delfiend
New member
Hi guys!! I'm new to the axolotl world, and want to make sure I do everything as best I can! This is my axolotl Jon Snow. He's a melanoid at about 5" I bought from a breeder who arrived two days ago:
This is his set up. It's a planted tank with dwarf baby tears, some dwarf hairgrass, and a couple patches of java moss. The light I use is Josh's Frogs Green Gro LED lights, which screw into incandescent fixtures but is made of LEDs, so it doesn't give off much heat at all. I raised the light using a homemade light raiser-upper just because I didn't want to risk even that little bit of heat affecting the water temperature. Jon doesn't seem very bothered by the light, but just in case he also has a spacious cave (left) and another little cave with hairgrass (right) to escape to. The substrate in Flourite Black Sand, with then another inch of super fine and soft sand to prevent Jon from accidentally eating the Flourite, which is pretty sharp little granules. The filter used is a Cascade 300 internal filter, which is set on the lowest output setting and uses a spray bar turned to the tank wall to minimize unwanted water flow. Also attached to the tank is a Zoo Med Aquarium Cooling Fan to increase water evaporation. For the record, the tank is currently housed in the basement of my house, where it maintains about 68°F at its hottest spot.
So far, Jon seems to be doing very well. He swims around a lot, but also chills in one place for a period of time every once and a while. My biggest concern is how much he should be eating, because I have no clue. The first day he was home, he was kept mostly in a separate tupperware container (it was big enough for him to swim quite spaciously) in the basement as his tank was originally located upstairs in my room, which couldn't keep the water temperature low enough.
While in the tupperware, he ate 4 earthworms at spaced intervals, but then spit them all back up a little while later. I removed the worms, changed his water, and tried again with only a single worm. He managed to keep that one down, bring his total food intake for day one to 1 earthworm.
Once the tank was moved and cooled, he was transferred there and spent his first night in the tank. I tried to feed him again in the morning with the earthworms, but it seemed the worm was too long for him to get down,so I cut it in half. He only ate one of the halves, and I'm not sure if he kept it down or not because I later fished out 2 separate worms that he had left alone and not eaten. I tried several times that day to feed him more worms, and once or twice he gulped them only to spit them back up, bringing his total food intake for day two to 0 - 1/2 earthworms.
Today, I tried again with the worms, choosing the smallest I could find. Again, he ate it but then couldn't seem to manage it and spit it out, leaving it there, uninterested. By this point, I had read up more on feeding methods and decided to get a small mason jar to feed him some frozen bloodworms and one of Omega One's Frozen Super Carnivore cubes (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, bloodworms). I put the jar in the tank and guided Jon inside (he's super tame, like he swims to my hand and sort of sits there against me. It's SUPER cute). He wasn't so sure what to do at first, but then he started gulping at some of the moving bits and I think he realized that this was food. I left him there for now (this was like 10 minute ago) to see how much he'll eat before removing the jar.
I guess my question is, how much should Jon be eating in a day? I also have Hikari Sinking Carnivore pellets, but he didn't seem interested in them when I tried to handfeed them to him (I'll try them tomorrow maybe with the jar method). I'm curious not only because I want him to be eating enough, but because I'm getting a second axie of the same size as Jon, and I know hungry axies living together makes for a lot of eaten limbs and such, which I don't want. I want them to have happy bellies and a happy life.
Does anyone have any way for me to gauge if my axie is getting enough food? Thanks!!!
This is his set up. It's a planted tank with dwarf baby tears, some dwarf hairgrass, and a couple patches of java moss. The light I use is Josh's Frogs Green Gro LED lights, which screw into incandescent fixtures but is made of LEDs, so it doesn't give off much heat at all. I raised the light using a homemade light raiser-upper just because I didn't want to risk even that little bit of heat affecting the water temperature. Jon doesn't seem very bothered by the light, but just in case he also has a spacious cave (left) and another little cave with hairgrass (right) to escape to. The substrate in Flourite Black Sand, with then another inch of super fine and soft sand to prevent Jon from accidentally eating the Flourite, which is pretty sharp little granules. The filter used is a Cascade 300 internal filter, which is set on the lowest output setting and uses a spray bar turned to the tank wall to minimize unwanted water flow. Also attached to the tank is a Zoo Med Aquarium Cooling Fan to increase water evaporation. For the record, the tank is currently housed in the basement of my house, where it maintains about 68°F at its hottest spot.
So far, Jon seems to be doing very well. He swims around a lot, but also chills in one place for a period of time every once and a while. My biggest concern is how much he should be eating, because I have no clue. The first day he was home, he was kept mostly in a separate tupperware container (it was big enough for him to swim quite spaciously) in the basement as his tank was originally located upstairs in my room, which couldn't keep the water temperature low enough.
While in the tupperware, he ate 4 earthworms at spaced intervals, but then spit them all back up a little while later. I removed the worms, changed his water, and tried again with only a single worm. He managed to keep that one down, bring his total food intake for day one to 1 earthworm.
Once the tank was moved and cooled, he was transferred there and spent his first night in the tank. I tried to feed him again in the morning with the earthworms, but it seemed the worm was too long for him to get down,so I cut it in half. He only ate one of the halves, and I'm not sure if he kept it down or not because I later fished out 2 separate worms that he had left alone and not eaten. I tried several times that day to feed him more worms, and once or twice he gulped them only to spit them back up, bringing his total food intake for day two to 0 - 1/2 earthworms.
Today, I tried again with the worms, choosing the smallest I could find. Again, he ate it but then couldn't seem to manage it and spit it out, leaving it there, uninterested. By this point, I had read up more on feeding methods and decided to get a small mason jar to feed him some frozen bloodworms and one of Omega One's Frozen Super Carnivore cubes (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, bloodworms). I put the jar in the tank and guided Jon inside (he's super tame, like he swims to my hand and sort of sits there against me. It's SUPER cute). He wasn't so sure what to do at first, but then he started gulping at some of the moving bits and I think he realized that this was food. I left him there for now (this was like 10 minute ago) to see how much he'll eat before removing the jar.
I guess my question is, how much should Jon be eating in a day? I also have Hikari Sinking Carnivore pellets, but he didn't seem interested in them when I tried to handfeed them to him (I'll try them tomorrow maybe with the jar method). I'm curious not only because I want him to be eating enough, but because I'm getting a second axie of the same size as Jon, and I know hungry axies living together makes for a lot of eaten limbs and such, which I don't want. I want them to have happy bellies and a happy life.
Does anyone have any way for me to gauge if my axie is getting enough food? Thanks!!!
