Oh my gosh! stress!

[jenny]

ok so i phoned the pet shop and they said my axys are 3 years old?!?! but i thought they get to like 30cm when that old..thats like a size of a whole ruler! elizabeth is like the size of a small ruler and harriet a bit bigger!!! also, with sexing them..they kinda look different but the same! ...the bump thing between their leg and tale...harriets is small (small as in length wize) and elizabeths is longer but they are both the same fatness. but does that mean anything?

also if they are 3 years old then they have been living in a tank similar size to mine together for 3 years so im guessing a couple more weeks in them size tanks they will be ok!

also, i got a new recruit from bolton pet shop, he a lil melanoid i think?? (brown wi black spots) and have called him oswald. but dont worry peeps, i *have* got him his own tank although its a bit smaller than elizabeth and harriets, but then he is a lot smaller. awww hes so cute though!
i poured (is that how you spell pour?) a bag full of blood worms in his tank and his tank his a bit red still (even though he ate all the blood worms) is that ok??

ive also decided next time i clean harriet and elizabeth im just not having any kind of stones at sll cos loadsa times i put worms in and they totally dont see them or somethin then the worms bury emselves in the gravel!


oooo the pet shop near me (in hindley) told me he can order me in a mature male axy! how cool! should have that in a couple of weeks for when i get my tank!

 

[katy]

3 years old?? that's weird - i wouldn't trust them to be honest. it is possible for an adult axolotl to be that size, but it's not common.

it's also likely that they got the axolotls from another owner who had had them for 3 years, and the petshop had only had them for a little while - i doubt a petshop would stock an animal that wasn't selling for three years, it doesn't make sense!

how big is a bag of bloodworms and how big is oswald? (cute name by the way!) mine are about 7inches and they eat a cube of frozen bloodworms a day (a cube is about 1cmx2cm - same size as a chocolate square).

Getting rid of the pebbles is an excellent idea, not only because food gets caught in them, but the axies will actually eat the pebbles and can cause problems in their guts. I use river stones, which are maybe 4cm across, so they can't swallow them, some people use slate as well. You should have something on the bottom of the tank, or there's nowhere for the good bacteria to live!

You might also want to try hand feeding them rather than just dropping the food in - ie. get a pinch of worms and hold them in front of the axie's face until it goes for it. It doesn't hurt if they bite you, it's just like a little suction cup!

How big a tank did you decide to get for them all? Have you found one yet?

 

[jenny]

bag of blood worms is like the same amount as a cube i think from what i remember. about 70-100 worms or so. yesterday he ate a bag of sea monkeys, or fairy shrimp whichever they are, as well as 2 lil earthworms and one big worm longer than him that he then later spat out.

with the pet shop, tis only a lil pet shop and they have snakes and stuff as well that arent for sale so i thought that theyd just kept those two as wel as kind of their pets. i think they did have them from babies though as when i bought them they sort of commented to themselves 'they got big didnt they' so to be honest though i think 3 years is a long time for someone not to want to eventually buy them even if they are happy to keep them for that long.

here are a couple of pics of their ..is it clocoa area from the side, can anyone tell their sex for sure? or can tell if they are younger than 3 yrs and not able to be sexed.

 

[jenny]

 

[jenny]

 

[jenny]

ok i looked again at the gender pix in foto gallery and saw the pic of their body size to....and im so thinkin that elizabeth is a boy. because she is actually quite thin especially compared to harriet..plus, if you see the pix above...even though her balls arent fat they are long and harriets are short. yay im so excited ... altho itll prob turn out that im completely wrong...how come they didnt mate in the pet shop then if they had apparently been there for so long. how do i get them to mate? i think i really need to try and get some proper pix with them next to each other to compare them etc so you all can give me your opinion. ill do it tomoz wen i have time to take em downstairs where there is more room and natural light!

off to work now!

xx

 

[katy]

i still think they're both girls, definitely if they're 3 years old - check out this pic of my male axolotl.

 

[jenny]

but they prob arent 3 yrs old? cos of the size? ill see what happens. maybe harriet is just too over fat and it jus seems like elizabeth is real slim. hopefully my mature male axy shud be here on thurs. do female axys get real fat when they have eggs or somethin? or is it just a weight problem?

 

[katy]

yep, females are rounder because of the eggs they carry.

so you'll have 4 axies on thursday - when are you getting your new tank?

 

[jenny]

im taking them all to my boyfriends house and putting them in the tank that he bought to get tropical fish but he said i can put all my axys in their and he'll get his fish once i got my tank. his is 3ft but really high though is that ok for them? although im gonna keep oswold at mine and put him in either elizabeth or harriets tank cos hes only lil and i dont want the others eating him.

