New axolotl owner

Hello! I'm new to the axolotl world, and here is my little chap. Been loooking for one since Christmas and finally found one last week.

It's been in my tank and day now and seems happy, haven't decided on a name yet though

Just hand fed it some cockles and it snapped them up

Lovely looking axie and welcome to the forum

Not sure if you know this but the best diet for your axie is earthworms, bloodworms and pellets I was advised to feed mine cockles, mussles and krill when I got my axies but thanks to this forum knew this was incorrect

Good luck with your axie

Nice one! Cute axolotl! He looks happy ^_^

Definitely go for worms rather than cockles, they are the most nutritious and nice and wriggly. I get earthworms from my local bait shop.

I was given poor advice when I got axies, too, but this forum did wonders for me!

Welcome to the wonderful world of axolotls

hmmmmm I googled it before I collected him and everywhere says different things, it's very confusing! :evil:

In the end I decided to ask the store where I bought him as they have them in regularly and seem to know what they're doing. They recommended cockles as the staple food and the occasional bloodworms (once a week) .... I bought loads to save going back for a while so hope I wasn't advised too badly. I got 4 x packs of cockles, 1 x bloodworms and 1 x dapnia (I also keep tropical fish so figured they'd eat some of it too?).

I asked if they had any pellets as I thought that would be easier when I'm busy but they didn't have any, I know I can get these online though - what pellets would you recommend?

coral2reef said:

hmmmmm I googled it before I collected him and everywhere says different things, it's very confusing! :evil:

In the end I decided to ask the store where I bought him as they have them in regularly and seem to know what they're doing. They recommended cockles as the staple food and the occasional bloodworms (once a week) .... I bought loads to save going back for a while so hope I wasn't advised too badly. I got 4 x packs of cockles, 1 x bloodworms and 1 x dapnia (I also keep tropical fish so figured they'd eat some of it too?).

I asked if they had any pellets as I thought that would be easier when I'm busy but they didn't have any, I know I can get these online though - what pellets would you recommend?

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completely agree with you can get confusing but you can trust the advice on here As Mewsie said a lot of us have been given bad advice myself included with the food!

Worms are by far the best!! You can buy axie pellets from exotic pets or shrimp & earthworm pellets & salmon pellets they are good every now and again as a change.

Your fish will def eat the bloodworm Daphnia will be too small for your axie as they are used when they are juveniles.

Anyway good luck and anymore questions shout :happy:

Agreed, Zoe. The pet shops I bought my axies from were VERY convincing with their bad advice!

I think axies *will* eat quite a lot of things, so you'll find they'll chow down on the cockles, but long term, earthworms are the most nutritious - in the wild, an axolotl is very likely to come by a juicy worm, but not very likely to come across cockles.

oooh, and, I found that feeding proper worms made the tank a lot tidier, as the cubey stuff got everywhere!

Yeah I'll definetly agree the frozen stuff can be messy! I cut up 3 cockles in half the first day I had him and dropped them in the tank, tried to do it near him but it didn't really work! I left him to it to find them initially, took him a while and they made a but of a mess so I picked them up and dropped the rest near him. Had to collect all the little bits with a net later on. When I fed him today I just hand fed him or dropped them right by his head, no mess at all at least

Out of interest what's wrong with the cockles? Will he be okay with them for the next week? (I also have the frozen bloodworm I can give him). I might be able to get to a pet shop during the week, but doubt it as I don't have my car.

Also, I better check the feeding advise they gave me they recommended 2-3 cockles a day - I thought this sounded a lot?

The axolotl measures 5.5 inches form head to tail (14cm).

I also have red mosquito larvae and daphnia frozen cubes in stock for the tropical fish - can the axie eat the mosquito larvae (are these bloodworms???) if so how much and how often?

Sorry for all the questions :blush:

Ask away!

AFAIK, bloodworm are 'midge' larvae, mosquito larvae I think are more white in colour - correct me someone if I'm wrong! Perhaps they are packaged as mosquito larvae but aren't? Or maybe there is such a thing as a red mosquito larvae?

Re: cockles, I think he'll be fine to munch on those and the bloodworm, worms are considered the best 'staple' food, with other bits and bobs as treats!

A good way to tell if your axie is eating too much is to look on him from above, his belly should be the same width as his head That does sound like a lot of food :S

Re: feeding frozen stuff - I've seen folks on here submerge a clean jar in the water and put the food in that - stops it spreading like mad! If I feed mine frozen stuff I defrost it in a little bowl, and use a turkey baster to drop it right in front of their noses, might help, haha!

Looking at him at the moment he's about spot on weight wise based on the size of his head/belly from above, guess I'll have to keep an eye on his measurements :wacko: will try every other day for the rest of the week and see how it goes.

I think I'll try the jar idea with the food, seems like a good plan ... and a good excuse to finish the large jar of chocolate spread I have in the cupboard!

I just checked the freezer, it's def red mosquito larvae - I've never used it though, I'll defrost some tomorrow and put some in the tropical tank

Cheers for all the answers very much appreciated

coral2reef said:

... and a good excuse to finish the large jar of chocolate spread I have in the cupboard!

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Booyaa!

I read somewhere you should always keep a few spare jars lying around...

Nice axolotl!
And about the red mosquito larvea you have,those are kinda popular here in holland^^
Those are the ones that can't sting us and ive got them 2 in my freezer to feed my axolotls with from time to time besides the earthworms.
Also some people use them go let the juveniles grow up when theyre kinda to big for daphnia and to small to eat earthworms and combine it with artemia.
But if you have a garden thats not being sprayed with chemicals or something,get a shovel and dig for some earthworms.
Clean the worms and they can be fed to your axolotl.
Good luck with your axy ^^

Cheers for the info freya on the red mosquito larvea.

I live in a block of flats so unfortunately no garden to go digging in, I would go to my parents and dig theirs up (I'm sure they'd appreciate it :wacko but I remember my mum has used weed killer in the past they leave the garden all winter and it turns into a jungle and then go mad on it every summer :rofl: always amuses me!

Same here, well, there is a communal garden of sorts, but my neighbours already think I'm weird, so digging up handfuls of worms would be social suicide.

:rofl: haha same here, kind of a communal garden/strip of land that's been made to look so pretty there's no space left to enjoy it! I daren't dig there, they'd have me gardening the whole plot

so ... should I be worried that I've had my axie since Saturday and he's yet to go for a poo? .... I've even looked for one