just a few questions

Hey all ive had my axies for about a year now and ive got a few questions, they appear to be healthy and well but they do a few strange things just wondering if their normal or not. Squish is my female the pinky white one and sanchez the male is the black one.

1: squish is a real fatty she eats every time food is on offer and dosnt matter what it is, where sanchez only eats every 2nd or 3rd day i usually feed them beef heart cubes but i recently tried krill and sanchez refused 2 eat it swam away from it and didnt eat for 4days, squish had no problems and wolfed it down evertime, i went back to beef heart cubes and sanchez appeared happier and ate about 1/8th of a cube and swam away, squish ate her whole quater. just wondering if its just a personallity thing he dosnt like 2 eat??

2; everytime i do a water change sanchez will swim to the top and take a few huge golps of air then just swim back down he will do this for about 2hrs, squish dosnt seem fased and just acts normally. its an 80lt tank and i change about 40lts every 2 weeks, the guy i bought them off used 5 teaspoons of salt per 20L and 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb soda per 20Lt when doing water changes, the water stays a bit cloudy for the next day then settlers down, i think it might be a bit much, im gonna try halving the amounts next time.

3 squish always is very altert and interested if u go up to the tank she comes over and swims up to have a look and see what going on, sanchez just dosnt seem interested at all, is this once again just a personality thing?

i know it was long but im just curious to hear peoples opinions on these things, im sure its nothing to major they have surivived all this time and have bred and stuff so they must be happy. just seems all a bit weird.

thanks for your time!

Your axies are cute
I don't think teaspoons of salt are necessary when doing a water change, and I've never heard of putting bicarb soda in...
Sanchez not being interested in different types of food is just a personality thing, as long as he eats what he finds yummy he will be fine.
Axolotls have different personalities when greeting people as well. This is normal.
I recommend you change those blue stones in the tank to fine sand or just nothing (bare bottom tank).

Yeh stephs right. They all have different personalities just like cats and dogs
So some will eat stuff others won't etc etc.

Take my old axie Noot, she only ate bloodworm and nothing else, very quiet and reserved. Now i have moomin who'll eat anything and swim about liek a amaniack haha!

dont worry

p.s. love tat photo of them kissing

I would recomend trying earth worms as a staple diet for them, much better for them than the heart you are feeding.

I dont add anything in my tank other than water conditioner, the less you put in it the less things there are to go wrong

Some axolotls are very very nosy and some just like to keep to there selfs! Its just them being who they are!

I would also recommend maybe putting some more hidy holes in there, may have atleast 2 so they can hide on their own if they wish to!

What jigglypuff (hehe) said it right, beef cubes and ox heart are sometimes food for axolotls. A good staple could be earthworms or salmon pellets

Adding bicarb soda will result in a rise of P.H, I dont think it is nessesary to add it unless you PH is super low. Maybe sanchez will respond better to live food

thanks for the help guys, im relived to hear all is good, im just about to do a water change now so ill try not using the bicarb, the people i bought them off recomended it who knows. yeah i think ill experement a bit more with different foods as i am bored of feeding the same thing all the time!
when you say earthworms are a staple diet, do u buy them live and keep them live 2 feed or just hunt around the backyard? salmon pelets? pet store? everytime i go to any pet store they are no help and they always giv me krill or beef heart cubes.

stef why change the blue rocks?

thanks every1 for the advise!

They might accidentally eat the rocks, which can cause impaction - this could kill your cute little guys. Have a look at this thread - http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57839

If you replace them with sand or just leave the bottom bare, it will also be a lot easier to keep it clean.
I don't think you can order the specially made salmon pellets to Australia (if you can, let me know!), but this is the site to order them from - http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/food.htm

Trout pellets are supposed to be good as well.. I have also received the same 'are you crazy' looks when I asked at all the aquariums in my area, so I just gave up looking. You can dig up earthworms from your garden if you're sure they haven't come into contact with chemicals or pesticides, but I think it's just easier to buy some and keep them. I'm a little stumped as well... the only live food aside from earthworms I can get hold of are blackworms, and my guys don't seem to like them.

finchy said:

stef why change the blue rocks?

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The rocks are too small and can easily be swallowed causing impacton and death as the rocks are hard to pass when the axie poos. When axolotls eat, they 'gulp' their food and can accidently take in a rock. Also, rocks can affect your water quality because food and poo will get trapped between and under them causing a build up of ammonia which can also be deadly to axies. Personally, I find that sand works best as a bare bottom can be an eye sore. Sand allows you to easily do a spot clean because you can see all of the yuck sitting on top of the sand.

Hope this helps

Neke you bit me by like a second! Cheeky!

Probably because great minds think alike. Or it could be that I have a very important piece of assessment due tomorrow and I am looking for as many distractions as I can find because it's huge and I don't want to do it

I just want to raise a few points:

Salt doesn't seem necessary unless you are treating it for fungus or if you have a special salts solution for treating soft water? Also, if you're using the iodised stuff, Iodine is toxic if in large amounts but this may not be the case for regular table salt.

Bicarbonate of Soda, I think, is also a type of salt which could also be used in treating fungus? It is also base/alkaline and will raise PH up (which may, or may not be desired) I think it can also produce carbon dioxide when dissolved in water (if it's being neutralized) which could explain the 'gulping' for air. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, my memory is not the best)

This is just a theory (I better tread carefully here) There isn't any one answer regarding personality in animals/humans and as far as I know personality is largely influenced by genetic makeup. It could be that Sanchez is more sensitive to what is in the water than Squish and may be more vulnerable to what you're putting in the water. I think you should not put salt or bicarbonate of soda in your water and follow the general guidelines on this forum of keeping the water in optimum quality for your axolotl.

Just a question (sorry to steal your thread for a minute Finchy), if you do have low pH, say a pH of 6, would it be ok to add a VERY SMALL amount of bicarb of soda to your water???

Would that make you pH rise a bit????

Thanks guys

A better way to raise pH is to use something that is more slow-release, rather than treating the water. By just treating the water, you run the risk of having wild swings in water quality. Most people use shell grit or limestone chunks to raise and buffer pH.

Kaysie said:

Most people use shell grit or limestone chunks to raise and buffer pH.

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Ok, so where do you get that?

kira said:

Ok, so where do you get that?

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Hi Kira,

Shellgrit is used in birdcages and can be purchased from most petstores.

The best method I've found is to put the shell grit in a stocking. It will be trial and error with what quantity will adjust to the desirable level. Try adding about a cupful at a time, wait a few days and test the water for pH, and then add more grit to the stocking if needed.

Great thanks