Mintz2520
New member
I got an 8-inch albino axolotl from a friend's daughter about the 29 of December. I received her because I felt bad for her as the daughter no longer took interest in the pet (who she didn't even have a name for) and was just neglecting the poor dear. She gave her mom a set of instructions for the axolotl's care but they were completely wrong (she told her to feed the poor dear small pieces of ham! -where would they even find that out in the wild??!! 
and even had her on a gravel-bottomed tank [a mistake I'd followed but immediately corrected upon learning the dangers of]) and even said she wanted her 10-gallon tank back to put another one of her critters into, and that the little axolotl could just go in with Dev (their above-hand size Oscar)!
I work at a small locally-owned pet store and know you can't put much with an Oscar as they'll bully and ultimately kill most any other fish. Needless to say, I was worried for the little nameless baby and reached out to my buddy asked to just buy her off of them. My friend relented and sold her to me for about $50 (since she had priorly paid $90 + overnight shipping). Don't get me wrong, her daughter isn't a terrible person, but she is 13 and at a point where she picks something up, gives it her all, and then a month or two later loses all interest and stops carrying like she's supposed to. The daughter had done the same with a hamster, corn snake, leopard gecko, and parakeets before, usually finding them different homes when she grew bored of them, but my friend had felt guilty for the little axolotl, and her daughter wasn't helping her rehome it, and she didn't really have anywhere it could go either, so was quite relieved when I reached out to her.
When I took the little dear home I'd had set up a 30-gallon tank for her to move into, but failed in the knowledge of cycling the tank. I typically do research months prior to getting any kind of pet but with the little axolotl (which I'd dubbed Axol Rose - Rose for short) I didn't have that chance. I'm used to working with a maybe 5-10 gallon tank when I had goldfish but jumping up to a 30-gallon tank all the sudden is quite a big leap but I didn't feel comfortable setting Rose in anything smaller.
For the first weeks, she ate happily in her new tank and it wasn't until about two weeks into caring for her she started acting sluggish (but was still eating). I grew immensely worried and did a ton of emergency research, even contacting a breeder whom I've since barraged with tons of questions and pictures. "Why does she do this? Is it natural for her to climb on the fake plants? etc." I ran several quick water tests and ammonia was reading pretty high (because the tank hadn't been cycled; an important step most sites left out of their instructions for setting up an axolotl tank - I know it may be second nature for some, but I'd never had to cycle a tank before, only having small tanks with a betta or goldfish in them). So I went online quickly looking for a solution and ended up tubbing the little girl for about 3ish weeks. I did daily 100% water changes- which she despised but ended up figuring out and actually swimming into her "*catch container" on cue.
During this time I constantly checked the water in her actual tank twice (and sometimes even up to 4 times) daily. I'd tested the tub water's ammonia as well and it always read 0.0. She then started to refuse food (making me incredibly sick with worry) and I took the issue to the same breeder. The breeder had me check the water perimeters again and when everything showed up fine had me run a few other tests. In the end, the breeder claimed she may just be reabsorbing her eggs since she wasn't sluggish or underactive in the least and her poop was still normal. Rose did come to me extremely chubby too, so when this occurred she thinned down to a healthy axolotl weight and size. But she was still refusing her worms. I tried a ton of different things; chopping the worms up even smaller, bloodworms, and even feeder fish from my pet store, as they're the only ones I trust since I get to see behind the scenes on the fish's care - we've only had one fish problem in the 6+ months I'd been there- and that was in the "communal tank" (a tank we've set up to take surrender fish to quarantine them from our own, not attached to our system, and even then we all caught it quickly and set to treating the tank and turned away a ton of customers for about two weeks after they were safe to sell again (we didn't want to take any chances).
She only ate said feeder fish (though she did have a blast catching them) and it worries me as to why she'll only eat them for the time being. I contacted my friend who'd sold her to me as a last resort to try to get more background on the girl and she'd responded with; "yeah feeder fish from your store was her favorite food, she'd never turn them down."
I'd also noticed over the time she'd been in the tub her gills shrank; they weren't as lustrous as they had been when I received her. I'd been told by the breeder (after once again checking the water in the tub for her and everything coming up normal) it was most likely to do with me changing the tub every day and since she always had plenty of oxygen in there she didn't need such long feathery gills. The tub itself was a 6-10 gallon makeshift tub with a hide and bare bottom.
I've since (as of last night around 5ish pm) moved her back into her tank which has 3 fake plants, a hide, a whisper filter, and plenty of space for her to swim and frolic, and placed a few feeder fish into the tank with her and only a few remain as of now (2:40 am) I believe. Her activity is normal but I'm still slightly worried about her gills.
