Looking for Sydney breeders!

[daniel]

Hey guys! Nice site you have here, read most of the current threads and learned a bunch!

I'm making this topic in search of any people in Sydney who breed Axolotls. I have one now that I would like to give some company. I only have a 2 foot tank so I think I could probably only put one other in there. The one I have now in my picture isn't very big, maybe 4 inches, 5 max. If anyone breeds or just wants to sell one they have please let me know, the only pet shop I've found that has them sells them $30 a pop and if I can't find anything else I will resort to the weekend markets where they are sold cheap like, $15, but I really don't trust them.

Thanks!

 

[kim]

Welcome to the group!

I found the information fantastic and very helpful... Any questions feel free to ask... we don't bite!

If they axies looks in good health there is no harm in getting it from the market, just remember to keep it in quarantine for a while... about 60 days i believe would be ok!

Unforunatly i dont know of any breeder's over there, but there are a couple of people around your area lurk in this forum, just give it a couple of days and they should appear! lol

No names come to mind at the moment but i'll let you know if they do!

 

[mik]

Welcome Daniel, we look forward to your input to the discussions.

 

[daniel]

Thanks for the welcome i'll input as much as I can!

I tried feeding my axie an earthworm today, I noticed Mik that you like to feed your ones them, I think I had almost as much enjoyment watching the axie (sorry I don't know sex so havn't named it yet!!!) lunge at it as it did eating it!

One concern is that I saw some people say they cut the worm in half first, I held it in whole (I hand fed it ) and after he gulped the WHOLE thing from my hand he regurgitated part of it a few time then gulped it back down again. Is this normal or should I give the axie smaller worms/cut in half?

Also are earthworms a very good staple? Or should I give it something like frozen bloodworm which I have a pack of and earthworm like once a week? My housemates breed worms for use in compost & garden so I made a deal that I will pick them up a one liter tub of live worms from Bunnings (Australian hardware/garden outlet) if I can help myself as long as I want, since the worms breed that should keep em going!

If worms are okay as a staple, how many medium sized worms would be good for one sitting? Most of the ones my housemates artificial compost thing wher ethey keep and breed thier worms are about half the length of my axie, about 2 - 3 inches, with about 5 - 8 mm radius.

(Message edited by danielb on September 29, 2004)

 

[abbey]

Just to check, you aren't the Daniel Bell i went to school with are you?

I don't know of any breeders, however, you will find some very good deals at the smaller pet stores and Sunday markets. I bought my last guy at Parklea and he is very healthy. They mainly all come from the QLD supplier anyway.

 

[daniel]

No I went to school in New Zealand, I've only studied at Hobart College and TAFE (Liverpool & Granville) in Australia.

Thanks for that info I will have to hit the yellow pages on the weekend!

 

[mik]

Hi Daniel,

Check out my second post on the thread - Food.

As for number of worms my bigguns take 1 large worm each a day (6mm round about 7" long when stretching). The babies (all over 150mm) eat a smaller worm about 2-3" long (relaxed).

So try one worm a day but if water temperature is low you might find they need less. If so feed every other day.

If you axie vomits a bolus (like a mucus coated poo) then your almost certainly feeding too much in one sitting. But if you mean it takes a few gulps to get worm down then tha's normal. Have a look in photo gallery at Moonpie. He does a great Gene Simmons, of Kiss, impersonation with a worm.

Worms are good and convenient but can be a fatty. I tend to go one day pellets, one day worms and one or two days a week something else.

 

[daniel]

No, it wasnt vomiting. It would just like gulp the whole thing, then about a few seconds later it would look as though the worm has semi wriggled out of its mouth, then axie would gulp it down again. This happened about 6 or 7 times then stopped.. Now it's hiding in it's cave maybe because my bedroom light is on!

Would worms a couple of days a week and every other day frozen bloodworms or something be ok? Which pellets are these?

I'd have to take the axie out of the water and put it in a seprate feeding tank (One of those plastic portable things you can buy for like $10AUD they're maybe 3 litres if that!) for bloodworms cos the uneaten ones get into my filter! I'd rather not take the axie out too much and would rather find ess-messy foods that I can feed inside it's tank (earthworm was great, axie didn't leave a morsel behind! ).

Thanks for your help!

 

[kim]

for my two axies i feed a staple of bloodworms, earthworms and pellets.

They normally get fed everyother day.. or sometimes i miss a feeding out just so they dont become too dependant on me.. so i can go away for the weekend etc..

My two do the same with the worms.. depends how wriggly they are it can take a while for them to eat them completely.

As a treat i feed beef heart, (but not liver as it makes the water cloudy) tubifex worms and any radom raw meat we have about. But only as a rare treat treat as they tend to bring it back up.

When feeding bloodworms i take my aixes out of the main tank.. i have two smaller 3ltr tubs which i put tank water in (which i do as part of my water change) take both axies out and put them in a tub each.

Mine dont mind being handled now, but when i first got them they used to go mental... just be firm but gental.

The pellets we feed are salmon/trout pellets.. very high in protien and low in everything else. i had problems getting them to eat the pellets but i just kept offering them and they just started eating them.

