New to axolotls - What do you think about my tank setup?

[HakuandCoral]

So I made the mistake of buying a 60 gallon cylinder tank to house to juvenile axolotls... I cycled the tank with a beneficial bacteria starter for 1 month before getting my baby axolotls. I also made a bonsai tree out of driftwood and put lots of live plants. My aquarium came with a bubble wall which I thought would cause too much flow in the aquarium so I turned it off. But now the temperature spiked up to 74 degrees in the tank. I have been using frozen water bottles to try and bring the temp down but it is not working. So I have several questions.

#1 Any ideas of a fan or something that I could attach to the lid of my oddly shaped tank to cool it down? I live in a cold climate but this summer has been relatively hot.

#2 Should I keep the bubble wall on or off?

#3 Any ideas on how to feed them without just throwing cubes of bloodworms in the tank? Also do I really need to pick up all the uneaten worms?

#4 I thought this 60 gallon tank was huge but it is only 32" wide. Is this large enough to house 2 adult axolotls?

#5 There is a white fungus that has been on my bonsai tree since the first week. It doesn't seem like it is going away on it's own. Would guppies or shrimp help eat this? I know the would probably get eaten themselves later.

#6 Do you guys have any other advice/comments/concerns about my tank set up? I do have a cave in the back for them and I keep the lights off most of the time. I'm trying to be the best axolotl mom possible here.

 

[HakuandCoral]

Also, any ideas of where to buy cheap marimo moss to cover the top of my bonsai tree?

 

[AMurry24537]

Answering your questions (to the best of my ability) in order, here goes:

1. Since you have a rounded rim, your best bet fan-wise would be to find some kind of clip-on fan whose clip has a small enough width that it can attach without being interrupted by the non-straight-edge.

You did mention that you have a lid though; what kind of lid is it? If it's solid, you miiight be able to attach something to the underside, but I would very sincerely recommend against this, since it will be very unstable and dangerous, especially over time as the vibrations from the fan loosen whatever you would use to attach it, not to mention the inherent risk of electrocution if the water splashes where it shouldn't.

All in all, I think your best route to go would be to either invest in a chiller or a regularly shaped aquarium. Either way, it's going to be an investment, but temperature is one of the most important things (besides water quality) to keeping your axolotls healthy. The only other thing you can really do is lower the ambient room temperature sufficiently, but if you don't have AC/haven't been able to accomplish this already, well, that's going to be hard.

2. Probably off. Most axolotls do not do well with a lot of flow, though a relatively rare few do enjoy some bubbles. I would wait until they're older (both to ensure their physical ability to withstand it and to be sure that you can recognize their normal vs. stressed behaviors better), try it out for a bit, and see what they think. For now though, low flow is better.

3. I'm not really sure what kind of problems you're having here, so I'll do my best to answer what I think is going on.

To avoid making too big of a mess, one thing you can do is to rinse the worms in a separate cup of tank water (you should be doing this part anyway, of course) and then use large tweezers/tongs to gently drop small clumps right in front of their faces. Some people have also trained their axoltotls to eat from a flat-ish dish, which can also help avoid getting worms everywhere.

That being said, the easiest way to avoid this mess is to, well, change the food. I don't know how big your axies are, but once they're around 4-6 inches in length, they should be able to be eating (small chunks, at least) earthworms, which are much better for them and much easier to clean up. Bloodworms are basically the potato chip of the axolotl world--delicious, but not very nutritional, nor as good as a consistent diet. Think of them as treats rather than a standard food source.

European/Canadian nightcrawlers are the best axolotl, but red wigglers work for some axolotls (most don't like the taste). When axolotls are young, they can't eat a whole one, but you can cut them up into smaller and smaller pieces to see how much they can eat. Even in chunks, these are much easier to clean up than blood worms.

Speaking of cleaning, YES, you DO need to clean up any and all uneaten food, otherwise it will rot in your tank, increase your ammonia levels, and possibly make your axolotls sick. Your axolotls might even stop eating that food if they accidentally get any old ones mixed up with fresher ones. After all, how would you feel if you took a bite of your favorite food only to find that some of it had already been sitting out for a week? Axolotls are not very smart, but they do spit out foods they don't like.

You could also get shrimp or axolotl pellets to provide some variety, but most of their diet should still be earthworms. If you do use pellets, make sure they're at least 40% protein. I personally use the axolotl pellets from Invert Aquatics, which you can buy on Amazon.

4. The most important dimension of a tank for axolotls is how much floor space they have, since they do a lot of walking around, especially as they grow up. I did some math to figure out the area of your tank floor, and assuming that I am correct in believing the diameter to be 32 inches, it should be enough. The main concern is simply that they get along with each other and don't nip the other's body parts. As long as they have plenty of places to hide from each other (preferably throughout the tank) if need be, this shouldn't be an issue.

5. Since the fungus seems to be affecting that piece of driftwood alone and not going away with whatever water changes you're doing, I would guess that there's some kind of bacteria thing going on with the wood. Frankly, I would try boiling it. This is the common way to disinfect driftwood before adding it to an aquarium. If you've already done this, try one more time to see what happens. Besides that, continue to do regular water changes and keep an eye out for any signs of fungus on your axolotls' gills.

6. I think everything I've noticed/been thinking about is pretty much covered above. You have a beautiful set-up by the way!!

 

[HakuandCoral]

Answering your questions (to the best of my ability) in order, here goes:

1. Since you have a rounded rim, your best bet fan-wise would be to find some kind of clip-on fan whose clip has a small enough width that it can attach without being interrupted by the non-straight-edge.

