Axolotl Science Fair Project?

elizabeth

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Elizabeth
Hello everyone!
So for school I have to do a science fair project and I really want to do it about something I really care about, so I thought about axolotls! I have been thinking long and hard about it, but I cant seem to think of any good ideas. I was thinking about doing something on the behavior of adult axies vs juvies, but I cant seem to think of something great. I want to do something that does not harm the animals and that is not too expensive. Any ideas would be great!
 
You could do a brain test on them.
Put one in a tank or tub with a red, green, blue, yellow, light or card or something. When they tapped the right color ( it has to be the same every time ) you give them a piece of food. You would have to repeat it many times over at least a week probably, but the axolotl could maybe figure it out. Doing this with more than one axie makes it even better.
This is actually something I have wanted to do with my newts for a while, so if you do this I would love to hear the results.
 
so i had this same question a little over a month back regarding an independent study/research regarding axolotls. Mine did not become reality unfortunately due to my school schedule and preparing for SATs etc. So here are some of the ideas i was thinking about:

1) buy an egg, hatch it and record its growth and behavior change in a very detailed report everyday till adult size has been reached (i assume you are in a time crunch so you could present the first month of your data then continue your research on your own if you want)

2) Get two juveniles (about 2-3 inches in size but from the same batch) and feed one of them pellets and the other wither chopped up earthworms or other sort of live edible organism thts a good staple diet. Since both pellets and earthworms are considered to be a safe and good source of staple diet in the axolotl community I doubt you would harm one over the other. With this study you could record if there is any change in the rate at which they grow etc. if there is no change between the two lotls rate of growth then you can for a fact say that according to your study both pellets and earthworms are a good source of food for axolotls. Keep in mind genetics play into this as well so scientifically it might not be a super reliable study, yet it could be fun.

3) conditioning/ teaching tricks to your axolotl. so this might fail depending on your axolotl, I have seen some smart on the ball axolotls and some sorta dumb ones. But if people can teach goldfish to go through hoops why not try that on axolotls. I would research how teaching this to goldfish is done then implement that technique or a similar one on your axy. This could be pretty cool if it works and for the science part of it you can connect it to pyschology and conditioning and how if there is a reward in the end the success rate it much higher etc.

4) Depending on how many axolotl you own, you could test the effect of isolation on behavior and eating habits (axolotls being the little water cows tht they are i doubt it will have an effect on eating). It might actually affect habits especially if you isolate an axolotl that has been living in the same tank as another axolotl(s) for a while. Study the habits in a group, isolate, then restudy the habits alone, compare and contrast.


these are the ones i can remember off the top of my head. Also keep in mind the data will not be scientifically accurate at all because you are doing this on a few axolotls. For it to be considered "accurate" or "proven" you would have to test in on thousands of axolotls which i imagine is not too practical. but if its just for a highschool/middleschool science fair it might be fun to try one of these. Basically you would have to do some sort of a behavioral/observational study.

I personally find axolotls and my other pets (goldfish and turtles) so very fascinating. If i have free time ill just sit in front of their tanks and watch them and see wht they do through out a period of time. You can be surprised on how many habits of your animals you pick up on just by watching and not even moving.

good luck on your project!! You should definitely post about your final project, i would love to take a peak at it :)
 
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2) Get two juveniles (about 2-3 inches in size but from the same batch) and feed one of them pellets and the other wither chopped up earthworms or other sort of live edible organism thts a good staple diet. Since both pellets and earthworms are considered to be a safe and good source of staple diet in the axolotl community I doubt you would harm one over the other. With this study you could record if there is any change in the rate at which they grow etc. if there is no change between the two lotls rate of growth then you can for a fact say that according to your study both pellets and earthworms are a good source of food for axolotls. Keep in mind genetics play into this as well so scientifically it might not be a super reliable study, yet it could be fun.

That would be a pretty cool study. It would be best though if you had more juveniles, like at least four.
I can see myself in the future doing something like this with many different foods and with dozens of larvae, it would be a really fun experiment.
 
That would be a pretty cool study. It would be best though if you had more juveniles, like at least four.
I can see myself in the future doing something like this with many different foods and with dozens of larvae, it would be a really fun experiment.

when i had posted about this a while back someone said maybe to ask people on this website with hatchlings to participate in your study aswell. That way you can have more data!. It would be pretty cool having the community come together to make a mass research project, especially since axolotls are one of the less researched animals. And when i say less researched i mean regarding how they grow and how to take care of them properly and how to raise them different ways etc. There is plenty of research regarding how to use axolotls for human good. Think about how many books there are about cat and dog care, training, breeding and other topics vs how many books you could find axolotls in...
 
Thank you guys so much! I think I will be doing my project on the 2 juvies and which food is better than the other. I will keep you updated on how things go!!!:)
 
when i had posted about this a while back someone said maybe to ask people on this website with hatchlings to participate in your study aswell. That way you can have more data!. It would be pretty cool having the community come together to make a mass research project, especially since axolotls are one of the less researched animals. And when i say less researched i mean regarding how they grow and how to take care of them properly and how to raise them different ways etc. There is plenty of research regarding how to use axolotls for human good. Think about how many books there are about cat and dog care, training, breeding and other topics vs how many books you could find axolotls in...

Good idea, but it is something I will have to plan for, and I don't even have axies at this point....which I will need.
 
true, also i feel like there are always new lil axies being bought/traded/sold on this site so we could ask breeders to offer the option to their customers, be like oh if u want to join this study and record data and eventually post it etc let us know and we will give you details. needless to say some planning is required and maybe help from admins of the site but its definitely doable and it would be pretty cool. I just got a new axolotl, i was expecting it to be about 5 inches but its smaller so i could even hop on in the study if more data is needed, just let me know. Currently i only feed it earthworms
 
So it turns out I am a little short on money atm, so I might have to wait a bit longer than I had hoped to start this project. But I will definitely be doing it in the near future!
 
It's gonna be a great project, axolotls are such amazing creatures. There were some interesting ideas suggested, I'd love to see what you come up with. Good luck!
 
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