How Long To Leave Food In Tank

[Jen10s]

Hi there, I'm wondering whether anyone can give advice on how long I should leave food in the tank before removing?

I have 2 young axolotls in a divided tank, both are eating bloodworms but am trying to wean them onto chopped up earthworms. Both are fed using feeding jars to help eliminate extra mess floating around the tank.

They seem to be wandering in and out of their jars at their leisure to eat all day but I'm sure this is not helping their water quality. Still battling Ammonia and Nitrate with daily 30- 50% water changes.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[pavett1990]

It's normally 5 mins but I'm sure somebody will have a much clearly answer for you


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[Jacquie]

Hi Jen10s,

If the food is live, you can leave it until it's taken by the axolotls. If dead, the food should be removed promptly after feeding.

Frozen bloodworm can foul the water very quickly, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were a major contributor to the issues you may be experiencing with toxic ammonia levels, particularly if you are leaving it (even in jars) in the tanks to allow the axolotls to "eat all day" at their leisure.

I wouldn't leave it in the water for more than 15 minutes after feeding, jar, or no jar. If the axolotl doesn't eat it within these 15 minutes, remove the bloodworm jar and all its contents promptly, and then check around the tank to remove any excess bloodworm that may remain anywhere else in the tank. Axolotls are very good at making a mess - don't underestimate their abilities in that department If you have any ornaments with 'nooks and crannys' in your tank, give them a good check over to make sure no gunk is accumulating there. Check over (and under, if applicable) your substrate, too. You'd be amazed at where that muck can get to!

I recommend you take the filter and all its media, and give it a good shake around in a bucket of tank water to see if any old bloodworm debris (or any other dead matter) is residing in the filter. DO NOT USE TAP WATER to do this, else you risk killing all good bacteria living in the filter; unfortunately chlorine does not discriminate between beneficial and harmful bacteria, and will kill the lot. Bear in mind that a lot of good bacteria lives in the filter, and depletion of their numbers can have a negative effect on your cycle. Please be careful when cleaning the media.

If you are having real trouble with ammonia in your tank, I would cease using bloodworm entirely until you get those water parameter levels under control. Going hungry for a couple of days during the process of 'transitioning' over to the earthworms certainly won't kill the axolotls, toxic water will. They will more then likely eat the worms if they are hungry.

Please keep us posted.

 

[Jen10s]

Thanks for all the great info. Very happy that the larger of the 2 happily took a couple of earthworms today instead of bloodworms

The smaller Axie is only about 7cm long and will only take chopped earthworms but always spits them back out! Maybe it's still too young for earthworms ? He is getting frozen blood worms in a feeding jar but hasn't worked out how to get in there yet, should I persevere with the chopped earthworms and quit giving blood worms altogether ?

Still doing daily large water changes to reduce toxic levels and swished the filter media in bucket of tank water (from the water change) yesterday - is this right ?

Also have removed substrate (coarse sand) as they were both gulping at it, so bare bottom until they are much bigger and will change to play sand at that time.

Thanks again in advance

 

[wandering]

Hi
Just got mine onto once daily worms at 3 to 4 inches. Got advice from the forum and stopped feeding bloodworm (was feeding individually from the end of a pipette!). Left them without food for a couple of days then dropped three cut pieces of worm in each tank. Cut worms to about 0.5 to 1 cm length. I had 12 of them in individual small 15 litre tanks, so I knew they were all feeding. I left the worms for an hour and then cleaned poop, worms and all with a turkey baster alternate days, syphon and 50% water change alternate days. I may be leaving the worms too long or not water changing often enough though. ( not got cycled tank ready yet and not keeping all of them) Keeping an eye on it with my test kit. They did not look very hungry or empty yesterday so gave them a day without food. They are looking good on it!
Hope that is some help or at least prompts comment from someone else.

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