Question: First axolotl need advice

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zero69100

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My girlfriend got an axolotl about a week ago at a petstore and the petstore lied to us. they said that they are on of the easiest animals to take care of and that water quality doesnt matter. just a bunch of stuff. ive read a lot about them and found out its the opposite of what they said. ive developed quite a passion for the little guy and im trying my best. just needed some feedback on what i should do differently or change. i feed him blood worms in the morning and mysis shrimp at night and sometimes give him a snack in between. my temp fluctuates between 68 and 71 occasionally74 but never any higher. I just got sand for his 10 gallon tank and now the temp.never goes above 71 stays between 64 and 68 all day. I also do 100% water changes every 3 to 4 days because i dont have a filter and only use about 5 gallons of waterThis is my tank setup.
20130823_210736.jpg
 
Hi! Try to get the tank cooler by using fans at the top of the tank or floating ice bottles/ice bags. You can get a ten dollar filter from Walmart if you have to. Filters help with the biological filter, and also keep the air oxygenated. If you really don't want a filter you could get an air stone:) other than that, looks good!! I don't know why you feed mysis shrimp... it works though. Earthworms Are the best diet for axolotls.

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I actually have an airstone. Didnt want to much water flow. I was going to switch out the mysis shrimp for daphnia. I was also looking into the earthworms. I have a little project to try and cool the water. (Dont know how well it will work yet) but i was going to use a water pump to pump the water through a styrofoam cooler full of ice. I use water bottles now to get it down in between 64 and 68
 
I feed him mysis shrimp because thats what the petstore said was the best
 
Makeshift cooler sounds good! And brine shrimp are for baby axolotls, how big is he? Earthworms are really the best:) and if you get a filter you can put plants around it, but I have a 20gal filter that doesn't bug my axolotl at all:) and you should have the fans blowing across/onto the water surface

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Also you might want to get a little cave as a hide, they like dark places.

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My center peice is actuall pretty big and has a bunch of shelves in it that he likes to sit on. Heres a pic of him sitting on the top shelf peeking out. I should get a filter. I was thinking about getting this one filter its pretty cheap. It just suctions itself to the side and is like a mini bubbler bar but it forces the water through some sponge and carbon. Do you think that would be sufficient? And he is about 4 "
20130821_013213.jpg
 
Yeah brine shrimp are for axolotls about an inch. Oh and yes as long as there's a place for him to hide:) and yeah I know what filter youre talking about, as long as its rated for 5-10 gallons you're golden:)

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Ok awesome ill pick that up today. Do you think my cooler idea will keep the tempurature at 65? Ice last about two days in the cooler without anything in it. And if i did nothing to cool the tank the water would sit at 75. We live in an upstairs app so the temp is a constant 78 80
 
Also do you think a 50 gph water pump would be strong enough?
 
Wow yeah definitely get some fans going, you can get computer fans to mount or those mini ones for college students lol. What is the filter rated for? My 10-30 gallon one is 150 gph and its really strong, so I suppose 50gph is good

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Idk but i was going to use the 50gph pump for the cooler idea. Do you think it would be strong enough to pump water through 16ft of tubing and back into the tank?
 
Oh sorry didn't read it right. I actually have no idea, I don't think so.. sorry.

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I already ordered it. I hope it does. I was trying to get the lowest flow i can so that the water would spend a lot of time in the bucketcooling off
 
Good idea.

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I should have all of the parts to do it in about a week and I'll make a post on if it worked or not. Because I looked up aquarium chillers and they are way overly priced!
 
Hey you should really have a filter at the very least a sponge filter, this will help establish the cycle and keep his tank a little cleaner :)
Theyre really easy too, all you need is an airpump and a £3 sponge filter (i got mine from ebay)
as for food, if your worried about the worms being too big, you can buy 1" worms and worms are they best he could have
 
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