Axie survival

[crazy!]

I had a weird experience this morning....
I have two buckets outside full of yucky murky green water with daphnia in for my baby axolotls, one has a pretty healthy population, but the other seemed like there was something wrong with it, the daphnia did not thrive at all, I kept putting daphnia in from the other bucket hoping they would like, but no... I even thought the water might be poisoned somehow so considered tipping the whole thing out and starting again. Well I went on holiday, and today got back to look in the buckets and guess what I saw.... A fit, healthy 6cm axolotl! Who knows how the heck he got in there, but no wonder the daphnia wasn't thriving. And here I was having previous batches of babies die left right and centre, when this one survived rotting meat and leaves etc chucked in his water. I want to take him out of the bucket and put him in the tank with his (I assume...) brothers and sisters, any ideas how best to go about this? I have them all isolated in bird feeders hanging off the side of the tank, would he be all right in one of those, or would he die of the shock of clean water?

 

[jenny]

is he def one of your axies? same size and colour etc?

dont know if the change in water will effect him. but once one of my friends fish tanks was REALLY horrible had no filter and she hardly ever fed them either but somehow they survived a month. she wanted to get rid of them but didnt get round to doing it but then i took them off her because i was going to look after them for a bit then sort them out with a pet shop but as soon as i put them in clean water they just died in seconds.

 

[mik]

Why not set up a tank just for this fellow and use some of the water from the bucket.

A sudden change in environment is stressful and the that could be the cause of death. So make the transition gentle over a period of days.

Take out rotting vegetation from the bucket one day, change some water the next, and carry on like that, until you have reached the point where you think you can move him to same environ as the others without stress. Remember use dechlorinated/aged water not fresh from the tap.

 

[leah]

And match the pH and temperature of the new water to the old water!

 

[crazy!]

well, I've transferred this axie to an isolation tank which now has the same water as the other tank, and I have two more questions.
Will it be safe to put him in with the others?
Also he's really green compared to the others, will this stay, or once he processes through the clean water will he turn back to brown?

 

[brian]

You said the buckets were outside? Is it possible you have a local newt or salamander laying eggs in your bucket, and it's one of their larvae? I'd keep it seperate till you're sure.

 

[crazy!]

It was outside, but I live in NZ and there's no way it could have been from a wild one, we don't have any newts or salamanders here at all. Plus it has the same markings as the others in the tank.... I just think I must have tipped it in by accident when it was really little, when I replaced some daphnia water with tank water