 

[jenny]

also, when i get my tank, whats if i was to get like a smaller one say about 2 ft and put like a shelf in it...cos my bfs tank, at the top for some reason its just got two tiny pieces of glass stick to it at the top with some black stuff so if i got some of that black stuff and a piece of glass then stuck it half way up the side of the tank it would create a shelf, therefore more room? would that be ok? or still a no no?

 

[katy]

a 2ft tank would be fine for 2 axolotls, but not 4. also remember that they'll grow to an average of 11 or 12 inches each, so it may look like they'll fit in a smaller tank now, but they'll get a whole lot bigger! would it be easier for you to get 2 2ft tanks and keep 2 axolotls in each?

and good idea to keep oswald separately til he gets bigger

 

[jenny]

well i just emailed a few glass makers with a spec of a fish tank i want...so awaiting prices.

i asked for a 36inches by 15 inches with a height of 24 inches with a shelf half way up the side with various different shapes stickin out the side, so like hollow 3d shaped glass if u get me.

 

[jenny]

ok here is a pic of harriet n elizabeth together (look at size of em) plus, i managed to pic up elizabeth (ish) and it looked like her balls are pretty big (well bigger than harriets) but she doesnt really like being handled like harriet (or she just wont put up with it like harriet) but i couldnt hold her long enough to get a pic of her. i will try when i have someone with me so they can take the pic while i hold...but pretty sure they are male and female so how do i get them to mate. id rather do it before they go the other tank which wil be friday (id rather put them all in together so its a neutral thing and so there wont be any terratory fighting. should i scrub the bath from soaps n stuff then put them in there cos its a big space then might they mate?

 

[jenny]

ok harri loves liz but liz dooesnt love harri so dont think they will mate so i will leave it now and if they eventually they mate then cool but what happens, happens.

 

[jenny]

ok i told my mum over sms because shes in london at the mo so itll give her a chance to calm down before she gets back 2moz evening! and i told her i have to get a bigger tank for them so depending on what she texts me back saying i am tonight getting a 3ft tank that will fit on my chest of drawers! although someone is phoning me back later on today to qoute me on the fish tank i want making so ill see what price they give on that.

 

[jenny]

ok my mum just phoned me!! and she laughed and said i knew you had something cos you left half the <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font> in the bath when you were cleaning them out and was then like what are they etc. so yay happy happy!

im kind of thinking im just bombarding this forum with useless topics and messages! sorry! ill try to cut down now!

 

[kaysie]

Jenny, a better tank would be a long/wide tank rather than a high tank. More surface area means more water/air contact, allowing for more gas exchange (since your axies breath the gas in the water through their gills).

They'll mate when they're good and ready. Just let them be in their tank and they'll probably breed (provided you have lots of plants for them to lay eggs on).

Soap is a bad thing. If you do wash anything with soap, you need to rinse it EXTREMELY well to get off all the soap and residue. This could be harmful to your animals.

Handling them is also a bad idea. All humans have natural oils and goo on their hands that can irritate the axies skin. And moving them is stressful for them. The more you move them, the less likely that they'll breed.

 

[katy]

great to see you told your mum, that'll make it easier! well done

i'm worried about the tank you described, with glass shelves poking out the sides it'll be really easy for the axos to cut themselves while swimming around. when they have the space, they love to swim really fast all around - once in a while. it could be dangerous, as their skin is really delicate. if you can get a plain 3ft tank, that'll be safer for them, and you'll be able to fit in all four of them (once oswald grows up of course!).

don't worry too much about them breeding. it'd be really fun, but it's a LOT of work. it involves at least daily water changes for all the tanks for all the babies (there'll be hundreds of them) hatching and keeping your own food, like brine shrimp, to feed the babies, and getting an aeration system for all the tanks - let alone buying all those tanks! please only try to breed them if you're certain you have the time and money to take care of all of them, and also if you know where you'd sell or give all those babies. i know it'd be fun (i wanted to breed mine for ages! ) but just make sure you're well prepared.

it sounds like you're taking good care of them now, though, so well done!

 

[jenny]

ok went to pets at home last night for a fish tank but didnt get one cos theyre really high but not so wide at the side at the bottom. but maybe i should just get one. 36inch long 12 inch wide and 24 inch tall. i phoned somehwerre that can get them made for you and it was like 120 for a fourty inch with 18 wide and 15 tall so sod that,

here is a pic of my 5 babies. (3 axys, 1 cat, 1 bf)

dont shout at me about the size of their tanks please im doing all i can id just rather wait for the perfect tank rather that get one that isnt!

will def have one by fri though cos have day off!