Axolotls with shrimp.

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mthom211

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I have a 70 lire tank with cherry shrimp, I want to get an xolotl but I am not aloud anymore tanks. My tank is unheated so I know there temperatures are fine but will an axolotl be able to eat the shrimp or are they to fast?
 
Depends on the size of the Axolotl, but the Axies definitely will devour any shrimp that is clumsy enough to wander near their mouths.
 
I have a few algae shrimp in my tank with a pair of axolotls and they do ok. Put 3 in a couple of months ago and at least 2 are still alive, they find their own food and are too fast for the axolotls. They hide pretty well in the rocks or in plants and stay out of the way!
 
I have Ghost Shrimp with my 4" Juvies and they are way too fast for the Axolotls. But they do try.
I'd also get a thermometer and find out what the temps in the tank are. Maybe I watch too much Discovery Channel... but it seems like depending on your location it could be hard to keep a tank cool enough?
 
I've had cherry shrimp in with my axie Juan and one lasted one day and the other lasted a week. They were quite small so im wondering if their size was a factor.
I also have Frank, a ghost shrimp who has been in with Juan for 3 or so months. Frank will go right up to Juan and Juan just slowly backs away. It always makes me laugh since i spent a long time either looking away so i didnt see Frank become lunch or yelling "Frank.... NOooooooo!!!!"

Once Juan moves into his new house im going to get some more cherry shrimp in the hope of starting a snack bar - while Frank lives out the rest of his days without giving me a heart attack every time he gets too close lol
 
Mac brought up a good point. Despite your tank being at room temperature, that may not be cool enough for an axolotl. Anything over 24C is dangerous for axolotls. Ideally, you want to aim for about 16 - 18C.
 
If you are not too attached to the shrimp, I think it should be fine.

I put a dozen guppies in my axie tank last weekend, and only 2 are left as of today. Every morning there are a few less....
 
shoegal said:
If you are not too attached to the shrimp, I think it should be fine.

I put a dozen guppies in my axie tank last weekend, and only 2 are left as of today. Every morning there are a few less....
Click to expand...

Mariah,
How big are the animals in the Axie tank? I like the idea of having prey animals for them to hunt when I'm gone doing whatever it is that I do when I'm not doing what I do when I'm home.
I thought about guppies but was afraid I'd just end up with a tank full of Guppies. I do think my guys/gals have managed to pick off a shrimp or two.
 
Mac, if you want to add guppies, just add as many as you want to have in there, I am pretty sure guppies don't breed as prolifically (or at all) at the low temps axies are kept in. And I think Mariah is referring to her tank with the 2 crazy breeders Sloppy Joe and Peanut, which are 2 adult Goldens.

p.s. While I'm on this thread....I've always had an odd desire to buy some of those extremely fancy crystal red shrimp and put them in my Axolotl tank. They look awesome, and I wouldn't care if they got gobbled up.
 
I just set up a cherry shrimp breeder colony, specifically to feed shrimp to my axolotls. If it turns out that they survive in the tank, I guess I'll be able to scrap the breeder tank. I've also got feeder guppies breeding in the axolotl tank. (...after a two-month quarantine and ich treatment). About six of the two dozen I bought survived the two months, and then four were eaten right away after adding them to the axolotl tank. The last two seem to have learned to stay up toward the top of the tank, and they've bred already. I'm excited to see what happens with the shrimp.

One silly cautionary tale: I lost some ADFs shortly after adding a new fish to my community tank. It has made me insanely paranoid about chytrid. There were no frogs in the tank I bought the fish from, but there must have been some contact within the seven weeks prior to purchase. I am now waiting out a seven week quarantine before adding any of the shrimp that I bought to the axolotl tank. (Chytrid lives without an amphibian host for seven weeks.) Hopefully, this is overly cautious, and most of you are sick of hearing it, but I thought I would send out a little reminder that you might want to wait a while before adding feeders/aquatic decor to amphibians' tanks.
 
Hey Mac~ I have guppies in my adult tank as well as in my two juvenile tanks. My juveniles are about 6 inches long now and can very easily eat a small guppy in one gulp. I was hoping that the guppies would last a bit longer than they do, but I think the axies find them at night when the fish are sleeping. The guppies do look very nice in the tank though....
 
Mac Myers said:
I have Ghost Shrimp with my 4" Juvies and they are way too fast for the Axolotls. But they do try.
I'd also get a thermometer and find out what the temps in the tank are. Maybe I watch too much Discovery Channel... but it seems like depending on your location it could be hard to keep a tank cool enough?
Click to expand...


It does get pretty hot here. In the middke of summer 32 degrees is not uncomman, in the winter though 3-4 degrees is common at night or early in the morning. A lot of the axies here though seem immune to the hot whether. I though there could be like some natural selection thing going on and therefore there are a fair few resesitant ones. I know heaps of people with axies that don't use chillers or anything. I have a freind in the sunshine cost tht has had one for about 5 yers. However I have been looking for a fridge to make a diy chiller if worst comes to worst. To get 1 though I will have to rip out the gravel that I paid $60 dollors for and I m not to thrilled bout that. I have about 60 shrimp.
 
That´s true. High temps affect the inmune system negatively. The higher they are, the more exposed is the animal.
 
my first foray in keeping shrimps went like this:

25 red chery shrimp come out of quarantine and go into the axie tank
1 day passes
3 shrimp left and Klaus and Gretchen considerably fatter
----------------
 
Check out Arizonafairyshrimp.com Would be awesome for rearing youngsters!
 
shoegal said:
If you are not too attached to the shrimp, I think it should be fine.

I put a dozen guppies in my axie tank last weekend, and only 2 are left as of today. Every morning there are a few less....
Click to expand...
thats lucky i added 12 guppies and within a day there was only 1 left i wanted to keep that guppy alive so when it got close i tried to scare it away but it went closer to the mouth and got eaten btw im pretty sure it was a pregnant guppy cuz it moved slow
 
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