I'll include a "when I got her picture" with a "how she is now picture" for y'all to see.
and even had her on a gravel-bottomed tank [a mistake I'd followed but immediately corrected upon learning the dangers of]) and even said she wanted her 10-gallon tank back to put another one of her critters into, and that the little axolotl could just go in with Dev (their above-hand size Oscar)! I work at a small locally-owned pet store and know you can't put much with an Oscar as they'll bully and ultimately kill most any other fish. Needless to say, I was worried for the little nameless baby and reached out to my buddy asked to just buy her off of them. My friend relented and sold her to me for about $50 (since she had priorly paid $90 + overnight shipping). Don't get me wrong, her daughter isn't a terrible person, but she is 13 and at a point where she picks something up, gives it her all, and then a month or two later loses all interest and stops carrying like she's supposed to. The daughter had done the same with a hamster, corn snake, leopard gecko, and parakeets before, usually finding them different homes when she grew bored of them, but my friend had felt guilty for the little axolotl, and her daughter wasn't helping her rehome it, and she didn't really have anywhere it could go either, so was quite relieved when I reached out to her.
When I took the little dear home I'd had set up a 30-gallon tank for her to move into, but failed in the knowledge of cycling the tank. I typically do research months prior to getting any kind of pet but with the little axolotl (which I'd dubbed Axol Rose - Rose for short) I didn't have that chance. I'm used to working with a maybe 5-10 gallon tank when I had goldfish but jumping up to a 30-gallon tank all the sudden is quite a big leap but I didn't feel comfortable setting Rose in anything smaller.
For the first weeks, she ate happily in her new tank and it wasn't until about two weeks into caring for her she started acting sluggish (but was still eating). I grew immensely worried and did a ton of emergency research, even contacting a breeder whom I've since barraged with tons of questions and pictures. "Why does she do this? Is it natural for her to climb on the fake plants? etc." I ran several quick water tests and ammonia was reading pretty high (because the tank hadn't been cycled; an important step most sites left out of their instructions for setting up an axolotl tank - I know it may be second nature for some, but I'd never had to cycle a tank before, only having small tanks with a betta or goldfish in them). So I went online quickly looking for a solution and ended up tubbing the little girl for about 3ish weeks. I did daily 100% water changes- which she despised but ended up figuring out and actually swimming into her "*catch container" on cue.
During this time I constantly checked the water in her actual tank twice (and sometimes even up to 4 times) daily. I'd tested the tub water's ammonia as well and it always read 0.0. She then started to refuse food (making me incredibly sick with worry) and I took the issue to the same breeder. The breeder had me check the water perimeters again and when everything showed up fine had me run a few other tests. In the end, the breeder claimed she may just be reabsorbing her eggs since she wasn't sluggish or underactive in the least and her poop was still normal. Rose did come to me extremely chubby too, so when this occurred she thinned down to a healthy axolotl weight and size. But she was still refusing her worms. I tried a ton of different things; chopping the worms up even smaller, bloodworms, and even feeder fish from my pet store, as they're the only ones I trust since I get to see behind the scenes on the fish's care - we've only had one fish problem in the 6+ months I'd been there- and that was in the "communal tank" (a tank we've set up to take surrender fish to quarantine them from our own, not attached to our system, and even then we all caught it quickly and set to treating the tank and turned away a ton of customers for about two weeks after they were safe to sell again (we didn't want to take any chances).
She only ate said feeder fish (though she did have a blast catching them) and it worries me as to why she'll only eat them for the time being. I contacted my friend who'd sold her to me as a last resort to try to get more background on the girl and she'd responded with; "yeah feeder fish from your store was her favorite food, she'd never turn them down."
I'd also noticed over the time she'd been in the tub her gills shrank; they weren't as lustrous as they had been when I received her. I'd been told by the breeder (after once again checking the water in the tub for her and everything coming up normal) it was most likely to do with me changing the tub every day and since she always had plenty of oxygen in there she didn't need such long feathery gills. The tub itself was a 6-10 gallon makeshift tub with a hide and bare bottom.
I've since (as of last night around 5ish pm) moved her back into her tank which has 3 fake plants, a hide, a whisper filter, and plenty of space for her to swim and frolic, and placed a few feeder fish into the tank with her and only a few remain as of now (2:40 am) I believe. Her activity is normal but I'm still slightly worried about her gills.
I'll include a "when I got her picture" with a "how she is now picture" for y'all to see.
