Question: New Axolotl owner, read plenty (now: diary of Fred's new owner)

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

bugger,

became worried as had received no reply so to be on the safe side just did a 12 litre water change.

Was worried about that ammonia so thought would be safer to do it than to wait and realise later that I should have.

I'll leave it until this afternoon for the water to settle and then do another full set of tests to see what the state of play is.

Cheers El Duque for your continued support here.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Hi guys,

Did some more tests, 0.25 on ammonia, 0 on nitrite and 5 on nitrate.

Going to leave to get nitrates up.

Also fed him some 'rinsed' bloodworms from one of those frozen cubes, far less than in a bag ut he loved them all the same. How many cubes do you guys use?

Also,

I'm a little concerned that my axie has the dark and light discolourations on the top of his head when the rest of his body is so blemish free.

Are these spots of dark on the "cheeks" where his head meets his gills normal, and is it normal for there to be white uniform skin before the gills.

I was getting concerned it was some sort of infection of fungus but it's on both sides almost identical and I'm fairly sure fungus wouldn't work like that.

Remember I'm new and just adopted the little fella so unsure of his previous health.

here's the pics where you can see the discolouration:

28493_405557667556_509467556_4217015_3355954_n.jpg


10777d1276347617-new-axolotl-owner-read-plenty-just-want-confirm-few-things-imag0226.jpg
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

ok thanks for the reassurance, I know they are supposed to be a bit frecky but was concerned about the white thicker looking skins just before his head merges into his gills.

I'm sure he's fine.

I'm sorry about my nitrate misunderstanding, I now realise they are all toxic, just nitrate not so much.

I'll do as you have suggested and allow bacteria to develop and only change water when ammonia rises.

Regarding cooling I just purchased one of these: AQUARIUM COOLING FANS UK SELLER 2 FAN MODEL on eBay (end time 14-Jun-10 23:34:15 BST)

went for the 2 fan version as thats what they recommend for <80 litre tanks, but being the man i am really wanted to go for the super 6 fan model. Although the sensible side of me kicked in as they state thats for like 250 litre tanks, and I'm sure the current would be too much on my 60 litre.

Hopefully that'll arrive this week and will make for a more permanent and aesthetic cooling system for the tank (than a bit fan on a chair over the top with the hood off).

I wonder how much noise 2 fans will generate?
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Noise is a serious issue for you isnt it! Dunno too much about aquarium fans but because of their size id say theyd be pretty quiet compared to a big stand up oscillation fan or just a desktop fan. I was using computer fans and they are pretty much silent so you might be able to make a nice cheap aestheticly pleasing rig out of of an array off them, bear in mind that for optimum cooling it is good to have blowing air in and sucking air out kind of fan setup as it will improve air circulation, increasing evaporation which will decrease temp!

(pc fans will need hooking up to a transformer in order to work as they are DC and the mains is AC but im sure you will find instructions on how to do so online or just ask im sure i could help you even build one from scratch but probably easier and safer to buy something ready made that you can adapt as you'll be dealing with 240v at one end! a solution to this is using laptop cooling fans (the fold up jobbies for a couple of quid on ebay!) They are light weight (so easy to set up and arrange over the tank) silent and usb powered so can plug directly into a usb to mains charger or adaptor!

As i mentioned before getting an air pump and a couple of airstones will dramatically improve the temp drop as it will increases the surface area of the water and helps the whole process (and axies seem to love playing in the bubbles despite my fears about currents etc.!) so might be worth askign a few questions on the forum about quiet air pumps see what others use! I wouldnt recommend my one, an airteck 2k4 i have to turn it off at night as it keeps me awake but im sure others have recomendations!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

I'm looking into the chillers,

My issue with those are they are quite high wattage and are mainly for much larger tanks than mine.

It's a pretty inefficience way of cooling. I'll test the fans out, and if they do the same job or even slightly better, than the desk fan then I'm set.

I may even get a thermostat to control the fans so they're not on permanently.

As for money, well it's like everything, I'll pay whatever it takes provided i get good value for money.

If i could get a water cooler that would take it down to 19 permanently, with low noise and with a relatively low wattage then the convenience of that would probably be worth me blowing £200 odd pounds on it. Any more and I think it's a bit steep for a 60l tank. I'm sure i can find a better way.

