Question: Adopted axie, some general inquiries

Hello! 3 days ago I received a lovely axolotl from a friend, after being asked if I'd like to take her off their hands. She had been given to them after her original owner had to move and couldn't take her, and nobody in her new home liked her nor knew very much about caring for her. Since receiving her she seems to be doing fairly well, but I haven't kept an axolotl in years and don't consider myself an expert so I thought I'd come here for some advice. I've attached some photos of her and her current setup, which is very bare bones and set up on short notice at the moment.

Her current water temperature is 20-21C, and the current pH level is about 7.0, with ammonia and nitrate test kits being the next priority. Her tail tip isn't curled and she doesn't seem to be showing signs of stress or illness, but as we didn't have time to cycle her tank I'm quite concerned. The log+plant and filter are both from her old tank and a fair amount of old tank water was able to be transported and used to refill her tank with new treated water.

She was being kept on a solid diet of frozen turtle feed, and has been eating frozen bloodworms and crickets as well since coming to us (I'm currently trying to find somewhere to buy nice fat earthworms for her in Sydney, any suggestions would be much appreciated) I was told her age is around 2 years, and her right arm is small and twisted, which I'm not sure is a birth defect or a regrown lost limb?

She's quite active and responsive, when feeding and removing leftovers from the tank she swims around my hand and nudges my fingers as well as the occasional latch on and maul, she doesn't seem to be bothered by a hand's presence in the tank at all.

Sorry for the essay, just trying to cover most things. I'd love for some advice on fattening her up and anything we can do to help her adjust more comfortably, anything about her setup that may need improving, and generally any thoughts. I've done a lot of reading through threads on this site so far and everyone seems to be very helpful and well informed with lovely axolotls :happy:

She does look like she needs fattened up. that's for sure and IMO worms are the best, I really hope you can find some, my 2 monsters love them,, and get her a hide as soon as possible. and maybe some plants. An Air stone will get her gills fluffy
Good luck to you.

Mama Mia:happy:

Welcome to the axie world!

What kind of filter is running? With feeding - earthworms are best. You can use pellets as well just make sure they're specified for axolotls. I use blue planet and my one loves it! As treats you can feed occassional wax worms, blood worms and shrimps. It's body should be as wide as it's head.

Fellow Australian here - check out bunnings or mitre 10. Worm farm cost be I think 60-80 bucks and a tub of 500 earthworms for 30, and feed them mashed potatoes and nanas. You'll be set for life!

As for the tank - what are the dimensions? the sand is great! Never use gravel, sand or bare is the way to go I do recommend more hides, axolotls eyes aren't too good in light and love hiding about. You can get terracotta pots, driftwood, PVC pipes etc. just make sure they aren't too rough, as axolotls tend to be accident prone! My axolotl also likes playing in bubbles so maybe an airstone/ air strip would be good too. Plus it's funny to watch them snap at the bubbles. I personally like real plants as it looks better, and has less chance of hurting your axolotl (some plastic ones are rough!) and it helps with nitrates.

And yes - you need liquid tests! Tests should read ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates under 40. Before you buy anything make this your priority. The temp also is high axolotls like 17-19. 20 and above is pushing into the potential fungus range. I can't afford a chiller, but a fan works well for me combined with the ice bottle. My fan was 40 dollars and the ice bottle just helps the temp go down quicker (in about 2 hours) and the fan maintains it at that temp. Just beware heat stress can cause axolotls to go off their food.

It looks like your axolotl likes you very much, just beware what's on your hands before going in the tank whether it be oils, creams etc. I almost put my hand in with fresh nail polish on oops!

What's his/her name?

As stated above the worm farms from bunnings are great. And they breed like crazy. i feed my axie and 2 fish tanks full of cichlids. still have heap. My chiller is set to 21deg. with its 2 deg variance before it kicks in, and mine is just fine. He doesnt like the water below 18 tried it in our winter little while ago and he behaved very strange. For him anyway.

Im the summer the chiller would running constantly, so for the tropics that was a happy medium. Get a liquid test kit and a dedicated cleaning schedule. Hopefully your little one will pick up.

hayleykahnita said:

Welcome to the axie world!

With feeding - earthworms are best. You can use pellets as well just make sure they're specified for axolotls.