You did mention that you have a lid though; what kind of lid is it? If it's solid, you miiight be able to attach something to the underside, but I would very sincerely recommend against this, since it will be very unstable and dangerous, especially over time as the vibrations from the fan loosen whatever you would use to attach it, not to mention the inherent risk of electrocution if the water splashes where it shouldn't.

All in all, I think your best route to go would be to either invest in a chiller or a regularly shaped aquarium. Either way, it's going to be an investment, but temperature is one of the most important things (besides water quality) to keeping your axolotls healthy. The only other thing you can really do is lower the ambient room temperature sufficiently, but if you don't have AC/haven't been able to accomplish this already, well, that's going to be hard.

2. Probably off. Most axolotls do not do well with a lot of flow, though a relatively rare few do enjoy some bubbles. I would wait until they're older (both to ensure their physical ability to withstand it and to be sure that you can recognize their normal vs. stressed behaviors better), try it out for a bit, and see what they think. For now though, low flow is better.

3. I'm not really sure what kind of problems you're having here, so I'll do my best to answer what I think is going on.

To avoid making too big of a mess, one thing you can do is to rinse the worms in a separate cup of tank water (you should be doing this part anyway, of course) and then use large tweezers/tongs to gently drop small clumps right in front of their faces. Some people have also trained their axoltotls to eat from a flat-ish dish, which can also help avoid getting worms everywhere.

That being said, the easiest way to avoid this mess is to, well, change the food. I don't know how big your axies are, but once they're around 4-6 inches in length, they should be able to be eating (small chunks, at least) earthworms, which are much better for them and much easier to clean up. Bloodworms are basically the potato chip of the axolotl world--delicious, but not very nutritional, nor as good as a consistent diet. Think of them as treats rather than a standard food source.

European/Canadian nightcrawlers are the best axolotl, but red wigglers work for some axolotls (most don't like the taste). When axolotls are young, they can't eat a whole one, but you can cut them up into smaller and smaller pieces to see how much they can eat. Even in chunks, these are much easier to clean up than blood worms.

Speaking of cleaning, YES, you DO need to clean up any and all uneaten food, otherwise it will rot in your tank, increase your ammonia levels, and possibly make your axolotls sick. Your axolotls might even stop eating that food if they accidentally get any old ones mixed up with fresher ones. After all, how would you feel if you took a bite of your favorite food only to find that some of it had already been sitting out for a week? Axolotls are not very smart, but they do spit out foods they don't like.

You could also get shrimp or axolotl pellets to provide some variety, but most of their diet should still be earthworms. If you do use pellets, make sure they're at least 40% protein. I personally use the axolotl pellets from Invert Aquatics, which you can buy on Amazon.

4. The most important dimension of a tank for axolotls is how much floor space they have, since they do a lot of walking around, especially as they grow up. I did some math to figure out the area of your tank floor, and assuming that I am correct in believing the diameter to be 32 inches, it should be enough. The main concern is simply that they get along with each other and don't nip the other's body parts. As long as they have plenty of places to hide from each other (preferably throughout the tank) if need be, this shouldn't be an issue.

5. Since the fungus seems to be affecting that piece of driftwood alone and not going away with whatever water changes you're doing, I would guess that there's some kind of bacteria thing going on with the wood. Frankly, I would try boiling it. This is the common way to disinfect driftwood before adding it to an aquarium. If you've already done this, try one more time to see what happens. Besides that, continue to do regular water changes and keep an eye out for any signs of fungus on your axolotls' gills.

6. I think everything I've noticed/been thinking about is pretty much covered above. You have a beautiful set-up by the way!!

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! This was very helpful. I will try to find a chiller that fits under the hood and try the chopped up night crawlers.

 

[JM29]

Since the fungus seems to be affecting that piece of driftwood alone and not going away with whatever water changes you're doing, I would guess that there's some kind of bacteria thing going on with the wood. Frankly, I would try boiling it. This is the common way to disinfect driftwood before adding it to an aquarium. If you've already done this, try one more time to see what happens. Besides that, continue to do regular water changes and keep an eye out for any signs of fungus on your axolotls' gills.

Fungus on "fresh" wood (I mean : not rotten wood) isn't weird at all since it contains starch. This fungus, which has nothing to do with health problems on axolotls, will disappear by itself when starch is all digested. That's how nature works.
Anyways, you won't be able to avoid fungi and bacteria, even by boiling again and again the wood, because they remain in the form of spores in the air and the water.

Beside this, I agree with all the advices from AMurry

 

[HakuandCoral]

Fungus on "fresh" wood (I mean : not rotten wood) isn't weird at all since it contains starch. This fungus, which has nothing to do with health problems on axolotls, will disappear by itself when starch is all digested. That's how nature works.
Anyways, you won't be able to avoid fungi and bacteria, even by boiling again and again the wood, because they remain in the form of spores in the air and the water.

Beside this, I agree with all the advices from AMurry

Thanks for your input! To be honest, I can't even get the bonsai tree out of the water now that I put it in because my dumb tank has a tiny ~8" by 6" opening. I'm not really sure how I was able to maneuver it in there in the beginning but it seems to be stuck in there forever... So really my only choice is to let nature take its course. I've been trying to scrub it when I clean my tank. I wish I could put something like a pleco in there to eat it but I know I can't I just ordered a bunch of different colored shrimp so I'm hoping they will munch on it.