New to Axolotls - I appreciate all help/criticism

Hello everyone,
I recently purchased my first Axie from a local pet store (I know, I know bear with me) without fully understanding/appreciating the amount of care these guys really need. I've tried to do as much research as I can so that I can give Mudkip the best possible life but I am sure there is so much more to learn so please correct me on my mistakes and let me know what changes I need to make and I will greatly appreciate it.

Here are some pictures of Mudkip and her tank set up at the moment. I have a sponge filter on the way and I intend to buy more plants/hides as she grows. If someone could confirm an age approximation and/or let me know if it really is a 'she' (seems round like a female and a lack of cloacal but I assume it's too soon to tell). She was labeled as an Albino at the store but the black eyes and more yellowish tint to her leads me to believe she is Leucistic, please let me know if I'm wrong/if you have more information on her particular morph I would love to hear it.

Her 10 gallon tank (sitting at about 64 degrees Fahrenheit) is pretty cloudy since putting her in and her ammonia levels are at 0.25 with the nitrate/nitrite levels at 0.0 and pH at 6.5 but there is no visible solid waste and she doesn't seem to have fully digested her rather large meal of bloodworms she ate yesterday (I have been hesitant to feed her since then because I can still clearly see the food in her belly).

Other than that she seems healthy to me, she swims around the entire tank, she doesn't appear to have any trouble eating and she likes to swim in and out of the plants plus I haven't seen any tail-curling or other signs of stress I've read about so I would like to assume she's healthy and happy.

Thank you for your time, I hope to hear from you all and continue to learn how I can improve little Mudkip's life.

I don't have axies myself but plenty of people here do, and they have a lot of knowledge to offer. Welcome!

Hi and Welcome ,i have 3 Axolotls 2 adults and one very young ,i have learnt so much on here ,that's the best way to learn about caring for these amazing little animals, my little Pepper is about 5cm long he/she is doing well and eating ,i feed him Blood worms ,which do make a mess of his water ,just make sure you do water changes to keep water nice a cool for her ,and clean out any rubbish that should help with the cloudiness i use a turkey baster makes it much easier. hope this helps ,as i said i am learning too sounds like you are doing a great job

Welcome. You have come to the right place. My contribution would be that if both nitrites and nitrates are at zero, your tank is not yet cycled, so you will need to pay careful attention to your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels (daily) and be religious about water changes (daily until the tank has cycled - ie ammonia and nitrates are at zero, nitrates are registering but are under 40). It would be better if the PH was a little higher but adding PH up is not a good idea and I don't think the PH you have is a major concern. The other suggestion I have is that you try your lotl on some live earthworms. Cut them up into pieces as long as his head is wide if necessary, though mine is very happy to wrestle with a worm nearly as long as he is!! Earthworms are the best and most balanced nutrition for your axie, and easy to come by. If you're getting them from your garden, be certain no pesticides have been used there. Otherwise, try a bait shop. At his/her age you should feed daily (it is too early to be sure of gender).
All the best. You seem to be doing a great job. And yes, black eyes mean it is certainly not an albino but a leucistic.

Tank set up looks great, stay with a bare bottom until it is at least 5". As mentioned it sounds like your tank is uncycled. You need to maintain ammonia under .5ppm for it to be "safe" for your axolotl. However I have learnt recently that having such a small axolotl and a larger space it can take long for ammonia to increase. Still check them constantly and do water changes accordingly with dechlorinated water.

It is difficult to determine sex even at 12 months some "females" develop their bumps and are actually males . You look like you have a speckly leucistic, it looks like it has a gold ring in it's eye. If it has a solid black eye it is a melanoid leucistic.

You can start feeding it earthworms if you chop them up small enough. I started feeding mine segments of earthworms at 3". You can feed more than daily, I fed mine twice daily as their body weight fluctuated. Aim to have their body as wide as their head.

Thank you everyone for your contributions. The tank has not been cycled due to my hasty buying decisions so I have been worried about her ammonia levels and such but everything has been staying fairly consistent so far. Using a turkey baster works amazingly well and the cloudiness seems to have lessened with the daily 20% water changes so thank you everyone for your advice. I really enjoy this forum and hearing everyone's ideas and methods.

Very cute axolotl you have

Skudo09 said:

Very cute axolotl you have

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Mudkip is adorable, and very lucky to have such a caring human to live with. You are doing a great job.

Welcome to the forum! It's been of great help to me in my first year of lotl care, and it's cool that there are so many in the know people out there to help with axies!

Your little one looks very cute, I remember when mine was that small! I have one axie at the moment, a leucistic one who is about one year old.

I think some sites (not this one I should stress) tend to be quite chilled out about axie care so I was a bit like you; I didn't fuly appreciate the care involved. That said, they are such laid back little critters so long as your water is good they tend to thrive!

From my own queries about my leucistic and seeing what I thought was food, I was told that because their skin is pretty much see through, you're just seeing her insides so don't worry too much about that. If her back legs start to float she's constipated but if she's happily on the bottom of the tank then the chances are she's having no problem digesting and expelling waste.

One thing I did do, more to see if Axl would take me up on it, is what my husband calls "axie enrichment" which is basically putting 'toys' in the tank to see whether he has any interest in them! I got a ball from a kid's ball pool pierced the top with a needle and filled it almost full with water, I put in a little sand too so that the ball rests on the bottom of the tank, but it's light enough for Axl to push around. I've (hopefully) attached some photos of how the axie enrichment is going so far!

fireball99 said:

If her back legs start to float she's constipated but if she's happily on the bottom of the tank then the chances are she's having no problem digesting and expelling waste

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That is very helpful information, thank you.
I was wondering about getting little toys for an axie because the way they swim around so curiously makes it seem like they would love something to interact with, so I will definitely try putting something like that in the tank.