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Just tossing this out there. You can feed axolotls with shrimp, salmon, or axolotl pellets. I feed mine with shrimp pellets occasionally.

~~~

Anyway, back on topic. It sounds like you've got everything planned out so far, that's good! If you can afford it, you should definitely invest in a tank chiller. I know how crazy the weather gets in Australia

Her leg was probably damaged at some point and grew back kind of wonky. It shouldn't bother her any, though.

PatchworkClocks said:

Just tossing this out there. You can feed axolotls with shrimp, salmon, or axolotl pellets. I feed mine with shrimp pellets occasionally.

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In NSW I've never seen shrimp pellets. Salmon pellets are usually fat fish flakes labelled as salmon pellets. And then there are turtle pellets. I personally would rather feed an axolotl axolotl pellets, like a dog would eat dog food. Obviously they can be fed cat food, but why feed a dog cat food when dog food is made specifically for them. It would be satisfying and would make them gain weight or whatever but probably wouldn't have the best choice of nutritional value. That's what I think with axolotl pellets vs other pellets. If that ramble made sense? Haha. Also every single pet shop I've asked about pellets to feed axolotls and they give me turtle pellets or reptile pellets.

hayleykahnita said:

In NSW I've never seen shrimp pellets. Salmon pellets are usually fat fish flakes labelled as salmon pellets. And then there are turtle pellets. I personally would rather feed an axolotl axolotl pellets, like a dog would eat dog food. Obviously they can be fed cat food, but why feed a dog cat food when dog food is made specifically for them. It would be satisfying and would make them gain weight or whatever but probably wouldn't have the best choice of nutritional value. That's what I think with axolotl pellets vs other pellets. If that ramble made sense? Haha. Also every single pet shop I've asked about pellets to feed axolotls and they give me turtle pellets or reptile pellets.

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I know they have different nutritional values. I'm just saying that you can feed them with any of the three as a treat. It's not like you can keep an axolotl on just pellets anyways.

hayleykahnita said:

Welcome to the axie world!

What kind of filter is running? With feeding - earthworms are best. You can use pellets as well just make sure they're specified for axolotls. I use blue planet and my one loves it! As treats you can feed occassional wax worms, blood worms and shrimps. It's body should be as wide as it's head.

Fellow Australian here - check out bunnings or mitre 10. Worm farm cost be I think 60-80 bucks and a tub of 500 earthworms for 30, and feed them mashed potatoes and nanas. You'll be set for life!

As for the tank - what are the dimensions? the sand is great! Never use gravel, sand or bare is the way to go I do recommend more hides, axolotls eyes aren't too good in light and love hiding about. You can get terracotta pots, driftwood, PVC pipes etc. just make sure they aren't too rough, as axolotls tend to be accident prone! My axolotl also likes playing in bubbles so maybe an airstone/ air strip would be good too. Plus it's funny to watch them snap at the bubbles. I personally like real plants as it looks better, and has less chance of hurting your axolotl (some plastic ones are rough!) and it helps with nitrates.

And yes - you need liquid tests! Tests should read ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates under 40. Before you buy anything make this your priority. The temp also is high axolotls like 17-19. 20 and above is pushing into the potential fungus range. I can't afford a chiller, but a fan works well for me combined with the ice bottle. My fan was 40 dollars and the ice bottle just helps the temp go down quicker (in about 2 hours) and the fan maintains it at that temp. Just beware heat stress can cause axolotls to go off their food.

It looks like your axolotl likes you very much, just beware what's on your hands before going in the tank whether it be oils, creams etc. I almost put my hand in with fresh nail polish on oops!

What's his/her name?

Click to expand...

Currently the filter running is an Aqua One Clearview hang on filter, which came with her tank etc when she was transported to us. The tank dimensions are 50cm x 30cm.

I feel like I may have to invest in a better filter as they seem to be the cheapest, default filter for tank owners to use, but so far it doesn't seem too bad. I'll definitely look into a bubble stone and some plants, as well as getting her some hides ASAP and trying to fatten her up.

Her name is Gabriel, or Gabby/Gabe for short :happy:

Hi,

The tank is OK, but it does look a little small. Axies sometimes love to walk around and explore. Have you looked at getting a bigger tank? You can get some good deals on ebay or other second hand sites. It might be worth investing in a new tank and filter at the same time.

Good job for taking this axie though. How can you not love it?!

Petbarn have 3ft tanks for $120, and that's rather big so a bigger tank than yours wouldn't be too much money :happy: