Question: Fair Pricing for Axolotls

We purchased our golden adult male/female pair for $90. A girl at my job was moving overseas and selling them plus the tank. I wanted the tank but because I was completely unfamiliar with axolotls at this point I passed on the axolotls. Well after researching them and then talking with my boyfriend I realized I had made a huge mistake. By that point someone else had already offered to buy them. We decided to make her a much higher offer and she took it. She included everything when she dropped them and the beautiful tank off at our house the very next day! I must say that we got an awesome deal! I would do it again in a heartbeat. Oh yeah exactly a week later they decided they liked the new home and layed over 250 eggs! We now have 30+ beautiful juveniles that are looking for homes from this very same group of eggs! It has been a truely awesome experience! It's been challenging as brand new axolotl owners but oh soo worth it!

I find myself kind of agreeing with Jay. What you see on Caudata.org and at shows is close to or below wholesale prices for axolotls. If you look at retail price it is higher. The internet, lack of permits, tax evasion, and illegal operations blur the issue.

I'm in Pennsylvania and had to obtain a Dept of Ag. permit to breed salamanders and a reptile and amphibian dealer license to sell salamanders. I have a state tax number for Pa. and every state where I sell axolotls at reptile shows. I pay state sales tax even if it is not profitable. I pay federal income tax on profits. I paid license fees, import fees and sometimes broker fees for every amphibian I brought into the country. I don't ship animals to other countries or receive animals from other countries in unmarked boxes. I don't ship ambystomids to CA. or NJ. and lose lots of sales to less scrupulous breeders.

Small hobby breeders don't bother me. It does not take many sales to bring your hobby to the size where legally you should have all of the permits and pay all of the taxes. When you breed and sell more than a clutch or two a year you are no longer a small hobby seller. If you live in California you should not be breeding and selling any Ambystomids. New Jersey law is even more strict and can be interpreted as you should not be breeding any salamanders that have gills at any stage.

Depending on how the adults are kept axolotls can be seasonal breeders. Some keep them in a way where they breed year round. Their are fluctuations in pricing depending on how many axolotls are being produced at a particular time and the rarity of the type. Axolotls are legal in Alaska and Hawaii but are higher priced due to the logistics of getting them there.

michael said:

It does not take many sales to bring your hobby to the size where legally you should have all of the permits and pay all of the taxes. When you breed and sell more than a clutch or two a year you are no longer a small hobby seller. If you live in California you should not be breeding and selling any Ambystomids. New Jersey law is even more strict and can be interpreted as you should not be breeding any salamanders that have gills at any stage.

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I completely agree with Michael here. Anyone with any significant volume of animal sales needs to comply with tax laws. The IRS defines what is a hobby and what is not. And everyone, regardless of whether they are selling, needs to know and obey their local rules and regs. Not doing so is just asking for trouble. We try to stop any advertizing that is obviously non-legal, but it's up to users to know what is and isn't legal.

i paid £10 for a 5 inch golden between £10-20 for a jeuv or adult seems fair

I paid £10 for my Leucistic at 2.5", but I've seen them over here on a variety of sites ranging from £5 to £60 dependant on age/size

i paid for my leucistic axie 15 euros in the petshop en my dark axie like 10 euros from a small breeder. they were both like 10 cm long.
most of the axies in petshops (what i dont recommend cause they mostly dont keep them in right conditions)theyre going here from 14,50 up to 25 euros and that depends on sizes.
most small breeders charges something like this:
juvies between 5 and 10 euro's.
eggs only shipping costs cause you cant garantee theyre hatching.
adults up to 15 euros.
its kinda calculated like 1 euro for each 2 cm.

I paid $27AU for my little Aristotle Axolotl -


And Banana (avatar) was gifted to me from the same place (same price). He is 20cm.

My Albino axie I got today was $40AU - a bit pricey, but I have been looking for an albino.
She is about 20cm long, but has missing fingers, and the gills on half of her side have been nibbled off.

zoezakella said:

I paid £18 for my golden albino, £15 for my leucistic (both Maidenhead Aquatics) and £25 for my Wild (Widmer Feeds) all were 4 inches long, hope that helps. Zoe

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I bought a leucistic from Maidenhead Aquatics also, but for £37.50, but it died...
Another pet shop told me that R.O water is necessary, it that true???

Sorry for being ignorant, but what is R.O. water?
Is it really old water?

Awh Sarah you got a new axolotl?! =D

If R.O means you need to use dechlorinator in the water than that is true! If it means something else then I'm as ignorant as Sarah on this one!

I paid £20 for my juvie axolotls and £30 for my adults. Prices I'm happy to pay from a petshop as it may reduce the number of people buying them thinking they are fish and lumping them in their fish tank! (They are kept in the fish area and although have a notice about keeping them away from fish, I doubt many people care to even read it!)

RO = Reverse Osmosis it's a method of purifying water :happy:
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a process which purifies water by forcing it through a fine membrane, which leaves impurities behind. This is probably the most practical option for the hobbyist, especially if larger amounts are required, i.e. for multiple tanks.
if you want to read the technical ins and outs of it you can do that here but it's pretty much how desalination plants work for drinking water.

