Hello Dawn!
Honestly admitted, I don’t really know if my axolotls are happy or not. I already started a thought (that means a text that I haven’t posted) entitled “Am I the worst thing that ever happened to my axolotls” but since then I have calmed down a bit. I’m trying to do everything right and technically correct and am certainly worried constantly that I will “love them to death” but they seem to be doing ok right now, really, and I’m just trying not to hover over their aquarium incessantly and thus give them time to find peace in their new world, and so I am hopeful that all will be well. So I haven’t posted the panic mail (yet…).
When I first started writing, I guess I began “The Tale of Two Axolotls”. I never did post it because I somehow got the impression that this isn't a chat site. After reading so many threads and posts, though, I think it might not be a horrible thing if I do ramble on, and this here, the introductory space, might be the right place for such nonsense of mine.
I will insert my ramblings here now because said you are new, too, and it was so nice of you to contact me! (And besides, I spent so much time typing it.)
It just kind of ends without a point, because after asking, I put the questions I had into “(hopefully)” better places. Here, then, is an introduction to my introduction to life as an axolotl owner.
I bought a house (for renovation) that had a pond with goldfish. The house’s previous owner wanted the large goldfish for the pond at his new home but we had to wait for winter to be over before releasing them. Because I was driving from my apartment to the house each day to feed the goldfish in the pond, I set up a large aquarium and brought the goldfish home. In addition to the 5 or 6 large goldfish, there were 40-50 small and very small goldfish and every sign of more to come. When at the pet shop buying fish food, I therefore asked for a predatory fish that would help maintain the goldfish population at a minimum (i.e., the big ones). The salesclerk showed me an axolotl. I found him (the axolotl) to be quite the nifty creature and agreed to buy him. I also bought the female in the tank so he wouldn’t be alone (I prefer to have my pets in twos). (This has, as one probably could have suspected, had consequences, hundreds of tiny consequences.) I named my new pets Axel and Lotte (so I could remember what they are called) and brought them home, where my spouse, kids, and friends also found Axel and Lotte quite the nifty creatures. I spent the next three or four days reading up on everything I could find in German or English about axolotls, learning to watch carefully that the goldfish were not nibbling a the gills, seeing what food they would eat, changing the way I aerate the tank, etc. - and sure enough, the little goldfish started disappearing. Only the biggest goldfish, a fat bruiser with a tyrannical bend, seemed to be in direct competition with A&L for food. I was very glad last month when it was finally time to take the goldfish to their new lagoon.
Apparently Axel and Lotte were happy, too. Less than a week after having the aquarium to themselves, they covered every available surface with eggs. The eggs even began to develop, and over the last 3 days hatched. I had intended to let nature take care of all that (i.e., A&L eat their own young), but in the end I seem to have set up baby tanks (sort of; I have them in 3 mesh containers hanging from the side of the main aquarium as I only have the one aquarium) and turkey-basted all the little creatures I could catch, covered them with Daphnia, and seem to have decided to try to rear some young.
So here we go!
-Eva
