How did you first discover Axolotls?

I had never even heard of them back home in Finland, but her in Australia saw them on and off in people's houses, occational petshops, or TV. Initially they didn't do much for me (I'm a furry-friend person, I thought) but I have a son who has always had a great love for reptiles and amphibians, all of them! He saw one in a petshop last year and would not stop about it! He wanted one and that's it.

We didn't pay much attention to that really, as he also wants a snake and a frill-neck lizard and a crocodile and and and... So we just thought it's one of things on his list and he knows he cannot really have one as he's too young. But he would not forget. He kept on wanting to see photos on the internet and at every petshop he'd be scanning for them. So I finally started to get interested myself, wondering what was it that made him so determined about these Axolotl creatures. Did a bit of research online and ordered a book about them (not all great info, I know now!) and decided it shouldn't be too hard to keep one, even if most of the work would land on us adults, as it usually does with kids' pets.

So in May, when he turned 5, we had it all ready for him: tank set up and circled, and a white lovely Axolotl pick out and reserved at a petshop for him to go and pick up on his birthday. I even baked him a birthday cake in the shape of an Axolotl! :happy:

Little did we know that this little perfect creature would completely take us all by surprise and capture our hearts! So we dug up our old unused 4-foot tank, reset it up and moved Captain "Lottie" Flash (as my son called her) into a new big home and now she also has two friends, his brothers' Axolotls: golden Alien-Pear (he looks just magnificent with his lacey irridescent spots and deep colour) and Hunter-Dottie-Bird or "Blackie", a wild-type ferocious feeder and hunter who's always on a prowl.

The plan is that one more Axolotl will join the three, as my daughter also wants one, but she still hasn't found the "right one" as she is not looking for any particular colour but the right personality! Lottie is such a beauty and so social and friendly, and quite likes my daughter feeding her, climbing into her hand etc, so I think she is looking for another Lottie... Hm, I wonder how long she'll have to wait to find one like that!

We have many other pets as well, and with 4 kids, the house is very busy, but I hope one day, once they grow a bit more, I could try my hand in breeding these little critters. My partner thinks I'm mad, but somehow I think he will get luerd into it as well! He is not as immune as he thinks he is ;)
 
I think this is a cool thread.

I first met axolotls while I was doing my dissertation in the university aquarium. I spoke to the aquarium keeper a lot and he ended up offering my an axolotl cause I liked them so much. They keep them there for studies on limb regeneration and genetics.

There was one which was 2 years old and was the only one of his 'litter' left and was on his own until he was large enough to join one of the adult tanks. Wilson has been with me ever since (these last 4 years).
 
I was in 7th grade (boy this was a while ago), and we had to read this story, "Axolotl" by Julio Cortazar, in my spanish class (the link is to the story in english).

I was fascinated with them from that moment and after years finally got a pair last summer!
 
I had always found them a novelty when id seen them at shops etc and I had just decided one day that I would start hunting one down ... Found a shop who could order them and .. well yeah
 
I was shadowing a student at MIT, and I mentioned that I loved fish. She asked me if I knew what a Mexican Walking Fish was because she had one and loved it, and I said yes, just to sound like I knew what I was talking about. Needless to say, I had no actual idea, and upon googling it promptly fell in love.
 
I saw a picture of one in a kids encyclopaedia I had when I was little, They've been one of my favourite animals ever since!
 
i first found out about them when i was 10 years old and so some how i went on google and looked up water dragon because i was grounded and nothing else to do. soon when i grew older(parents would not let me have one intil older) so now i have one. my axolotls; mudkip and garidios.:happy:
 

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Wow, everyone has such interesting stories!
My local petshop had them for years (sadly it closed down long before the shop was demolished), they always had a couple of them and I used to go down and pretend to be watching the goldfish while Mum did the grocery shopping (most of the time I was watching the axolotls). They kinda scared me, but I still thought they were really interesting. I always used to go look at them hoping one day Mum would say I could have one (I had goldfish as a kid).
It wasn't until last year that I decided I really wanted to get one. I was having trouble with my betta and went to the shops to have a chat about it, saw some axolotls and fell in love again. I've had Ax for about a year now, and I have to say, they're way easier to look after than fish! (plus they're just so cute when they swim over to say hi)
 
I love it!

My freshmen year of college my gf and i wanted to get a snake but were living in the dorms and therfor couldnt so we got a betta fish and one day when we were lementing about it at a Pets mart. This girl who worked there started telling us about them beacuse we could keep a 10 gallon aquarium but no reptiles.

and then i Google axolotl....
 
