How did you first discover Axolotls?

I know Axolotls are not a well-known animal amongst the public. So I was wondering, when and how did all of you first find out about Axolotls?
For me, it was simply walking in a marsh and staring at a tadpole, marveling at its simple yet complex beauty. It struck me in a strange way, so when I got home I googled amphibian stuff and was just learning about them...and then I came across Axolotl.org, and later, this forum. I later ordered 2 Axolotls, and the hobby begins! Sometimes I think that if that one little tadpole hadn't have been in that exact place in the exact time, I would have never had all my amazing experiences with my Axolotls and breeding.
Share your "love at first sight" stories with Axolotls!

I was in the only aquatic store within 20 miles picking up sponges for my fancy goldfish filter and came across these 3 wonderful "prehistoric sea creatures" (thats how they looked to me) in one of the tanks- I was captivated and as soon as I got home began to research the amazing axolotl. The next day I booked the remaining one and an obsession was born

I read the name 'axolotl' a forum about aquarium stuff and I've heard of that name before but I didn't know for sure what kind of animal it was. So I used Google and looked at the images and I was like: "I WANT ONE! But they're probably pretty huge (I thought they were as big as half a cat) and expensive and not easy to take care for!!" so I didn't pay much attention to it.

A few months later I saw the name 'axolotl' again and this time I looked up more information and realized that they weren't that big, expensive and that hard to take care for.
After a few weeks of finding information I bought my 3 juvenile axies.

I discovered them in 2004 when pokemon came out with gen 3, which had the water-type starter mudkip. I thought it was really cute, and while looking up pictures of it I came across a picture of an axolotl colored in mudkip colors with a caption that said what kind of animal it was. I thought they looked cute, but back then I was still in the mindset of "I want a pet I can touch." I also thought they'd be hard to take care of.

So I forgot about them until I walked into my local pet shop this past March (it's a nice shop, family run and they actually treat their animals well) and saw that they had cute little juveniles for sale. That made me want one so bad, so I started researching them (and also learned about tank cycling) and just mid June I got my albino, Ludwig, from a local pet show

His breeder is Jake Bidinger. So if you see this post Jake, thank you very much for the lovely axie!

When i was younger i used to read the series Cairo Jim, who in some of the books there was a character Jocelyn Osgood who had some axolotls, i looked them up and since then always wanted one.

Fast forward 10 years was at Chiang Mai Zoo and looking at all the axolotls they had, told my girlfriend that story within two weeks of being home she had bought me a tank and then the axolotl followed soon after.

i was in a local pet shop looking at tropical fish. on my way out i noticed what i thought were weird looking ornaments in with the plants...then one moved!! i loved them straight away. and took one home. the pet shop gave me a couple of bags of water to start me off with and i took my baby home!!

I had my birthday and got normal presents and a week after my parents went out of town to do something. When they came back a few days later they had a fish tank and an axolotl as an extra present. At the time I had just turned 15 and never seen or even heard of one in my life (Probably cause I lived in a country town with a 2000 population) and once I had it for the first day I became obsessed with them. They are so cool looking and have amazing healing abilities and personalities. Once I moved to a new town on the beach where there was pet shops I began to get some more and that's where it really took off. At the moment I only have 1 and bought him 4 days ago, but it made me remember how much I love these weird little creatures and their funny little faces.

I was online several years back and saw a picture of one in one of those "animals you won't believe are real" Kind of articles and swore it was fake xD When I later found out that they were in fact real I decided that I wanted one some day. Well that some day became the day when my boss came back from a reptile expo with four adorable little Axolotls. So I took my first one home <3 I'm hooked. He is the best creature I've ever owned!

You guys have some interesting stories! Glad I posted this.

I was on a website called Encyclopedia Dramatica reading an article about mudkips (a type of pokemon mentioned earlier in this thread), and they had a picture of what they called an "IRL MUDKIP!" I did some research and fell in love- bought my first axolotl a few years later and my second a few months after that

i just saw them in a pet shop when i was about 10, loved them ever since.
such an intriguing animal, different from any other animal i've ever seen.

