Varied diet ?

[xxianxx]

Http://www.journalvetbehavior.com/article/S1558-7878(14)00130-0/abstract

 

[LSuzuki]

Very interesting. I wish I had access to the whole article ...

Questions I have after reading the abstract. 1) What size were the juveniles at the beginning? 2) Does this conflict at all with the advice I've read that blood worms aren't nutritionally complete for larger axies? 3) Are daphnia big enough prey items for the axolotls at the size they should be at the end of the 15 weeks of testing?

 

[xxianxx]

I was hoping one of the brainy nerds who know about this stuff would read all the study and tell me how reliable this study was, its implications for raising axolotls etc. Obviously they are all too busy choosing pocket protectors or getting bullied.....

 

[axolodemia]

I can check later to see if I have full access to the article through my school's library.

This corroborates with everything that I've read on the feeding section of axolotl.org and the book Developmental Biology of the Axolotl, that bloodworms are an ideal food for juvenile axolotls, but earthworms and beef heart are more ideal for adults.

 

[axolodemia]

Also worth noting that the only two food types tested in this experiment were daphnia and bloodworms, not black worms, earthworms, brine shrimp, live vs frozen, and there doesn't seem to be a control group.

Might also be interesting to do an experiment to see if axolotls will preferentially select certain food items over a period of like 6 months of being offered several food types at once during each feeding.

 

[axolodemia]

Found this article in my school's database. It's from Amphibia-Reptilia Nov2011, Vol. 32 Issue 4, pg. 509 - 517

The Axolotl, Ambystoma mexicanum, endemic to the freshwater lakes, Xochimilco and Chalco in Mexico City, feeds on zooplankton during its larval stages. We evaluated the functional response over eight weeks of A. mexicanum fed different prey items found in its natural habitat (rotifers: Brachionus havanaensis, B. calyciflorus, B. rubens and Plationus patulus; cladocerans: Moina macrocopa, Macrothrix triserialis, Alona glabra and Simocephalus vetulus; and ostracods: Heterocypris incongruens). Zooplankton consumption by A. mexicanum varied in relation to the prey species and age of the larvae. Unlike oviparous fish larvae which often feed preferentially on rotifers in the first few weeks, A. mexicanum larvae fed more on cladocerans and ostracods. Among the cladocerans offered, larval A. mexicanum consumed higher numbers of M. triserialis and M. macrocopa. Feeding on the largest cladoceran tested, S. vetulus, increased after the fifth week. There was a consistent increase in the number of ostracods Heterocypris incongruens, consumed with age, from 4 to 169 prey per larva over eight weeks. The results are discussed with relation to the importance of zooplankton diet in conservation effort of this endangered species in Lake Xochimilco.

So it looks like there has been a recent study on the axolotl's preferential diet selection, but this study was only done on weeks old specimens. I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything about adults.