Question: Hey! New owner, river rock + live plants?

[HappyAxodent]

Hey there!
First post, be gentle please
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I have two juvie axolotls, both wild type, that I was lucky to have been gifted from my lab at university. They are only about 3 inches in length at the moment and I have kept a bare bottomed tank this entire time to help facilitate in cleaning. I follow my water parameters daily and my tank is nicely cycled. I do however, need to upgrade as it is only 10 gallons (I know, in the market for one now). I do a 20 percent water change every day or two to make sure I maintain a healthy environment for them but i know I need a 30 gallon long tank to keep them happy.

I currently also have two hides for each of them. I also have 4 marimo moss balls (actually algae) that are healthy. Sorry for the long introduction but I just wanted to give some background from my newb perspective on what I've been doing (open to suggestions). I am looking to use river rock (bleached, boiled then fully dechlorinated) to make something interesting for my axies to walk on.
:animal:
The Question : How do I go about planting live plants in my aquarium? Especially if I want to use river rock. Should I use gravel then river rock on top? How do i actually plant them? I am looking to buy amazon sword and java fern. Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot! :animal:

 

[NaterPotater]

Sounds like you're off to a pretty good start. Moss balls are good. Low maintenance. Amazon Sword and Java ferns are both great for axolotl tanks since they're fine with low light and cold water (I assume you knew that since you're looking into them). I know that Amazon Swords have to be planted, but I wanna say java ferns don't. Anubias plants (Anubias Nana, Anubias Congensis, and there's one other that I have...), along with java ferns perhaps, can simply be tied to a rock or piece of driftwood. They actually do better when their roots are in free water. Amazon Swords DO have to be planted in some type of substrate. Gravel is a no-no for axolotls, plain and simple. If you have it below river rocks, they probably won't be able to accidentally ingest any, but I imagine it'll be really hard to keep your tank clean. So I would say forget gravel but big river rocks are still a possibility if you really want something on the bottom. Bare-bottom is TOTALLY fine, but some people prefer a more natural look with sand or river rocks. Anyway. You can plant an Amazon Sword in a flower pot and put that flower pot in your tank. It can look pretty good as long as you've got other decorations/plants in the tank.

 

[CatSpit]

Yes, treat java ferns as you would anubias, tie them to a rock or something and leave their roots free in the water.

 

[Donna001]

Hi there HappyAxodent and welcome to the forum. :happy:
It would be great to see some pictures of your two little ones, and we would love to hear about your progress with your new tank and planting.
Best of luck.
:happy:

 

[HappyAxodent]

Hey Nater Potater, thanks for all the great advice. So what type of substrate would help Amazon Sword take? Not soil in a pot surely? I'm just wondering, as I've never planted underwater before. I just got river rocks today, as well as two new plants that the aquarium store I frequent said would do well in low light and cold water. Not sure of the species name, but they just float.

 

[HappyAxodent]

Thanks Donna001! I find myself coming to this place all the time . I'll upload some photos in just sec!

 

[HappyAxodent]

This is Gilead playing with his toy rock (hanging from fishing wire).


Gilead poking his head by the new plants.


This is Chance and Gilead coming off their first stack that I noticed! Of course they wouldn't stay put when I walked up to try to take a picture.

 

[HappyAxodent]

By the way, Chance's feathers on his fronds have always been less pronounced than Gilead's. Is this genetic or something I did wrong when he was a larvae? I kept them in separate tanks until about a week ago, and introductions went smoothly. Parameters on their separate tanks were always the same level. I'm just wondering what I can do to make him/her look the best he/she can. Does it affect the axolotls quality of life in anyway?

 

[NaterPotater]

You're welcome! I'm actually not sure. I never got an Amazon Sword (thought about it) since I didn't want to deal with planting them. I mostly just have a few different Anubias species. It might actually be soil. Gravel could work (I know, gravel makes axolotl owners cringe) as long as it's only up in the pot and the axolotls are never fed near the gravel. I would just Google it. I'm sure there's good instructions out there somewhere, and I have no firsthand experience with Amazon Swords.

 

[Donna001]

Great pictures. Mine rarely stay still when I want to take a picture of them doing something cute. As for Chance having less feathers, my coppers have less feathers than my wild type, who had a crazy growth spurt a while back and is now quite a bit bigger than the others. They have always shared a tank, so I don't know why that one has grown differently. I guess these things happen sometimes.

 

[NaterPotater]

By the way, Chance's feathers on his fronds have always been less pronounced than Gilead's. Is this genetic or something I did wrong when he was a larvae? I kept them in separate tanks until about a week ago, and introductions went smoothly. Parameters on their separate tanks were always the same level. I'm just wondering what I can do to make him/her look the best he/she can. Does it affect the axolotls quality of life in anyway?

Different axolotls will have different-sized gills. In theory, the better the water, the bigger and fluffier the gills. However, they won't just keep growing forever like Rapunzel. haha. Some axolotls, maybe by genetics and maybe just be random chance, will get bigger gills and others will have slightly smaller ones. You can see them grow quite a bit in a short amount of time if they're happy and healthy, but, like I said, only to a certain point. The bigger and fluffier their gills, the more surface area for better oxygen exchange. Theoretically they'll have fluffier gills if the water quality is good, and their fluffy gills will keep them happy and healthy because it'll be easy to get all the oxygen they need from the water. That doesn't mean an axolotl with smaller gills will be sick though. They also have rudimentary lungs, so when they're desperate they can breathe air a little bit too.