water temperature, no problem?

I suppose I'm outside of the average forum poster. I'd never given much thought to having an exotic pet until I saw that my school's biology department was selling Axolotl's (apparently they are VERY good a breeding in captivity) for five dollars a head.
His current house is a ten gallon tank, side filter, and two terra cotta flower pots. I feed him 2-3 shrimp pellets every other day or so.
Every piece of information I can find on the subject says that I should keep the water temperature between 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, my parents don't like running the air conditioner. The dormitories I live in are not air conditioned, and the furnace is run full blast during the winter.
For about as long as I've been an owner, the tank thermometer has consistently read between 70-80 degrees. I keep my blinds drawn, the door is open (and right by the attic fan), and there are two fans in the room. If the thermometer goes over 80 I can float a jar of ice or two, but I'm kind of at a loss to keep the temperature within the "healthy range."
The more curious fact is that, as far as I can tell, he's pretty healthy. There are two light patches on his tail, but they have neither grown nor shrank that I can tell.


Is it possible for an Axolotl to adopt to a higher temperature?

Some axolotls are tougher than others and your picture shows a healthy beast. 50-70F is ideal but above this there is a margin where they are OK if all else is well, but a problem like poor water quality can tip them off balance disastrously fast.

Try to keep the temperature below 75F (24C). A fan blowing across the top of the tank producing evaporative cooling may be enough to give you a margin and do consider moving it to the Fridge during heat-waves, especially if there is any hint of illness.

Its nice to see a tank from a new poster that is not full of nasty axolotl choking gravel.

Hi and welcome to the site,

I agree with oceanblue, 10 gallons is not going to be big enough for very long so you may need to start looking at a bigger tank. Have a look at www.axolotl.org it has heaps of great information about all things axolotl