Ollychimera said:
I discovered them in 2004 when pokemon came out with gen 3, which had the water-type starter mudkip. I thought it was really cute, and while looking up pictures of it I came across a picture of an axolotl colored in mudkip colors with a caption that said what kind of animal it was. I thought they looked cute, but back then I was still in the mindset of "I want a pet I can touch." I also thought they'd be hard to take care of.

So I forgot about them until I walked into my local pet shop this past March (it's a nice shop, family run and they actually treat their animals well) and saw that they had cute little juveniles for sale. That made me want one so bad, so I started researching them (and also learned about tank cycling) and just mid June I got my albino, Ludwig, from a local pet show :)

His breeder is Jake Bidinger. So if you see this post Jake, thank you very much for the lovely axie!
Click to expand...


I got mine from Jake too! Always been very helpful when I have been worried about my little one. Im a bit paranoid sometimes with his health (my axie's, not Jake's lol) If I had a bigger tank I would get another, and only go to him to get one :)) yet, I do have 2 empty tanks right now..... hmmm.... lol
 
on the 2th september 2011 when we went to look to the coldblooded animals on school
 
That's funny :)

I Googled "funny pictures" and there was an axolotl's picture in results, so I looked and started reading about them.After a monts I had an Axolotl lol :)
Love my little guys so much and can spend hours watching them x x x
 
My gas fire got condemned and I decided to scrap it and put a fish tank there instead. Set the tank up, cycled it, decided I wanted Black Moors and set off for the shop with my friend.

She spent 2.5 hours quizzing the guy who runs the shop about cat fish and how to run a tropical tank, I spent 2.5 hours sat on the floor watching two teeney tiny Albino Axolotls stomp along in their tank and smile at me.

No prizes for guessing what came home with me! :rolleyes:
 
I first saw axolotls in my local pet shop when i was about 17.. i started reading up about them i already had two tropical tanks .. After 6 years of hoping and wishing for one on my 23rd birthday my mum bought me a tank told me to get it cycled coz there was two axies in the shop waiting to come home :) i now have 3 two albino and one wild xx
 
In my second to last year at high school I had to choose somewhere to do two weeks work experience. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I love animals so my mum suggested I did my work experience at a pet shop.

So, I started my work experience and on the first day saw my first axolotl. I fell in love with them instantly and went home to tell everyone about this amazing creature I'd discovered!
Since then I've spent 7 years wanting an axolotl.

My partner, who I live with has always wanted another pet since his hamster died many years ago. He recently decided to get a goldfish, so I said why not an axolotl? We went to look at some goldfish at the local pet shop and they had a juvenile axolotl in stock. We've both fallen in love with him and brought him home :)

:love:
 
I discovered them via a facebook post! My friend had wrote "I really want an axolotl" so I googled them and instantly wanted one.
Lots of research and 1 month later I had 3 tiny 2 week old axies in my tank :D
 
When I was 9 :happy: There used to be a small shopping hall called the "The Plaza" at my local shops. It sounds plush but it really wasn't, it stank of beer and fry ups LOL. There was a run down pet shop in there that sold the usual; hamsters, a few sickly looking goldfish then there was just this tank sitting on it's own in a dark corner. What does every 9 year old do? INVESTIGATES! Sat there in this horrible, old pet shop were two of the most beautiful, healthy, well looked after axolotls I have ever seen to this day. In that sort of environment anyway... My mum and I instantly fell in love and were determined to have some but "The Plaza" was shortly bulldozed afterwards! Well, it took 10 years but I finally got my axolotls! I just didn't expect my initial 3 to become 11...
 
My son discovered Axolotls before me, he saved $20 from collecting 20c coins for good behavior. He took his money to the pet shop and bought "Axel", the only axie in the shop (although we realized last year that Axel was a she!). After a couple of years of looking after her in his bedroom his interest waned (I used to do all the caring etc...) so I brought her into my living room. She was so personable so I thought she needed a friend, a week or two later after Al's arrival Axie had laid about 300 eggs. I kept half to raise. The journey of raising the little guys has been amazing, I am now totally in love with axies :)
 
I discovered Axolotls by pure luck of my son Jamie, as we had to take him to Sheffield hospital and on the way home I popped in to the aquarium shop I use to go in as a kid and I said "since you have been such a good boy you can have one thing out of the cold water tanks" I was hoping he would pick a fish or a ornament but he picked axle and cos I said anything I had to keep my word. at the time I didn't even know what it was till I got home when the other half said after he had been thinking on it for 30 min then I did research and found here.
 
I was a PhD student at a university with an Axolotl colony. My project was nothing to do with axys but I knew the researcher and he used to let me visit the colony. One day they had a random spawning and were blind to dispose of the eggs. I asked permission and took them home and raised the whole lot. I kept 4 and gave several to local colleges and reluctantly sold the remainder to a pet shop. Was magical watching them grow up :)
 
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