Do your axies actually eat guppies?

[kjnorman]

I recently established a 'food breeding' tank with guppies and cherry shrimp, to create another sustainable food source for feeding my hungry little water monsters.

The cherry shrimp haven't quite got to the point where I feel comfortable removing any members of the breeding population yet, but the guppies came with quite a few babies, and I have started transferring juvenile guppies into the axolotl tank, to cut down the amount of food competition between the guppies and shrimp.

After about a week, I am only slightly certain that one or two of the guppies have been eaten by axolotls.

They do swim around, especially at feeding time, and I often see them in close proximity to the 'lotls, but the 'lotls just don't seem that keen on eating them.
I have fed them rosy red minnows in the past and they do eat those - but only the grey ones (now I have four orange minnows that I guess have become pets...).

I'm curious if other people have had success feeding guppies to their axolotls, and if anyone has any tricks. I tried fasting them for a few days, but chickened out. My male is a bit on the skinny side and I am always trying to fatten him up, and my female is a ravenous beast - she tries to eat the male's toes when she gets hungry!

 

[xxianxx]

Some axolotls are better hunters than others, most axolotls will snap at passing fish, very few seem to actively predate on them. I have a melanoid who will continuly hunt fish in his tank till has eaten them all whilst others just can't be bothered.

 

[Boomsloth]

Mine will eat whatever they can catch in the tank. I had a small group of guppies and ended up with an even smaller group once the axolotls realized they could be eaten. I took out two pregnant guppies and put them in a small tank with some small snails I'm trying to breed and now I have a good number of babies that will eventually become snacks for the axolotls.

 

[leandrah]

YES!!!!!
I bought a whole lot of show guppies, they were beautiful, Pink, Orange, Red and just different colours.
Needless to day, the next day they were all gone and my Axies had very fat tummies

 

[auntiejude]

I've tried my axies with guppies, but the problem seems to be that the guppies stay at the surface and the axies stay at the bottom. If I can persuade the guppies to venture downward they get eaten though.

 

[Geckogal]

I have had several amano and ghost shrimp in my tank for months and my four axolotls have zero interest in them.
My amano shrimp are such good lil algae eaters, so I’m glad.

 

[kjnorman]

It seems I just have lazy hunters.
I wonder how the shrimp will fare - but at least they will eat the algae if nothing else happens!