How old are your axies? If they are under six months of age, you can feed them frozen bloodworm. As soon as they are able to manage it (by the time they are about five inches long), you should introduce them to live earthworms. This will be their staple food for the rest of their adult lives. It is the cheapest, easiest and most nutritionally balanced food you can serve!
A few basics:
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Tank Substrate: Do NOT have beads or gravel or stones in your tank. Ever. Anything that is not bigger than your axie's head is a danger - your axie can (and probably will) swallow it, risking fatal impaction. If your axies are under five inches, it is better not to even use sand on the bottom of your tank, as they will eat this too and in little lotls, sand can also cause fatal impactions. So a bare bottom is best, at least to begin with. It's also heaps easier to keep clean.
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Tank Size: Adult axies need 10 gallons per axolotl, preferably in a long tank (floor space is more important than depth for axies - the water only needs to be as deep as the axie is long). Younger ones can do with less space, but you should be planning to upgrade within a few months if they are in less than the 20 gallons two adult axies will need.
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Water: Which brings me to my final (and possibly most important) point: if you don't already know about cycling a tank, PLEASE read the Sticky about it on this site. The number one rule to keeping axolotls healthy is to give them the right water conditions. That means a
temperature of no more than 20 celcius (16 to 18 is better) so an accurate aquarium thermometer is a must. Then you will need a good test kit (liquid NOT test strips) to
monitor ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in your tank - the first two can be fatal to your axies. If your tank is not cycled, you will need to do daily partial water changes (with
tap water treated to remove chlorine/chloramines, at the same temperature as the tank to avoid temperature shock) to keep the levels of these chemicals within safe limits for your lotls.
Other members will give you lots of great advice (eg axies do not like a strong current from the filter, for the safety of your axies do not put ANY other species in the tank, but if you do, quarantine for a month first and do your research on the species, axies need places to hide in their tank, and heaps more useful info). So ask any questions you have.
If you already know some or all of the above, I'm sorry to bore you. But if you are a newbie, it saves time to start with a summary of the important stuff. Hope this helps!
Welcome to the joys of life with lotls!
