axolotl are healthy in a tank I never imagined or intended

[chaimdov]

I always try to keep my axolotl tanks clean. About a year ago I needed to repair a 90 gallon tank, and to make sure there was no leak I filled it with water. I then started throwing in daphnia, which didn't do well, then scuds and then I fed the scuds dead eggs. My breeders lay eggs on plastic plants, and I found that after the hatch I would put the dirty plants and assumed infertile eggs in the scud tank and a few days later they were clean. Well the 90 gallon got very cloudy .Now I have a massive populations of scuds and daphnia. I put a light over the tank 24/7 to promote daphnia growth and they bloomed. Surprisingly I also started seeing Axolotl. Some eggs must have been fertile and survived. These axolotls are incredibly healthy, even though the tanks is very cloudy. Most interestingly they are almost adults, and I never cleaned the tank, changed the water or fed them. The nitrates are super low, and ph is 7.2. Anyone else have similar experiences?

 

[JM29]

Congratulations !
You've invented the low-tech aquarium for axolotls

 

[xxianxx]

You essentially created a pond in a tank. The water vol allowed enough algae to clear up the axolotl waste and enough inverts were available to keep them fed. I have used infertile spawn and empty egg cases to feed daphnia tanks, they break down, cause a bacterial bloom which boosts the daphnia population and explodes the hog lice population. I have pulled numerous axolotl out of my 5ft live food tanks over the years. They generally look really good. If you want to check if you have axolotls in your live food tanks in future, just look at the bottom of the tank by the edge, it will be clear of detritus as the axolotls patrol around the edges.