Fred is beginning to enjoy life, he really likes those bloodworms. Just giving him a snack of one cube a day and he really is getting some character.

He's started climbing and swimming up onto the log, looking for those delicious worms. Good boy he is.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

eh? you make a lot of assumptions.

The bloodworms are thawed in an egg cup and then poured into the tank. The go all over the place, and Fred sniffs them out. He seams to enjoy it immensely, you surely cannot be telling me that's not correct?

I don't think i mentioned anything about the worms being on the surface of the water. Sure they land on the surface of the log, which Fred now appears to enjoy climbing.

He's about 7 inches long (including his tail).

I have a 60 litre tank, the one in the pictures.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

I have no idea about aquarium chillers but i know they work like beer chillers and those things are NOISY! ur best bet is air pump n airstone/bubble wall and fans im havin huge success keeping my tank cool and its exactly the same as urs it hasnt got over 17degrees for over a week now even tho my rooms been pretty warm! you should be able to keep it cool without spending a fortune those aquarium fans might do the trick!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

ok I'll try an airstone, I'll pick one up tomorrow, with the fan should work well to keep temps low.

Regarding food, he ate up a whole bag, which seems about the same as say 6 cubes, but i think that was a bit of a feast really and took him all afternoon to eat so I'm giving him 1 cube each day and he seems ok on that.

I don't want to over feed, but at the same time I don't want to starve him.

maybe 1 cube a day or two every other? There doesn't seem to be any set recommended feeding schedule on the net tbh.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Agree with the tank size thing as i said mine is the same as yours and i already feel gomez has outgrown it ive only had him for 3months! i have just found some bargains tho!

Top»Catalog - Southdown Aquatics

Im probably gonna get one in a couple of weeks £30 odd quid for a new 3ft tank is a steal! im gonna see if i can find the space and stretch for a 4ft one gomez will be in axolotl paradise!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

thanks for the link

They certainly are reasonable.

TBH Fred doesn't appear super cramped and is just beginning to enjoy his surrounding, changing now would be crazy.

Plus I think I better wait more than a week before buying a new tank at the risk of the girlfriend killing me.

I've already blown £200 this month on Fred stuff lol
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Haha yeah your axie will be fine in what hes got for the moment you'll know when its time to upgrade, i just feel so bad when gomez just gets a bit of speed up and his journey is prematurely ended by a piece of glass in the face an extra foot will be just what he needs to burn off his excess chub as hes really active he's just got no space to really let go! would definately not say he is cramped tho this little fella is living in luxury its more that I would feel happier with him in a bigger tank!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Ed,

I've got a 4 foot tank and mine do that sometimes anyway. PLUS I have that self stick cork stuff on the sides of the tank to insulate it a bit and give them a bit of a block from the general passing by.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Yo i dunno if i read somewhere or someone else may have mentioned that you can turn a mini fridge into a chiller? I could be wrong but If it is the case i saw a small fridge probably fit 12-16 beer cans in robert dyas for £25 (bit of a bargain) might be able to convert it into some sort of axie chilling device! might be worth looking into if it is possible to do, if not then this may just be a waste of a perfectly good comment box!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Ed what size or style of Air stone do you have, and what pump?

I figure if you have the same tank and you're in uk I can't go far wrong but mimick your setup.

P.S levels are rising so just did a 30% water change.

Also cleared up what looked like a stockpile of poop. Looks like all those worms made their way out, at the same time.

Jesus Fred can poop, all the gravel and stress must have blocked him up for his first week.
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Airpump = Airtech 2k4 has two outlets I have 1 going to about a 2.5cm airstone and the other going to about 12cm of bubble curtain stuff (porous tubey thing) but that can be cut to what ever size just like all the other air tubes. These are controlled by little plastic twisty valve things that control the air flow i think they came with the pump but check first as u may need them!

By no means would I recommend the pump if you are after something whisper quiet but its cheap and gets the job done! the noise isnt necessarily from the pump it just vibrates so much that everything around starts vibrating and making noise, depends where you put it I guess!

The pump and everything was bought from petscorner I cant remember how much think it was less than £20 for the lot with extra tubes.

