My Axolotl set up

Thanks for the lovely video. Its worth a 1000 words.

Cheers.
 
Lovely looking tank and axolotls. I love the way you can see all the way round the tank, makes it a real feature. What fish is it you have in there? Are they meant to be axolotl snacks? They look like they are staying well out of the way near the top of the tank!
 
Ah, it has been awhile since I answered questions, I apologize!!!

The fish in with the axolotls are three Giant Danios, and two Pearl Danios. I bought the two pearls to use as an experiment - to see if, being fast top swimmers, they could stay out the axies' way and not be eaten, and if they would cause any stress to or pick on the axolotls at all.

After about two months of just having the Pearls in the tank with no problems, I added the three Giants. It has been about 6 months now - the axolotls and the fish completely and totally ignore each other. I can't recommend that anyone actually try this, because there are a few risks involved, but it worked out for me.

I also keep some ghost shrimp and usually a guppy or two in the tank. The shrimp are ignored, the guppies usually get picked off slowly, but that isn't a big deal really.

I have never had to replace the plants in the tank, in fact, I have to hack at them about once a week to keep them from taking over.

My tank has once again undergone a makeover, I will try to get new video up in the next couple of days. I changed the substrate for a darker sand, and shifted a lot of things around.

Kristina
 
WOW your tank is probably the best i have seen so far! it looks great! and so do your axies! oh and i love the plants too! :D

:ufo:
 
Thanks :) I have a second tank now, as of yet it is un-populated with axies, but it will be home to 4 once my babies grow up a bit.

Yes, that is right, I have babies :) Fred and Lucy are both female, but I purchased a batch of eggs. Of 27 eggs, I have 22 babies, two that are luecistic!!! They are 10 days old and starting to grow their front limbs. They are so adorable. Two of the eggs went bad, and three babies I had to euthanize because they were deformed, sadly.

Unfortunately we had a power outage a while back, and while the axies were fine with the temp drop, the danios didn't make it. I replaced them after a few weeks with 5 new Giant danios, and one wasn't fast enough - CHOMP. The other four have settled in nicely. Fred and Lucy have gone back to ignoring them.

I have been promising pics and I will get some of BOTH tanks up in the next day or two, cross my heart!!

Kristina
 
What temperature do you keep your tank at to keep the Danios alive and do you have a list of the plants you use and any fertilizers.
 
Off topic I know, but is that your crestie in your picture Rick? It's beautiful.
 
The tank stays at 68-70 degrees F, and the Danios have so far been fine. I actually, against common practice, keep all 15 of my tanks at room temp and my fish have never suffered any ill effects. I have lost more fish from malfunctioning heaters than from keeping them at a steady room temp - in fact, I have lost none from room temp tanks.

The plants in the tank that is pictured here have included cabomba, myrio filigree, Amazon frogbit, duckweed, spiral vals, guppy grass, and a couple other simple ones. Right now it has a tropica sword, a bunch of filigree, tiger vals and a bronze crypt wendtii. The other tank has tiger and giant vals, java fern, anubias, red tiger lotus, and bronze crypts.

I don't use ferts in my amphib tanks because honestly, I don't know what kind of effect it may have long term on them and I don't want to take risks. I just use standard aquarium lighting in both of these tanks (yes, I know, pictures, pictures.... I promise they are forthcoming.)

I am no stranger to planted aquaria, as I have many set ups and ALL of them are planted. I just don't care for fake. There are so many benefits from using live plants.

Here are some of my other tanks. This is my 100 gallon goldfish tank.

http://www.youtube.com/v/JUVu6uEdlTc&hl=en_US&fs=1&

This is my 54 gallon corner native brackish water tank. I have my own strain of molly that I developed from wild caught P. velifera, P. latippina and P. sphenops. My wild caughts came from the southern east coast of Florida. I also have two Violet gobies, and 9 sheepshead minnows, also wild caught. Specific gravity is 1.012

Picture098.jpg
 
Your tanks are pretty nice, do you ever sell your mollys?
 
I do, but I don't have any available at the moment. I breed for size and sailfin size first and foremost, color is secondary. My males push the 6" mark. I am still in the culling process to select for breeding stock, so they have to reach a certain maturity before I sell any.

Kristina
 
Kyryah said:
I do, but I don't have any available at the moment. I breed for size and sailfin size first and foremost, color is secondary. My males push the 6" mark. I am still in the culling process to select for breeding stock, so they have to reach a certain maturity before I sell any.

Kristina
Click to expand...

Keep me updated
 
Nice to see another person who uses live plants and sand bottom. Glad to see you use vallisneria There is a world of nice plants one can use with axolotl; Also, axolotl like to lay their eggs on Vals and it makes it easier to remove, unlike when they get layed in moss piles. A nice floater is Riccia. It can also be tied to rocks. Also, fissidens is another plant great for tying to rocks and diftwood..

If you are looking into a background, you can always try a moss wall.

I have also had success in keeping cherry shrimp with axolotls and they even breed with them. Its best to keep them in their own tank until reproduction starts, and them dividing them up. They are the easiest thing I keep. Reproduction with them is low in tanks kept with fish, for the fish pic off the young. I have a population with Least Killifish (Heterandria formosa), and that is a tiny fish, and I only have an adult population.

Keep up the good work! Nice to see others making beautiful aquascaped tanks for their monsters.
 
Wow I love axolotls I'm planning to get 2 (1 male and 1 female) in 1 and a half years. You tank is impressive are they hard to keep clean ect...

Matty ;):bowl:
 
Hi Matty
It depends on the dimensions of the tank.
For three to live comfortably you'd need a large 3 foot (by this i mean 18inch depth not standard 12 inch depth)
Or a 4 foot tank.

Hope this helps.
Mel
 
Would love to see some updated pictures on this tank! :)
How is Fred and Lucy?
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
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