Fat

[nickolas]

my axolotl has suddenly gotten really fat (like seriously fat) he was pretty skinny whn i got him and for the first 8 weeks iv'e had him i fed him bloodworms but for the last two i changed to beefheart, kause the pet store recommened it, in the last two weeks has got really fat and he isnt as active as before......was going on?

 

[alex]

i think beef heart is very fatty. i reccomend earth worms as a staple. another reason for the sudden change in weight could be sexual maturity, a female is bigger than a male because the eggs she holds.

 

[joan]

Nickolas, you may have a she, not a he. She may be developing eggs. I agree with Alex in that earthworms are a better staple. Beef heart is not a bad food, but you should offer various foods in order to keep the diet well balanced.

 

[edward]

Actually the heart tissue itself is usually pretty lean but there can be fat attached to the exterior of the heart.

Ed

 

[charlotte]

I thought my one was a male but she suddenly got really fat and from looking at pictures I found it was a she. As long as its eating normally? You said it was inactive...i'm not sure if that's from them being mature or if it's because it's ill. Could you give a bit more info on that?

 

[nickolas]

its not totally inactive, he/she still swims around the tank heaps just not as much as before, how can i tell if male or female. the pet store told me it was a male??

 

[alex]

they get less active as they get older. sexually mature females are more round due to the number of eggs present, the sexually mature male's cloacal region is swollen. http://www.axolotl.org/biology.htm at the bottom of that page theres two pictures, one of a male and one of a female.

 

[jeff]

Regarding the beef heart, I did notice that the outside of it is basically all fat, and probably 30 percent of the weight is fat on the one in my freezer. The problem is getting to the lean stuff, what works for getting to the tissue if it is allready frozen rock solid?

 

[nickolas]

it sounds like hes actually a she , my beef heart is frozen solid, can sombody show me a picture of a sexually mature females stomach or something so i can see what they look like.

 

[sharn]

on that page, you can see she is much fatter... and theres a above view in the colour genetics page, you can clearly see the difference.

 

[nickolas]

ah yes...my axie looks exactly like the females on the page (the same type of fatness) so my he must be a she! well that was weired....

 

[edward]

Jeff,
When you cut the meat off for the axolotl just trim the fat off of the pieces at that time. This will take a little more time but it works pretty well.

Ed

 

[jeff]

Thanks Ed, im suprised the cow didn't die from a heart attack! I was also thinking I could use an electric knife or a chop saw to cut the heart into cross sections and then cut off the fat. Also, I have new axie babies coming tomarrow, and I have a tank that has daphnia and blackworms in it, however, there is much "mulm" in the bottom, shoul dI remove it or leave it? Paris and Jen think the axies could eat it, and I know the daphnia are. I lost 17 out of 17 last time and I am trying not to screw up again. I have a home-made air sponge in there too which the daphnia seem to hang out near. and the blackworms are in the sponge itself.