Well, it’s probably a bit late (try 2 years), but here is my introduction! Get ready, this’ll be a long one.
My journey with axolotls began 2 years ago in late 2013, after hearing about axolotls from a family friend I was really excited about them. I started to research them through caudata.org and axolotl.org and the more I learnt the better they seemed. After about 2 weeks of waiting I purchased an 80 litre tank and got my first 2 axolotls, axel and hex. I would watch them for hours and found them so interesting. However, after about 3 months they both died. I wasn’t quite sure what happened, but I think the PH got too acidic. To say the least, I was distraught, I just couldn’t believe that I’d let the axolotls that I was responsible for had died under my watch.
After this I was determined to try again. I began posting on caudata asking all kinds of questions, asking at my local aquarium for help (they knew what they were doing when it came to axolotls) and even emailing a vet. After about a 2 months of intense research I decided to purchase 2 more axolotls, Yin and Yang. Again the initial excitement of more axolotls was amazing, I was feeding them a mixture of beef heart, fishfood.co axolotl food and earthworms. Again all was going well until yang suddenly passed away. I was confused, nothing seemed wrong. Water chemistry was fine, Yin was fine and no visible wounds, I now think that it was probably the Australian heat. From the deaths which had happened when I was caring for my axolotls I was paranoid. Constantly checking up on yin, always checking chemistry and posting on caudata if anything was off. Despite my efforts, it wasn’t enough.
For the next 6 months or so everything was good there were some ups and downs, like the 40 degree heat wave in Australia, which made me buy a chiller. Since everything was good I decided to purchase another axolotl, Ari. Ari was interesting. She was always active always trying to get food and wasn’t the slow inactive axolotl I was used to. However shortly after I got Ari, Yin got sick. Stopped eating, started floating wouldn’t move, and after about 2 weeks of not eating I decided to take action and take a look at her. Upon investigation I noticed a fungus inside her gills I was terrified and I panicked. I decided to gather all the information to fix it, I asked the aquarium, frantically posted here and finally settled on Pima fix in a hospital tank. After about 1 week however she passed away.
My attention then turned to Ari she was fine for a few weeks until her gills developed this white fungus, I decided to go about this calmly. I kept the fungus under control for about 1 month with small amounts of salt in the water and keeping up regular water changes. When the fungus escalated I decided to try salt baths, which worked, for about 3 weeks. The fungus was mostly gone so I cleaned out the main tank and used tank starter, I popped her in the main tank when the water chemistry was right. A week later I woke up checked on her and her entire gills were covered in fungus. I decided to take her to the vet. But the vet said that there wasn’t much that could be done. I kept a sample of the old fungus that had fallen off and turns out that the stuff that killed her was a different type of fungus that had taken over after she was in a weakened state. This really hit me hard, both ari and yin had died after I had tried my hardest to save them.
Now, on a lighter note. Six months later Aka, the present I purchased a much larger tank and started up a new system here’s the filter and stuff:
Filter, aquis 1250 series 2
Chiller, Daeil fish cooler DB1-050-D
Tank, 180 litres
Food, Fishfood.co axolotl food + earthworms
temp, 20degrees celcius at max
Now I have two new axolotls, I’ve gotten all the info I can by emailing an array of exotic vets and stalking caudata.org posts. I don’t have names for them yet, but I was thinking maybe Clara and rose, doctor who companions. There awesome axolotls always following me around the tank, as well as following my cat and dog around the room. The fight over food in the stupidest ways as well E.g. if one has food in her mouth and there is food on the floor she will sit on it so the other axi can’t get it. They always tend to create axi-stacks and always make me smile when the scare each other by backing into each other, even though they don’t care when the swim into each other headfirst.
So some questions:
1. Do you think the tank has enough room for a third?
2. Does anyone have any name suggestions?
3. One of them is skinny the other looking a bit on the heavier side, how should I go about making only one gain weight, btw they do fight a little bit if one gets fed and other doesn’t
Thanks for reading, if you did, please be gentle in the replies if there are any, I recognize the mistakes I made and I do feel awful for them, sorry for the bad English/grammar.
