Illness/Sickness: Grow live food?

[AdamHC]

Just got my axolotl today, was wondering what the easiest feeder fish to grow would be?

I'm thinking about getting another tank, but a small one to just grow lots and lots of feeder fish in. What fish should I use? And how big of a tank would I need?

Just an idea

 

[Shizeric]

Feeder fish should only be used occasionally. But, that being said, you can raise white cloud minnows or guppies or mollies. A 20 gallon tank would be fine for either. Stick to earthworms as the primary diet, with fish only once in a while.

 

[AdamHC]

Feeder fish should only be used occasionally. But, that being said, you can raise white cloud minnows or guppies or mollies. A 20 gallon tank would be fine for either. Stick to earthworms as the primary diet, with fish only once in a while.

Ah ok, what about the pellets you can buy? At the moment I'm feeding her frozen beef heart, but its annoying cause she will only have like half a cube at a time and then the rest of the cube i try to feed her melts and falls apart :s on a side note my filter picks up all this beef heart and I can see it in the filter cartridge thing, should I get it out of that somehow or just leave it?

With the worms do I have to put the worm to her face or will she just eat it?

thanks

 

[Shizeric]

Beef heart is not a suitable diet for an Axolotl. The worms should entice her with their wriggling motion, so if you drop the worm in front of it she should take it. I also have a feeling there is plenty of uneaten food getting stuck in your substrate, and it is not ALL being collected by your filter. Any waste is going to cause problems with your water conditions so I would try and remove anything that may rot in your tank.

Just as a side question, what type of substrate do you use?

 

[AdamHC]

Beef heart is not a suitable diet for an Axolotl. The worms should entice her with their wriggling motion, so if you drop the worm in front of it she should take it. I also have a feeling there is plenty of uneaten food getting stuck in your substrate, and it is not ALL being collected by your filter. Any waste is going to cause problems with your water conditions so I would try and remove anything that may rot in your tank.

Just as a side question, what type of substrate do you use?

My substrate is a heap of really small black rocks. I had read that they needed large rocks (bigger than their heads) but two pet stores said it doesn't matter how small it is, and one of them the lady said shes owned axolotls for 7 years and never had a problem :s I don't know what to think anymore haha. And the guy at one of the pet stores told me to use the beef. I wasn't too fond of the idea of worms but I've warmed up to them now. Gonna buy some soon. Are crickets okay to use? They wouldn't be as gross.

I'm not really seeing any uneaten food in the substrate, like there was before but it got sucked into the filter eventually. But it's my first day so likely to build up over time. But I'd definitely want worms over this cow heart :s waste of money

 

[Shizeric]

Gravel is extremely dangerous...and it's a matter of time until either your Axolotl ingests it and get impacted, or so much gunk gets trapped in it that your water turns foul. You need to remove the gravel and keep the bottom bare or use sand.

Crickets aren't a great food source, and some people say the chitin from the shell can also mess with your Axolotl's digestion.

Some people who own Axolotls don't realize that gravel has been ingested and just assume things are ok. If you search around these forums you will see PLENTY of stories of Axolotls becoming ill/dying due to sucking up gravel.

 

[AdamHC]

Gravel is extremely dangerous...and it's a matter of time until either your Axolotl ingests it and get impacted, or so much gunk gets trapped in it that your water turns foul. You need to remove the gravel and keep the bottom bare or use sand.

Crickets aren't a great food source, and some people say the chitin from the shell can also mess with your Axolotl's digestion.

Some people who own Axolotls don't realize that gravel has been ingested and just assume things are ok. If you search around these forums you will see PLENTY of stories of Axolotls becoming ill/dying due to sucking up gravel.

garh I'm so annoyed at these idiots who told me it doesn't matter :s
stuff cost 46$ :s
But will he only ingest it if food is on the ground? what about one of those feeding jars?

 

[dragonlady]

Gravel can be accidentally ingested at any time. It doesn't matter if there's actual food there or not. My brainiacs routinely suck up a good gulp of sand for no apparent reason.

The feeding jar is still a good idea but won't prevent possible ingestion.

Unfortunate for the money spent, but better to find out now...

 

[AdamHC]

Gravel can be accidentally ingested at any time. It doesn't matter if there's actual food there or not. My brainiacs routinely suck up a good gulp of sand for no apparent reason.

The feeding jar is still a good idea but won't prevent possible ingestion.

Unfortunate for the money spent, but better to find out now...

Ah ok, thanks for the help guys

Also my tank is new, I let it sit for a day as thats what a friend of mine told me. Put my (1) axolotl in there last night and in the morning the tank is all cloudy. I looked it up and read that there is too much ammonia caused by the fish and it should fix. But it there anything i can add to lower the levels making it more clear and avoiding the little thing getting harmed or uncomfortable?

Oh and I should mention I added nutrafin aqua plus tap water conditioner.