Hello from the Netherlands!

Hey guys!

I'm new to the forum so I thought I'd introduce myself I'm 27, I live in the Netherlands, study applied animal science and I own my first axolotl since about two weeks!

My axolotl's name is Airis, I'm guessing she's somewhere between 6 months and 1 year old and measures 15 cm (6 inches) now. Despite some pretty crappy advice from the 'expert' at the store she seems to be doing well here. By bad advice I mean things like "Oh we don't have sand, but this gravel is small and smooth enough!" and "You don't need any decorations or hides, you can just add that whenever you feel like it"..though my favourite one in hindsight was "You can just buy this tank, fill it with tap water and pop her right in!" :errr:

Sooo I added hides as soon as I started reading up, right now my #1 priority is getting the tank cycled without killing my axie and when that's all good I'll replace the substrate with sand

Read and learned enough here already to write a book haha, but I look forward to learning much more and sharing the experience of owning an amphibian with you all!

Welcome to the forum! Beautiful axolotl

Yeah, it's hard to get good advice from pet store people on exotics. Unless they have years of experience with a species personally, or they do their research past a Google search before supplying the species, it's kind of a **** shoot @.@

I remember when we got our axie, the guy said we could keep her in a 1 gal critter keeper or a large fish bowl. Could you imagine?

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but if you're using gravel at all as a substrate, take it out immediately.

A bare tank bottom is fine, and the tank will still cycle. If you wait until it's cycled to switch it out, which usually take over 6 weeks, it will more than likely be too late.

Gravel kills D:
Best of luck.