Kind regards, Sebguy
1st picture is yin, 2nd picture is ari and the rest are the current setup.
My journey with axolotls began 2 years ago in late 2013, after hearing about axolotls from a family friend I was really excited about them. I started to research them through caudata.org and axolotl.org and the more I learnt the better they seemed. After about 2 weeks of waiting I purchased an 80 litre tank and got my first 2 axolotls, axel and hex. I would watch them for hours and found them so interesting. However, after about 3 months they both died. I wasn’t quite sure what happened, but I think the PH got too acidic. To say the least, I was distraught, I just couldn’t believe that I’d let the axolotls that I was responsible for had died under my watch.
After this I was determined to try again. I began posting on caudata asking all kinds of questions, asking at my local aquarium for help (they knew what they were doing when it came to axolotls) and even emailing a vet. After about a 2 months of intense research I decided to purchase 2 more axolotls, Yin and Yang. Again the initial excitement of more axolotls was amazing, I was feeding them a mixture of beef heart, fishfood.co axolotl food and earthworms. Again all was going well until yang suddenly passed away. I was confused, nothing seemed wrong. Water chemistry was fine, Yin was fine and no visible wounds, I now think that it was probably the Australian heat. From the deaths which had happened when I was caring for my axolotls I was paranoid. Constantly checking up on yin, always checking chemistry and posting on caudata if anything was off. Despite my efforts, it wasn’t enough.
For the next 6 months or so everything was good there were some ups and downs, like the 40 degree heat wave in Australia, which made me buy a chiller. Since everything was good I decided to purchase another axolotl, Ari. Ari was interesting. She was always active always trying to get food and wasn’t the slow inactive axolotl I was used to. However shortly after I got Ari, Yin got sick. Stopped eating, started floating wouldn’t move, and after about 2 weeks of not eating I decided to take action and take a look at her. Upon investigation I noticed a fungus inside her gills I was terrified and I panicked. I decided to gather all the information to fix it, I asked the aquarium, frantically posted here and finally settled on Pima fix in a hospital tank. After about 1 week however she passed away.
My attention then turned to Ari she was fine for a few weeks until her gills developed this white fungus, I decided to go about this calmly. I kept the fungus under control for about 1 month with small amounts of salt in the water and keeping up regular water changes. When the fungus escalated I decided to try salt baths, which worked, for about 3 weeks. The fungus was mostly gone so I cleaned out the main tank and used tank starter, I popped her in the main tank when the water chemistry was right. A week later I woke up checked on her and her entire gills were covered in fungus. I decided to take her to the vet. But the vet said that there wasn’t much that could be done. I kept a sample of the old fungus that had fallen off and turns out that the stuff that killed her was a different type of fungus that had taken over after she was in a weakened state. This really hit me hard, both ari and yin had died after I had tried my hardest to save them.
Now, on a lighter note. Six months later Aka, the present I purchased a much larger tank and started up a new system here’s the filter and stuff:
Filter, aquis 1250 series 2
Chiller, Daeil fish cooler DB1-050-D
Tank, 180 litres
Food, Fishfood.co axolotl food + earthworms
temp, 20degrees celcius at max
Now I have two new axolotls, I’ve gotten all the info I can by emailing an array of exotic vets and stalking caudata.org posts. I don’t have names for them yet, but I was thinking maybe Clara and rose, doctor who companions. There awesome axolotls always following me around the tank, as well as following my cat and dog around the room. The fight over food in the stupidest ways as well E.g. if one has food in her mouth and there is food on the floor she will sit on it so the other axi can’t get it. They always tend to create axi-stacks and always make me smile when the scare each other by backing into each other, even though they don’t care when the swim into each other headfirst.
So some questions:
1. Do you think the tank has enough room for a third?
2. Does anyone have any name suggestions?
3. One of them is skinny the other looking a bit on the heavier side, how should I go about making only one gain weight, btw they do fight a little bit if one gets fed and other doesn’t
Thanks for reading, if you did, please be gentle in the replies if there are any, I recognize the mistakes I made and I do feel awful for them, sorry for the bad English/grammar.
Kind regards, Sebguy
1st picture is yin, 2nd picture is ari and the rest are the current setup.
