Very nice! An impressive bit of work.
I also obtained a bunch of tanks that had holes drilled in the bottom, formerly owned by a fish breeder. After trying various things involving PVC fittings, I ended up just sticking a piece of glass over the holes with silicone sealant and using them as normal aquariums.
It would have been a lot less work if I wasn't always driven to try to do things the novel, experimental way instead of doing them the boring, safe way, but I've learned a lot about the compatibilities of various plastics and sealants, figured out methods for joining pond liner to acrylic panels in a manner which accommodates movement and flexing under a tenth of an atmosphere of pressure and developed a feel for how heavily built wooden structures need to be to hold back up to a metre of water.
My tanks came with the original gaskets and PVC overflow pipes, and I might find some use for some of them, but I'm likely to do the same and just seal up the holes for most of the tanks. One use I can see for the holes in some of the tanks is to cover them with mesh and use them as drainage holes for terrestrial habitats. I've occasionally had to use airline tubing to siphon water out of coco coir substrate that has become waterlogged, and having a drainage hole in the bottom of terrestrial setups would prevent that from happening.
Are you going to breeding them or are they just a hobby? Just wondering/being nosy
You have loads of space for quite a few Axies! :happy:
great keep us posted of your progress!
I'm going to breed axolotls along with other amphibian species, partly as a hobby, partly because I hope to make a little income from it and partly as a scientific endeavour. I'm particularly interested in the potential for artificially selecting for certain behavioural traits in axololts, and I've observed a broad enough range of personalities in the ~50 axolotls that I've raised so far to convince me that there's ample variation for artificial selection to work on.
The majority of my axolotls are largely indifferent to my presence, but some will approach the surface of the water in anticipation of being fed with varying degrees of confidence. A few respond when I make eye contact with them through the glass by turning to face me and meeting my gaze, and will approach me until they reach the glass. One swims back and forth near the surface of the tank whenever I enter the room and then waits just below the surface of the water and tries to take a fish pellet from my fingers, but will ignore any pellets that I drop, even when they fall right past it's nose. Another one will slowly creep towards me through the aquarium plants like a cat stalking prey, doesn't mind my hand coming near it when I'm cleaning the tank, which causes most of the other axolotls to dart away, and even chases my fingers around the aquarium if they come too near it's face.
My plan is to raise a large number of axolotls and observe their behaviour, picking out individuals which exhibit traits such as tameness towards humans, high levels of physical activity, diurnal activity and endearing behaviours, and using these as the basis of further generations of axolotls which, I hope, will become increasingly friendly and interactive towards humans, less skittish and prone to getting stressed, will develop more complex and interesting personalities and will be more lively. It's a long-term project, and I expect to wait a decade or two before I begin to see significant results, but I've little doubt that it can be done.