I was in my 20's when I was visiting my favorite pet store. Looking through the fish tanks for anything new when I saw this most amazing creature. I wasn't able to purchase it and they never had anymore come in, so I didn't find out anymore info on what it was, but I few months ago, thanks to the internet, I was reunited with this amazing creature, found a source of great information and now have 4 of the most delightful beasties. Thank you Caudata.org.

A friend of mine really likes them and showed me a picture of it. I thought it was so cute and i showed my boyfriend, who said it looked like a Pokemon. About a year later, we had started the aquarium hobby. After a while, we ended up with around 4 or 5 tanks. Someone had brought up the axolotl in conversation and after being reminded, did some research on it. I then ordered 2 because we had a 20 long that we were going to use for breeding crystal red shrimp, but never did. My boyfriend still does all that other fish stuff, I just like my axolotls and that's all.

was reading National Geographic and they had an article on them. Thought they looked cool and said I must get one, so I did

This thread makes me smile (like Cheshire kitteh, yeah yeah yeah) and I love the different ways of how people got into axies.

I was looking at craiglist and this girl had a post selling them. So I started looking videos on youtube and fall in love with them so got 3 from her. One died last week but still have two planing ot buying two more.

2 years ago I too was looking on Craigslist and found one listed. I contacted the seller and she had rescued it from a local pet shop where its gills were being eaten by gold fish and it was on the blue gravel found in 95% of shops in Michigan and I expect elsewhere.

It had eaten some gravel and she did not want to get rid of it till she was sure it had passed all the gravel and was going to be ok.

Long story short I e-mailed her again about 2-3 weeks later and that weekend I had in my possession a 6 inch Leusistic axolotl.

Little did I know that one would spark an interest that now has me caring for 6 additional adults and 14 juvie/sub adults.

I was in college for my zoology degree and was taking Developmental Biology. In the lab portion, we were told we'd do experiments with Ambystoma mexicanum embryos. We talked a bit in class about their regeneration capabilities, and why they were so commonly studied in labs. Their eggs are big enough that they can be manipulated at various embryonic stages without using really fancy or expensive equipment. It was really cool. But at the end of our experiments, they said that our control embryos, which were perfectly healthy and unaltered, would be euthanized because they were "lab" grade and not "pet" grade. >_< They said we weren't allowed to take them home, but hinted that if we did and no-one knew, they couldn't do anything about it. XD

I felt so bad knowing that those little guys would be euthanized, and was so interested in the species that I researched them night and day. I'd never in my life had an aquarium, let alone an amphibian. I found this site and spent around 3 hours a day reading the forums, figuring out what I'd need to do to raise these guys from scratch.

Last day of labs, I snuck in a little tupperware and brought home 2 eggs. I tried in vain to get a Daphnia colony going so they'd have food when they hatched, and I'm sure the professor at my school who specialized in Daphnia was sick of seeing me, lol. I tried to hatch baby brine shrimp, and failed at that too. But my babies hatched, and I got fresh Daphnia from my professor and some already hatched baby shrimp from my marine biology friend, and all was well for a while. One baby died for unknown reasons, but my one survivor is a happy, healthy big wildtype boy named Commander Motley. <3

What a crazy odyssey for me. I don't know if I'd raise any others from eggs, but I sure as heck want a few more friends for Mister Mots!

Haha i discovered them playing a playstation game, Dragon quest 8 i think...i had to fight these monsters called Axolholts http://www.woodus.com/den/gallery/graphics/dq9ds/monster/axolhotl.png

thought they were really cute and searched for what creature they were based on...instantly fell in love with them

My mum and dad had an aquatic nursary when I was a kid and we went to a pet expo and the lady who was selling axolotles traded me one for some plants and I look it home and mum took all the gold fish out of my tank and put then in the dam we had it was full of gold fish anyway and she put my axie in that tank and I well in love with them after he died 5 or 6 years later we were moving all the time I didn't get another one till a coupple year's ago and then again about 2 months ago I got 4 adults and now also have baby's hatched 3 weeks ago and have not had any die for 2 weeks I have 32 baby's growing strong.