Many topics from a newb! Long post ahead. :)

Heya, I'm Jack. Got two Axolotls a week ago, they're about 3" long or so and just the coolest pets I have ever owned. I did my research and found that my current 10 gallon tank would be okay for them until they start to grow so I since I saw some at the pet store I grabbed them!

Now that I've had them for a week I'm running into some issues that I hope people can help me with! I scanned the forum but I have to run to bed soon so my search wasn't that deep, so if I missed a post I'm sorry.

Feeding the little guys. I got the cubed brine shrimp and blood worm frozen food from the pet store and have been alternating feeding them that every day. I take a cube and break it in half and as it thaws I dangle it front of their mouth and they chomp it up. As it thaws pieces of the food float around and eventually get lost as the water keeps warming it up and the food breaks apart. How do you guys feed your axolotls? Should I be doing something different? They're eating but a lot of food is getting wasted around the tank and getting sucked up in the filter.

Does your water from the tank smell bad? Like really bad? How do you deal with it? Is it because my tank is small or my filter is internal? It's weird, from all the years of owning fish I never had water that stunk so bad. So I keep the lid partially off now so that the air can move around but it still smells bad, almost like cat pee. And yes there are cats in the house and no they haven't peed near there. And no they won't go in the tank!

The filter I use is an internal Cascade 300 filter with a spray bar. (http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/cainfiwispba.html) It seems to work okay, it moves the water around and aereates the water well without creating too much water movement in the tank but this is the first time I've dealt with an internal filter. I've had external power filters with all my tanks so this is new to me, I thought it would be more straight forward than it is. Should I be getting another type of filter? Bio wheel and break up the flow somehow to get water 'out' of the tank and exposed to air so the odour gets removed? Or is it just part of owning them?

Gravel. Sand. Nothing. Rocks. Turf. What the heck should I be using?! The reason I ask is because the food gets down there, gets gross and has to get vacuumed out. I'm thinking about sand now as that looks easier to clean and if my guys ingest it it won't kill them. Currently I'm using gravel that can barely fit in their mouth, and they've tried eating it to no success. I'm worried, like some fish I had, it'll get stuck in their mouth.

Sorry for the long post, but I did do some searching and probably missed some really obvious things. My fish knowledge doesn't really apply to these guys.

Thanks in advance and if you read this far you get a medal.

J

Hi Jack and welcome to the forum,

psychoboyjack said:

Thanks in advance and if you read this far you get a medal.

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hehe what kind of medal are we talking about, lol, I like shinny things.

psychoboyjack said:

Feeding the little guys. I got the cubed brine shrimp and blood worm frozen food from the pet store and have been alternating feeding them that every day. I take a cube and break it in half and as it thaws I dangle it front of their mouth and they chomp it up. As it thaws pieces of the food float around and eventually get lost as the water keeps warming it up and the food breaks apart. How do you guys feed your axolotls? Should I be doing something different? They're eating but a lot of food is getting wasted around the tank and getting sucked up in the filter.

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I have no experience feeding frozen brineshrimp but I do use frozen bloodworms. I was told to let the cube thaw out and rinse the worms. If you feed it still somewhat frozen the "liquid" mixes with your water and will foul it. I usually rinse and then feed them to my axies using tweezers, other people put them in a glass jar and drown the jar so the axies have to climb in the jar to get the worms.

psychoboyjack said:

Does your water from the tank smell bad? Like really bad? How do you deal with it? Is it because my tank is small or my filter is internal? It's weird, from all the years of owning fish I never had water that stunk so bad. So I keep the lid partially off now so that the air can move around but it still smells bad, almost like cat pee. And yes there are cats in the house and no they haven't peed near there. And no they won't go in the tank!

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No my tank doesn't smell. My guess is all that uneaten food that gets sucked up in your filter is causing your water to foul and smell.

psychoboyjack said:

The filter I use is an internal Cascade 300 filter with a spray bar. (http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/cainfiwispba.html) It seems to work okay, it moves the water around and aereates the water well without creating too much water movement in the tank but this is the first time I've dealt with an internal filter. I've had external power filters with all my tanks so this is new to me, I thought it would be more straight forward than it is. Should I be getting another type of filter? Bio wheel and break up the flow somehow to get water 'out' of the tank and exposed to air so the odour gets removed? Or is it just part of owning them?

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I see nothing wrong with this type of filter, I have read many threads and many people use them with no problem. I use an external filter with a bio wheel. I suppose it's matter of preference.

psychoboyjack said:

Gravel. Sand. Nothing. Rocks. Turf. What the heck should I be using?! The reason I ask is because the food gets down there, gets gross and has to get vacuumed out. I'm thinking about sand now as that looks easier to clean and if my guys ingest it it won't kill them. Currently I'm using gravel that can barely fit in their mouth, and they've tried eating it to no success. I'm worried, like some fish I had, it'll get stuck in their mouth.

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Gravel is a big no no as axies can ingest it and it causes a lot of problems. Sand is one of the most recommended as it is easy to clean and easily digested if swallowed. Nothing ... well aside from not being ecstatically pleasing this is another recommended option for obvious reasons, it's easy to clean a bare bottom tank and there is nothing for your axies to ingest. Rocks can be used but are messy as food and poo gets easily stuck underneath them. Turf ... well I'm really not sure about this idea so I wouldn't advise it.

I don't know whether you've had a look yet but www.axolotl.org is a great place to start. Also there are some useful articles at http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml I would suggest the one on cycling in particular (but if you've kept fish you should know about that).

Good luck with your new pets and I hope this all helped.
Eve

Hi Jack,

I would like to add a couple of cents' worth, too.

