How much and how often do axolotls eat

[Willowt]

Hi < I am new to this forum and I find it very interesting (thanks). I have kept and bred fish for 15 years or more and a friend gave me 5 axolotyls all between 4 and 6 years old. The first week i had them they laid about 50 eggs which I was able hatch out and keep feeding the 'fry (?) daphnia and bbs for about 3 weeks - then true to their reputation they cannibalised each other and I lost them all in about 3 days.
However, my real reason for this post is to ask - how often do you feed axolotyls? and how much food? I have been chopping up the beef heart squares into 4 and feeding a couple of quarters by hand once/twice a week. They are pretty big so I though they would eat much more than this. Often food goes uneaten and I am cleaning out fungusy food. They do not seem to like the pellets that much. I have only tried the beef heart and axolotyl pellets - should I try live feeder fish - guppies or gambusia?
It is pretty warm here at the moment and the water temp is 21 degrees.

Cheers for an interesting and helpful forum.

Sean

 

[daremo]

Re: How much and how often do axolotyls eat

you should give them earthworms rather than cow meat...

and about how much... well looking from above their body should be as wide as their heads, I think that a grown up axie will eat about 3 times a week or so

 

[Willowt]

Re: How much and how often do axolotyls eat

Good point. I will ry the earthworms.
Cheers

 

[blackdog]

Re: How much and how often do axolotyls eat

I always chuckle at the mental picture of an axie bringing down a cow and tearing out it's heart

i'm one of those "Axies dont eat cows" people.

The earthworms are best, and you can get axie pellets.

I feed my adults about every 2 days with an earthworm or two, and mix it up with some pellets. They usualy take 3-4 pellets when i do that.

i tend to feed them as much as they seem to want, last night they took 3 pellets each and one balked at the fourth so i left it alone, and the other took the fourht happily. The torso as wide as the head rule is a good one to follow

My water temp is 18 c , 21 is at the high end and you probably dont want it much higher. In AU yo might have to consider a chiller or other cooling methods for the months to come

Take uneaten food away after 10-15 minutes. If they havent eaten it then a healthy axie will be fine left to another day.

Bren

 

[Biance]

Re: How much and how often do axolotyls eat

Hey where do you guys get earthworms from? Would you have to start an earth worm farm for that? I've been considering it, but they're so expensive! Is it possible to just buy them from somewhere in small quantities?
I get that they "shouldn't" be eating beef heart, but it's the only readily available food I can find. Blood worms are super messy, and the pellets are so small and difficult to feed too..

 

[sectone]

living in a fishing town i buy live earthworms from a local bait shop. i dont thaw bloodworm cubes before feeding and my guy sucks on them till they thaw so mess isnt a problem.

 

[bayhicoach]

I know that in Australia it is now the warm season. But, not wanting to say this the wrong way, don't Australians have air-conditioning? So many of the questions now from Australians is about how to keep their tanks cool, I was just wondering.

 

[Minniechild]

Yeah, Aussies have air cons...To an extent.
Usually, it's one room will be set aside to be heated/cooled (Normally living room) with a heater and an in-the-wall aircon, and then other rooms will have fans, or portables. I know some people with full-house cooling, but the majority it's just one room.
Reason? Although we have the worst weather swings (Yeah I don't like the cold. AT ALL.), the price of electricity here is so ridiculous that cooling/heating more than necessary is a recipe for disaster...and having no money to spoil axies!