Lonley lotl

Stacey87

Stacey87

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axie-addict
hiya, just wondering if anyone can give me any advice, i have three axies, two females and one male, i started with all three in one tank, but as they started growing they started squabbling a little so i purchased another 3 foot tank and put my albino on her own ( my male was a bit of a bully towards her) and my gold and wild type (male) together. This worked fine for quite sometime but as my wildtype keeps growing he seems to be turning into more of a bully, as he attacked my gold axie and nearly chomped her back leg off!! :-( so i now have the two females together and the male on his own, the tanks are side by side.
The problem i now have is that since he's been put on his own he has stopped eating and refuses to move, he just sits in one place staring through the glass at the girls in the other tank hiding behind a plantpot.
is this just a phase that he will grow out of or will he always pine for a tank mate? I don't really want to put a mate in for him if he's going to just bully it as that wouldn't be fair.
thanx in advance for any replies.
 
If you aquascape the tank so that all hides are open ended (ie tunnels) & not caves where they can be cornered & place plants or obstacles so there are alternative paths they can take to avoid each other if they want without dead end areas where again they may feel cornered - provide 3 similar hides for 2 lotls that way they have a choice of locations & can be separated or choose to hang together.

Mix up the aquascape then add in your male & perhaps the golden that way it's a new tank for both & he's less likely to have territorial "spots" as they both in an unfamiliar environment - obviously keep an eye on them & the interactions when they do meet up. Keep them well fed - try feeding with tweezers in different zones ... Lead them to where you want to feed them & only let them have the worm when they're in their zone. Keep them well fed so they're in siesta cruise mode rather than hungry searching for anything that moves mode.

Hope that gives you a couple of ideas :)
Good luck & let us know how it goes.



<3 >o_o< <3
 
Was the tank cycled before you moved him in?
 
Axolotls are not territorial, adult aggression is generally based on food, accidental attack whilst feeding or hungry and very rarely an agressive individual. If you have an axolotl who keeps attacking tank mates keep it isolated.
 
ive alsorts with him, all the hides i have are open ended even the plant pots have a hole at the end, there's plenty of plants rocks and hides for them to avoid each other, but he just seems to hunt her down :-\
yeah tank was cycled ive had them for about 2-3 year now it just seems to be as he gets bigger he gets more aggressive, he gets fed plenty and i feed a variety of different things too, if anything he gets overfed hes a chunk :)
how big do they grow? He's about 10.5 inches and seems to be still growing.
he's ate a few fat juicy earthworms but still seems depressed on his own, i really don't want to risk putting the female back in incase he attacks again.
 
Is it just the female he chases? it could be that hes trying to mate but in a rather aggressive mannor :/
 
Do you ever see him trying to 'nuzzle' your female's necks? That might be a sign he's trying to win them over. But if he's a bit pushy it may be worth keeping him separate just to avoid accidents. It sounds like he's fed plenty, as are the females. I wonder if some axxies are like people, with distinct energies and personalities. Your male might just be a little bolshy and unaware that his manner and interactions are hurting the females.

Silly idea, but could you make a tank divider? I'm using one just to keep Gally and Tooth separate for the moment as they've only just been introduced. A very cheap one can be made from a condensation board. Simply cut to size, smooth or cut off any sharp bits of plastic, and voila! One divider, for less than £7. You could keep the females on one side and your boy on the other. They can still smell each other and look at each other through the board, so they won't be lonely, but he can't actually get to them to do any damage.
Axolotls can grow to 14 inches or around 30 cms, but this is quite rare. If he's ten and a half he might well be one of these axxies that grows to be quite the water monster! :D
 
yeah he does nudge/hassle them alot they have bred twice already, but the latest incident made me isolate him as he grabbed onto her whole back leg and was shaking his body around as if to chomp off her leg and she was frantically trying to get away which made him shake even more, i honest thought she wud have lost her leg, but i managed to get him to leave go, i don't know who was in more shock me or her :-\
i did think about a tank divider but as the two tanks i have are only 3 foot i don't think half of that wud be adequate for my babies (after all they are like my little adopted children ha ha) i could however ditch the two 3 foots and get a 4/5 foot then divide it, and see if his behaviour changes.
 
Petersgirl said:
Do you ever see him trying to 'nuzzle' your female's necks? That might be a sign he's trying to win them over. But if he's a bit pushy it may be worth keeping him separate just to avoid accidents. It sounds like he's fed plenty, as are the females. I wonder if some axxies are like people, with distinct energies and personalities. Your male might just be a little bolshy and unaware that his manner and interactions are hurting the females.

Silly idea, but could you make a tank divider? I'm using one just to keep Gally and Tooth separate for the moment as they've only just been introduced. A very cheap one can be made from a condensation board. Simply cut to size, smooth or cut off any sharp bits of plastic, and voila! One divider, for less than £7. You could keep the females on one side and your boy on the other. They can still smell each other and look at each other through the board, so they won't be lonely, but he can't actually get to them to do any damage.
Axolotls can grow to 14 inches or around 30 cms, but this is quite rare. If he's ten and a half he might well be one of these axxies that grows to be quite the water monster! :D
Click to expand...


hiya, just a quick update, i now have my newly built and cycled four foot tank up and ready, so i have put all three axies back in together and all seems great, they love having the company now of each other and all play and swim about happily together, no more fighting or nibbling :)
 
I'm so happy to hear that! Maybe they just needed a bit more room :) The leg biting is a bit of a mystery - he might have mistaken her for food for a moment, or maybe he just really wanted to breed again. Their behaviours are still rather foggy - that's why it's good to have a community of mad axolotl lovers to watch them :) I'm glad it all worked out!

Mine are together now too and we have had the odd nip - 'get off my face!' seems to be the most common reason, that and 'oh! Sorry! I thought you were a worm!' but we've had no serious bites or any wounds. I love seeing them interact :)
 
yeah am pleased they're all back together, and yeah am thinking it was just a bit crowded in the old tank.
I know what you mean about their behaviour, mine show lots of different traits on a daily basis and no two days are the same ha ha, other than the feeding side of things they LOVE their grub. my three year old nephew thinks its absolutely great feeding them earthworms he gets dead excited when he visits and its feeding time :)
I would really love a fourth axie, but want to give it a bit time and make sure they are all OK to be sure first, also I'm nit sure about introducing another as mine are 8.5 to 10.5 inches long, so not sure how they would react to a new tankmate unless its of similar size!
 
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