Heres a link so u can see what it looks like
Penn Plax Air-tech 2k4 Pump 55 Gallon 2 Outlets-Aquarium Air Pump Supplies

and not realising it I have a pump suitible for a 55gal tank no wonder its like jacuzzi if i have it up high haha! You might find that the smaller models are more than capable and maybe abit quiter as you wont need the valves turned down quite so much to restrict the airflow!

Airstone is like this one but was a different make all much of a muchness really
Hagen Aqua Fizzzz Air Stone 1 Inch-Aquarium Air Pump Supplies

and bubble wall is something like this!
Bubble Wall

that combination a small fan about 12cm diameter blowing across water surface and a small fold up laptop cooler sucking air out (I still keep the hood on just removed the lid/hatch thing!) and ive been at a steady 16deg (was previously 21-22) (bubbles and fans get turned off at night)!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

ted22 said:
Yo i dunno if i read somewhere or someone else may have mentioned that you can turn a mini fridge into a chiller? I could be wrong but If it is the case i saw a small fridge probably fit 12-16 beer cans in robert dyas for £25 (bit of a bargain) might be able to convert it into some sort of axie chilling device! might be worth looking into if it is possible to do, if not then this may just be a waste of a perfectly good comment box!
Click to expand...

Ted... I played with one of these that belonged to a friend of mine. It used some sort of Peltier cooling sink but wasn't cold enough to work as a chiller. If you put a cold six pack in it it could keep it cool... but if it was warm it took it 2 days to cool down the 6 pack.... and you were supposed to turn it off for a couple of hours a day. :(
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Ha there ya go! It was just a waste of a comment box after all! Thanks for the info was thinkin of gettin one to chill a few cans but you have persuaded me to save my money, was just liking the thought of lying in bed and reaching over for a cold beer, mmmm lazy beer! I guess the kitchen is just next door n i know that fridge works and i dont need to spend £25, come to think of it, it was a stupid idea in the first place, another waste of a perfectly good comment box!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Heh... as long as the beer is cold when it goes in it's not a waste! :D
And It'll be gone in a hour anyway!
 
Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

not a waste at all.

I was actually investigating and toying with the idea of building a peltier based system.

Regarding the water change, it wasn't willy nilly, I checked levers, between 0.25 and 0.5 on ammonia and so i did 30% change. Tested afterwards and levels were about the same so left it be for now.

Regarding aeration, just been out looking what can be picked up in the shops and found this elite system.

I have an elite tank and the value aeration pack does seam very good value especially when i priced it up against other single purchases of pump, tubing, valves and the stones.

Complete Aeration Set by Elite | Pets at Home

I haven't bought it but am interested, it has a 12" air stone (which i assume works the same way as your curtain) and a bubble disk.

Would this be too much for little fred or would he enjoy it?

Would i lay the long straight one across the back of the tank to create a curtain like effect?

They also had some funky bubble lamps with built in LEDs but were expensive for what they were and the same result could be achieved with other aeration products.

Regarding temperatures, I'm fed up with guessing all the time what the real temp is in there from those silly strips so have paid out for a Marina Aqua-minder which has a proper digital readout and alarms for high and low temps and also water and filter changes etc.

Will do the trick until i get a thermstat to power all these cool cooling devices i seem to be obsessing over.

Got it half price off ebay too :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110535265451
 
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Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

well yeah sure, was looking for feedback on whether the kit i posted would have too much aeration given that it's a curtain and a disc but i suppose if you control the airflow right down it's not an issue regardless of the bandwidth of output.

Going back to what you or Ed said earlier about noise, it's not that i care really, quite the opposite as I'm lucky enough not to have him in my bedroom, hes in the lounge, and in the heat of the day we're at work so he can have as many pumps and filter son as he likes, the same goes for night times.

Any aeration devices and coolers could be switched off in the cooler evening while we site there and watch tv.

It's just that I'm a buy-once kind of guy. I'd prefer to do things properly to begin with and not have to purchase similar but slightly improved items again (ironic I know with my poor cycle preperation). If i can get quiet stuff, it's more likely to be used.

wowsers, 25 posts, did not expect to be this active here :)
 
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