Tank mates

ok i laready know im gonna get alot of mixed reviews on this one. just axolotls in a huge 75G tank can be boring. i know alot of people that put tetras or ghost shrimp in their tank as food. which ive done. i have about 20 tetras in my tank. ive also had ottos before. one actually got stuck in one of their mouths and i had to man handle him and yank the otto out. growing up with both parents in the medical feild these kinda things i would watch on various other animals/situations almost regularly. which helped with vet bills.
so give me ****.. give me applause.. gimme stories... ive had fish since i was 4. im 27

Mixing species with axolotls usually ends in disaster, as you discovered with your otto. They will eat anything that moves and will fit in their mouth and then you have the others that will nip at their gills. Axies just aren't suited for community style aquariums that most aquarists are used to.

I keep guppies and ghost shrimp in my tank strictly as a food source so they can hunt. I haven't had any problems, but have read about other peoples experiences with guppy gill nipping. Research and careful consideration should be taken when adding anything new into an axolotl tank.

Axolotls can get boring and lazy as they age. Throwing different species into the tank just to make it more exciting is asking for it. Either the axolotl will get hurt or the fish will.

This article explains the risk and even gives multiple examples of species mixing: Species Mixing Disasters

ya theres the reply i was waiting for hehe. i dont see how gill nips would ever be an issue with my guys. if anything gets anywhere close to them and there freakin out on the hunt.. fingers included. all my fish are super terrified of my lotls. which is understandable. and i guess you just hafta be careful what you put in. i used to have piranhas and i had a super-mean cichlid that pet stores wouldnt take. put him in and he ruled the whole tank. lil turd

I would say, don't put anything in you would be devastated to have be eaten. My axolotl eats anything she can get her mouth around, and nothing really stays put long.
As for gill-nibbling, I've heard stories that this seems to happen most often when there isn't anything else for the fish to eat. Makes sense to me, as you might assume the fish must be fairly desperate to go near a predator just for a bite. In my tank, any fish seems to spend their short life eating the algae off all the plants I keep in there.

my exact thoughts... ive actually had two black neons that have been in their tank for about 6 months now. one has a damaged gill from one of the axols tryin to get him

Anything smaller and it moves, usually becomes an Axolotl snack eventually, even smaller axolotls. And any fish could nibble on your Axolotl's gills. So putting tank mates in with an Axolotl isn't a very good idea for either end.