl Gravel

Right now my Axolotl has white spot and is being treated in a smaller tank to his old one and I know I have to clean it out and start again.
He had normal sized gravel in his tank before and loved picking it up in his mouth and spitting it back out, so now I'm having to reset up his tank I'm wondering about gravel. I want to change it but I'm not sure what to go for.

I've seen some sandy gravel from Aqua One, its about 1 - 2mm big but I'm wondering how I'll clean it without it been taken out of the tank and if will even sink in the tank.

Has anyone had sandy gravel and have any of you found the rock is sucked up while cleaning the tank? And how do you wash it before putting it into the tank? Those are my main questions.

I know its often recommended that you use stones, but the only stones I've ever seen are sold in garden centres and are not for Aquariums.

Can someone help me out please?

Here is a photo of the sand gravel I was looking at.

Sorry to hear the little guy or gal is sick!

First I would urge you to never use gravel and axolotl in the same sentence. Gravel is very bad to use. I cringed when you said he loved to pick it up in his mouth and spit it out.

Imagine you are your axolotl and you have a much larger mouth than anus/vent. What ever you put in that mouth and swallow has to eventually come out your backside. Choose substrate with this in mind. If it would hurt coming out then do not use it. If there is no way for it to fit in the mouth you will never have to worry about it.

I suggest nothing or very fine sand, there is black sand so it doesn't look as dirty as fast as it will if you use lighter colored sand. If you do daily little cleanups with a turkey bastor to suck the poo and leftover food out of the tank with weekly or by weekly larger cleanings you should be ok.

To clean the sand or larger rock substrate before putting it in the tank is just to put it in a bucket or large bowl and rinse it over and over. All the lighter sand and debre will become suspended in the water and rinse up and out of the container.

Good luck, hope the little one has a speedy recovery.

Thank you for your advice. Yes I thought it was a rare thing that happened, but apparently not. Had a friend's die due to theirs eating a stone.

The other thing I was worried about with sand, is is it a risk he could breathe in the sand or sand-like gravel?

So far he's only had one salt bath and he's still eating, so that's all good. ^_^

Sky Diamond said:

The other thing I was worried about with sand, is is it a risk he could breathe in the sand or sand-like gravel?

Click to expand...

I have very fine sand and my axy only ever sucks it in if she hasn't caught a pellet while it's sinking and therefore picks it up off the bottom. She actually spits the sand out as she's eating and whatever she doesn't spit out is basically that small, it just comes out in her poop without a problem However I think I read somewhere that if you notice your axy just eats sand for the fun of it then you should opt for bare bottom or something large e.g. slate tiles because it can probably do the same damage as if it were to eat gravel (I don't know how accurate this info is but it seems logical that eating too much sand can have bad side effects!)

Yes that's fair enough. I was thinking about going gravel-less but he's in a gravel-less tank now and is just making a mess of it, stirring everything up into the water. I'll have to have a look at what my pet shops have to offer.

I would suggest fine sand or a bare base. I appreciate that you can see the mess more, but I would thing that was a good thing as it makes it easier to clean. You could use large stones ( much bigger than your axolotl's head) But make sure you always make a point of cleaning under them, they tend to trap dirt.

Pool filter sand works for me. Its fine, clean and cheap =)

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I just got a sack of play sand from the local garden center, cost me a couple of bucks for 40KG of the stuff. just wash it really well.

I tried river pebbles, but it's just too hard to maintain water quality using them because waste falls underneath and gets trapped. waste sits on top of the sand and you can easily siphon it out. Also remember not to have the sand deeper than a couple of centimeters and stir it up when you do your weekly water change to prevent it from "settling".

I've also kept a bare bottom tank, they don't look the best but are super easy to maintain if it's a temporary setup.

as advised above, get the gravel out. and never think about it again.
your axie is a live creature and deserves a healthy habitat..

what happens next is up to you.
if you dont mind cleaning, i would suggest you get slate tiles, and use those as bottem cover. it looks absolutely awesome, and gives your plants a steady anchor.

you could also leave the floor bare.. which looks, lets be honnest.. sloppy.
but, its easy to maintain..

next best thing would be sand.
in their natural habitat i think thats the most found ground cover.. so it should not hurt them in any way. plus its a good base for plants.