 

[daniel]

Here are some pics of my axolotl, can someone help me try and sex it? I'd like to know for naming purposes! In the pics he is in a seprate feeder tank I got because bloodworms are so messy and it usually only eats half of them, but then again it ate a nice big earthworm yesterday!

 

[kim]

Daniel,

Form what you say above in earlier post i think your axie is about 6inches long from nose to tip of the tale?

Aies normally mature at around 8inches but this can depend just like humans.

From what I can see at the moment your axies looks like a girl. Boys have a larger bump (cloca) that females between there back legs.

If you can get a belly shot would be good.. get some1 to hold him/her up and take a picture from underneath.

I've now had my newest axie nearly 2months and I think I've only just decieded on a name! Crumble!

 

[cynthia]

Hi,

About feeding... I fed mine thin strips of beef heart, earth worms, thin strips of venison liver (it is much firmer than beef liver), crickets, large grasshoppers (with back legs removed), thin slices of salmon and other fish. Alternating to a different food pretty much everyday. You can get the meats and cut them up in very thin bites and then just freeze it in small packages of 2 or 3. This made it very easy to feed them a nice variety. I caught lots of grasshoppers in the summer and froze them in a quart jar for winter feeding.

They were offered food by hand everyday. They were not always hungry depending on water temp. I had the oldest of them 12 years when I had to sell them because of a giant change in lifestyle for me.

I have read different things about the feeding of liver and heart. I don't think it should be a constant diet, but feeding it with a variety of other foods didn't seem to bother any of mine.

I am expecting 2 baby axolotls to be delivered to me this morning! I am so excited to have some axolotls again

 

[daniel]

I'll try and get a belly shot tommorrow or sunday when I do a water change and give it some bloodworms in the seperate container, the bottom is see through so I can easily get someone to hold the feeder tank up while I take a photo from underneath. I won't try and handle it as yesterday I touched it and it freaked, still needs to get used to it, little bits at a time. Maybe soon it realise that net in water means dinner time? Maybe it will start to calm down then I hope!

So are the crickets you can get from pet shops alright to feed to axies? How would you feed them? Just leave the cricket ontop of the water? Or take it down and hand feed?

What is the name of the type of colour my axie has? I know there's leucistic and all that stuff, what is mine if anyone knows?

(Message edited by danielb on October 01, 2004)

 

[mik]

Your axie is a wildtype Daniel. His colouring is mottled and from what I can tell in the photos quite a light coloured one. But very nice.

It looks quite immature as it very slender and there doesn't appear to be any swelling whatsoever about the cloaca. The muzzle is quite broad so I would guess it's female. But would definitely reserve judgement until she matures.

Cool name Kim, Crumbles, I like that. Be back on line bit more over weekend. Logan is settling in but we are on constant pee-pee watch..lol. Turning into a fiesty little b*gger already.

Welcome to the group Cynorita, best of luck with your new axies. A born again axie owner!

 

[kim]

Mik,

Yeah it was either crumble or fudge...

Any chance you can come online at 5.30-6pm tonight.. ive just found an aixe i want but its in summerset.. need help on shipping ideas!

And i cant wait to see logan on the webcam!

 

[mik]

Kim,

Check you hotmail account sent you an email re: offspring.

CU soon

 

[daniel]

Hey guys I got a buddy for my axie from the petshop I got the other one from, I forgot to quarantine but since they came from the same place should it matter? This one is a bit older though, and a bit bigger. Has a nice colour, I think it's the same type as my youngin' (wildtype) but it has a nicer colouration, very light, looks like leopard skin in the light!

It loves to swim to the top of the tank and rest ontop of the live plants that I have, that way when it gulps for air every hour or so it only has to lift its head! Lazy bugger!

I put an airstone in it and the new axie always tries to eat the bubbles, sits there for a good 5 minutes snapping at them all, the other axie has now taken residence right ontop of the airstone. Its funny!

When I introduced the new axie to the tank, the 2 axies exchanged nips a couple of time but now are fine, they've even curled up together a couple of times! hahhaha

The new one I have named assuming it is female (Its cloaca is barely visible, i compared her to some male pictures and is alot different), I named her Medusa lol, cos she has long gills looks like that snake haired women! The other one I'm still unsure about. I will try and get photos of the underside tommorrow, I'll do the same for medusa to make sure that I'm not giving a bloke a girls name!

Daniel

 

[nathan]

Daniel,

South Windsor fish hatchery regularly breed axolotls and other fish.
They always have tubs full of baby axies
they are on the corner of Richmond Road and George Street, south windsor.
about 20 minutes drive from blacktown.
and about Parklea markets, i wouldn't trust them I've looked at their fish and axies alot of times and almost every time i've seen them they have been covered in fungus.

 

[nathan]

Also try Noah's Ark pet shop at Doonside.
I've bought two from here and have both been perfect and healthy.
They are usually sold at about 4 inches long.
They only charge $20.
They always have heaps of variety, i bought a wildtype/albino type on the weekend they had 3 of these, 3 black ones, a white albino, a white leucistic and a golden albino there on the weekend.
Every time i go there they always have lots of variety.

 

[killanin]

Had two Axies in my aquarium in Hawaii; want one or two here in Tampa Bay area Florida but can't find anywhere! Help?!