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How good are Axolotls at hunting?

Shizeric

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My friend, who saw my Axolotl eat for the first time last night, was hardly impressed with its ability to locate food. I thawed a cube of bloodworms, and as they sat on the bottom of my tank, my albino axie slowly wandered over taking his sweet time before eventually vacuuming up his meal. Knowing I am breeding guppies to be potential snacks..my friend began ridiculing my Axolotl saying there was very little chance my Axie would ever be able to find, let alone catch a guppy. I am embarassed to say that based on my Axolotl's current abilities to track even the most obvious sources of food, that catching a guppy may be well out of question. Anyone have any personal experience with similar axies? Or will an insane hunting desire kick in when guppies are present?
 

Samyueruchan

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My axie can be pretty similar. I found that if I dropped a worm in for him to hunt he would try and chase my hand instead and then would look at me through the glass as if to say "Hey! Don't take your hand out! I was gonna eat that!" and ignore the worm for a while. I did, however, put some river shrimp in with him a little while ago. At first he seemed positively annoyed by them and would swim away and hide whenever one came near, but eventually he would start hunting them. It was never exactly a high-speed chase though. He would lower his head and spread his shoulders (if an axolotl can be said to have shoulders,) and stalk his prey very slowly. If a shrimp swam away then he would generally just ignore it. It is only when one came close to him and let their guard down that he would slowly creep up on it until he was within striking distance and then he would dart forward and vacuum the poor shrimp up with excellent speed. It was very much fun to watch.

I can only assume that these shrimp were a fair bit slower than your guppies will be, but I would imagine that any guppies that are stupid enough to spend some time close to your axolotl are likely to get chomped on. I have no experience with guppies myself, though it seems that others on this forum do. Hopefully one of them will tell you their experiences.
 

Shizeric

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Yeah, I have very little faith in my Axies ever catching a guppy, especially as it seems guppies spend most of their time at the top of the tank I currently have them in, and my Axies never leave the bottom of their tank. Oh well, even if their intention was to be snacks, perhaps they will aid in cleanup of leftover worm pieces and maybe someday be a snack. I also have ghost shrimp and red cherry shrimp I am thinking of introducing as other snick snacks, and from what you say that might be the mellower hunt an Axolotl can handle.
 

Bellabelloo

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Do not fear, the guppies will disappear. Axolotl will react to movement by snapping at them. I have seen my guys on the rare occasion stalk earthworm.
 

angelpoe07

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My axolotl, Wilbur, doesn't seem to be the best hunter either. I have very little faith in his ability to catch a guppy. That said, I keep ghost shrimp in with him and he loves them, plus they really help keep the tank clean!

As the other poster said, if one swims away he ignores it...but they aren't shy about being around him and when they least expect it he strikes!

I had a paddle tail newt for 15 years before I got my axolotl and I got him guppies once. His name was Freddy, he was an amazing hunter! He could catch ghost shrimp left and right before they knew what hit them! Try as he might though, Freddy could never catch the guppies! They actually stressed him out so I wound up removing them. They reproduced so quickly that I had to find people to give them away to lol.

If you have Instagram, my axolotl has his own @WilburTheAxolotl and there are several videos of his hunting skills (or lack there of, lol.)
 

Tal

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I added a $10 bag of feeders to my aquarium yesterday, all of which are guppies. When I went to bed 23 guppies. When the lights came on for my plants 12 guppies remain and 3 very happy axies are in their hides. So going on that I would say that they are OK at hunting down guppies :D
 

JM29

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My axies are ambush hunters : they don't move most of the time but swallow very quickly everything moving a few centimeters beside them.
It works for earthworms, but I've also experienced that with Gambusia, wich is similar to guppies.
 
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