allow me to introduce myselves......

[amy]

hi, erm, im amy and..... im a fishoholic..... haha. im new here. ive been surfing this site for months now and only just found the forum! as you can tell, im probably not the most observant person in the world! so, a little about myself, im addicted to fish, i have 2 axolotls called bailey and tia luso, 24 fish (including fry) but recently lost 4 of my most precious fish to flukes

anyway, i also have a dog called cookie and thats about it! pleased to meet you all. oh, i should also say ive only had axolotls for about 2 months but ive swatted up pretty well on them. id be greatful of any tips you could give me. they are about 4" long, one is the colour of baileys (hence the name) and the other one is dark greeny with darker splodges. they are in a 25 gal tank with a peace lilly and a cave i made them out of slate. anyway, ill shut up now and give someone else a chance to talk

 

[jennifer]

Welcome! Do you have any particular questions? Sounds like you need to find the chat room!

 

[amy]

nothing in particular. what is the best food for them? ive been feeding them a mix of tubifex and daphnia and brine shrimp paste. i just introduced salmon into their diet today too. is this ok? how much should they be eating when theyre only 4" big?

 

[anthony]

try earth worms they love them.

 

[jenny]

i put some floating fish food balls in with oswold he spits out trout pellets. are these fish balls ok? he seems to like em. i just put a few in the tank then he swims around snappin at them.

 

[karin]

hi amy

I will piggy back myself on your post, cause I have never introduced myself.

I am karin, live in vienna austria, have 3 axos (hugo, smeagol&lothar)and 3 siamese cats(xenokrates, adorno & yoko).

greetz
karin

 

[kim]

Hey love blood worms at that age... oh and worms worms worms!!

 

[amy]

ill try and get to the pet shop soon to get some blood worms.

thanks for all the advise and stuff. im sure i'll become quite a regular here!

 

[kim]

I hope so!! Nice talking to you!

 

[miss]

Hey guys where do you get your worms from? Someone said that you have to be careful getting earth worms due to contamination... is this true? My local pet shop doesn't sell worms, so I have been digging them up from the back garden, but now i think i have run out... Maybe a bait shop?? Any thoughts?

 

[amy]

does your pet shop sell meal worms? they sell those for lizards and reptiles but im sure axolotls would enjoy them. i doubt my mum would let me get any though, shes scared of things like that. all she'd do is squeal!

 

[mary]

I feed my axi's meal worms - that's their main food actually. In warmer weather it is really easy to get a colony of meal worms going - you just have to be a bit sparing in cooler weather cause they won't breed as quickley. My first lot of meal worms cost me $8 (AUS) and I got hundreds!!!! I havn't had to ever buy any after that - they just do it themselves, I just stick a bit of carrot in their tub once a week.

I get my earth worms from my own compost heap - most people say not to get earth worms from your garden, get them from a bait shop or somthing cause they might be contaminated - but you don't know where the bait shop got them from in the first place. Mine come from a compost heap and I know exactly what goes in it, alot of food scraps, grass clipping and stuff but we have an orgainic farm so there are no chemicals used on anything and most of our fruit and veg scraps are from organic food - so there are no chemicals. However i spose there is always bacteria (good and bad) in soil, and the worms might pick up somthing from here?????

But hey - just remember that they love those worms!!!!!!

 

[amy]

cool. i might get some when i move. i dunno. theyre going to be in the barn aparently but im going to try and get them in my bedroom

but ill still keep the worms outside. dont want them hatching into beetles in my room and scuttling on my face during the night or something. yech! one question: with salmon, its quite oily and i try and squeeze out as much oil as i can but i stil get some floating on top of the water. a) how can i avoid this other than avoiding feeding them the salmon and b) is salmon a good staple for them? not too greasy etc?

 

[mik]

Never fed salmon before and wouldwonder why you want to. best stick with well tried and tested foods Amy.

 

[kim]

I have just got a worm farm going in my back yard.. I got the worms to start it off from a bait shop, they also sell them to people to feed birds with. All you need to do is just ask the bait shop where they got them from and if they could have been contaminated in any way, they are normally very helpful.

I personally wouldnt feed them any salmon.. do you think they would have come into contact with that type of food in the wild?

I also feed my 2 with feeder fish (when i've got some) they love to have to catch them for there selfs... and its great to watch

 

[amy]

i just figured because some of you feed them feeder fish, salmon woudnt be much different apart from the fact they dont have to catch it. i dont think i could feed them feeder fish though as they are my hobby as well as axos so i wouldnt like to try that. also i heard the bones arent too great for them. what is a good staple that i can get hold of? any meat of sorts?

 

[mik]

feeder fish are only about 25mm long mollies or guppies. There are plenty of foods to try...see recent thread need help feeding axies..i think it was called

 

[carl]

well i tryed to feed mine liver in a small strip no bigger then a peice of earthworm and it turned away is that because its only young or do some not eat liver

 

[amy]

the salmon is chopped up though. i dont see the difference between the feeders and the frozen stuff chopped. ill have a look in tha topic, thanks

 

[kim]

Its full of oil... which i really dont think is good for them.. feeder fish are better