The other type of purified water you can purchase and is popular in the aquarium world is...
Deionised water (DI) It's produced using special materials which attract ions from the water and bind them to their surfaces. Note that this is not the same as ion-exchange, where one ion is swapped for another, as in domestic water softeners. DI units can produce very pure water, but they are generally expensive to use. The cartridges require frequent replacement, and the amount of pure water produced per cartridge will decrease for tap water which contains more minerals and contaminants. DI can be useful when included as the final stage on a reverse osmosis unit, where the combination can produce very high purity water.

But to answer your question NO it is not necessary. Simple aged tap water with a conditioner will do the job.

Note I said conditioner not dechlorinator. All conditioners will dechlorinate but not all dechlorinators will condition. ie. bind the heavy metals or even necessarily the ammonia produced by the dechlorination process.
Found this page with some lovely simple tables, looks pretty good really even if some of the links aren't working
What does my conditioner/dechlorinator do? Which one should I use and when?

fwiw I paid around the $40 mark for my adults. Seems to be the norm here.

Ah ha! Interesting point about dechlorinator and conditioner. Because I was pointed in the right direction for which product to use I never considered any others, or that another dechlorinator might not have the relevant conditioners! But thanks to your table I just got reconfirmation that it does the job! *cheer*

Awh Sarah you got a new axolotl?! =D

If R.O means you need to use dechlorinator in the water than that is true! If it means something else then I'm as ignorant as Sarah on this one!

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Thanks Erzs, yes - a cute female Albino. She is roughly 20cm long. Poor thing was scared in the shop, and one side of her gills have been nibbled, and she is missing a couple fingers. Will try and upload some pictures soon.. she is on her own for now, I want her to re-cover before I put her in with Aristotle Axolotl & Banana.

RO = Reverse Osmosis it's a method of purifying water :happy:
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a process which purifies water by forcing it through a fine membrane, which leaves impurities behind. This is probably the most practical option for the hobbyist, especially if larger amounts are required, i.e. for multiple tanks.
if you want to read the technical ins and outs of it you can do that here but it's pretty much how desalination plants work for drinking water.

The other type of purified water you can purchase and is popular in the aquarium world is...
Deionised water (DI) It's produced using special materials which attract ions from the water and bind them to their surfaces. Note that this is not the same as ion-exchange, where one ion is swapped for another, as in domestic water softeners. DI units can produce very pure water, but they are generally expensive to use. The cartridges require frequent replacement, and the amount of pure water produced per cartridge will decrease for tap water which contains more minerals and contaminants. DI can be useful when included as the final stage on a reverse osmosis unit, where the combination can produce very high purity water.

But to answer your question NO it is not necessary. Simple aged tap water with a conditioner will do the job.

Note I said conditioner not dechlorinator. All conditioners will dechlorinate but not all dechlorinators will condition. ie. bind the heavy metals or even necessarily the ammonia produced by the dechlorination process.
Found this page with some lovely simple tables, looks pretty good really even if some of the links aren't working
What does my conditioner/dechlorinator do? Which one should I use and when?

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Wow - that very informative! Thank you. Just did a project for school on water desalination.. so I do understand about R.O (I can use that now I know what it is ).
Great tip on the water conditioners/dechlorinaters.

good luck with your new baby sarah ^^
hope she will do fine and mostly with a few weeks youll see some improvement with the gills and her feet.
hopefully shes not to stressed from there.
and yes plse post some pics of all your lovely axies!! ^^

Thanks Sandra.. will post as soon as possible.
Sorry everyone, seems I've kinda hijacked the thread talking about my new axies.

Banana said:

Thanks Sandra.. will post as soon as possible.
Sorry everyone, seems I've kinda hijacked the thread talking about my new axies.

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That's ok, we love Banana and Aristotle!

I don't have an axie yet but the people I have been talking to about getting one have given me different prices. One wanted 25=35 (perfect!) and another wanted 100$. Both are juvies. I did find some at my local pet store a year ago and I think they were 12$. Not sure I would trust them though.

All my axies are from petstores. Is there a reason one of the breeders is $100? Like rare genes, etc. ???

My trio were $3, total, for my three wildtypes <3. Just to explain, I got them from an aquaculturalist who attended my local market (North Rocks RIDBC...I'm waiting desperately for him to come back so I can get a leucistic, and a goldfish topup for my goldfish tank...), who after having them there for a day, hadn't sold any, so offered to give them to me for free (I kinda insisted on paying for my babies). They were about 5cm long when I brought them home, and seven months later, are at 13, 12 and 10 cm each, and it's been such an amazing experience raising them.
Of course though, I'm putting in a lot of cash into the tank getting it set up (As I tell people, I have THE COOLEST night light in the world ) So that does balance out with the initial cost of getting them.
On a different matter, anyone in the Sydney area got a GFP egg or two they wouldn't mind giving/selling?

$3 for a trio? Lucky you!

I was! (Especially considering I've been asking for an axie since I was five!) And my babies are just so adorable! (Too many exclamation marks!