Bad smell: Cat urine smells like ammonia. Axolotls release a lot of ammonia into the water. Ammonia is toxic. There are bacteria that will process the ammonia for you but that takes time, and until then the water can quickly become poisonous. As you probably know, there is a test specifically for measuring ammonia levels. I would suggest a water change accompanied by testing the water parameters until the water smells sweet again.

Internal filter: I also have no experience with them, but I would have the concern that a motor inside the tank could heat up the aquarium? Otherwise, like Eve wrote, plenty of people use internal filters.

Substrate: Gravel that can barely fit into their mouths will probably wind up there, but it is more difficult to get out the other side of the axolotl, so your concern is justified. There are two schools of thought about bare-bottom tanks. One school says that the aquarium is easy to clean; the other says that glass does not provide any traction and this can stress the axolotls in time. Everyone is unanimous, though, about sand: it is easy to pass should an axolotl swallow some, and easy to clean by siphoning. Many people recommend using children's play sand as it is sterilized and much less expensive that sand sold specifically for aquaria. It is also possible to find aquarium sand in different colors if your aquarium is a display tank; it is only important to note not to use marine sand or beach sand.

-Eva

I'm no expert but I'll tell you a few things from my experience.

Jack said:

Feeding the little guys. I got the cubed brine shrimp and blood worm frozen food from the pet store and have been alternating feeding them that every day. I take a cube and break it in half and as it thaws I dangle it front of their mouth and they chomp it up. As it thaws pieces of the food float around and eventually get lost as the water keeps warming it up and the food breaks apart. How do you guys feed your axolotls? Should I be doing something different? They're eating but a lot of food is getting wasted around the tank and getting sucked up in the filter.

Click to expand...

I used to feed my axolotl bloodworm from the petshop.they were live and in this really really foul water they'd been living in for a while. I was away for a week and got my housemates to feed my axie, and when I came back the tank absolutely REEKED because they'd just been putting the bloodworms and the nasty yellow water they lived in straight in. The ammonia levels were very high. As such, I would recommend rinsing the brine shrimps, as madeve suggested. And I would recommend doing daily 20% water changes until the smell leaves. If you get an ammonia testing kit that would probably serve you well too. After that incident I also switched from smelly, messy blood worms to live earth worms. They're great. No mess at all! But your axies may be too little to handle an earth worm. If you're brave you could try cutting them up (I couldn't do it though!) or waiting till they're bigger. You can usually buy earthworms from fishing/bait shops.

Jack said:

The filter I use is an internal Cascade 300 filter with a spray bar. (http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/cainfiwispba.html) It seems to work okay, it moves the water around and aereates the water well without creating too much water movement in the tank but this is the first time I've dealt with an internal filter. I've had external power filters with all my tanks so this is new to me, I thought it would be more straight forward than it is. Should I be getting another type of filter? Bio wheel and break up the flow somehow to get water 'out' of the tank and exposed to air so the odour gets removed? Or is it just part of owning them?

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I use an internal filter too and it seems to do the trick. I just changed the sponge today and boy was it filthy. I wouldn't say it warms the tank, but I suppose that's a possibility... But as long as it's the right size for your tank volume it should be fine.

Jack said:

Gravel. Sand. Nothing. Rocks. Turf. What the heck should I be using?! The reason I ask is because the food gets down there, gets gross and has to get vacuumed out. I'm thinking about sand now as that looks easier to clean and if my guys ingest it it won't kill them. Currently I'm using gravel that can barely fit in their mouth, and they've tried eating it to no success. I'm worried, like some fish I had, it'll get stuck in their mouth.

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Sand! Definitely sand! I had large gravel initially, but my axie seemed so keen to try and eat it. He couldn't, he just kept bopping his nose. It also seems to hurt his belly, as when given the choice he'd never sit on the gravel. Sand is great because it provides a good surface area for bacteria to live on, and is a pale colour (mine's white) so you can see all the dirt. As long as you make sure not to get marine sand (which contains salt) it's a far better alternative to gravel or a bare bottom even, as it gives a good surface for your axolotl to grip.

Anyway as I say I'm no expert. If I'm wrong, I hope someone will correct me - I'm just saying what I've learned after my initial axolotl teething troubles

I don't know if having two axolotls in a new tank is a bad idea... But I guess they're only little.

When using play sand, be sure to rinse the sand before putting it into your tank. The best way to do this is using a bucket and stir the sand in water and pour water out and continue to do this till the water runs clear.

Wow, thanks for the informative overnight replies! This is better than UPS.

Eve_D:
- That jar idea is really good! I should try that. Though I bought some sand so if the food does float around it shouldn't be that much of a deal now, right? Since it will be on top of the sand and the Axolotls can either eat it and some sand or the filter (theoretically) pick up the junk?
- The rinsing the worms is a bit weird, but whatever it takes to make the water good.
- I cleaned the filter out too, just rinsed the sponge so all the junk was out. Smell remains, I'll keep doing water changes daily until it's gone. :|
- The filter I got is good? Good. Because I didn't see any biowheel filters at the pet store today. lol.
- I bought some "Marine Sand" that is safe for fresh water and terrariums, blahblahblah. I saw substrate too but thought I would go with what I read about. I did read a lot about them (but I'm sure you can't tell, lol.) but I wanted to see what real people use! Good to see the guides on here are accurate and not full of poo.

blueberlin:
- NOT Marine Sand that I just bought?! Ugh. Good thing I have the receipt. I saw that sand and substrate of different colours and 'bigness'. Is there a reason why Marine sand is a nono? I don't remember seeing anything about it but it's possible I missed a giant white elephant of a webpage about it.
- Erm. Salt in it. Gotcha.

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Thanks to everyone who replied, I greatly appreciate it.

Some updates:

I got some sand, as you can read above. It's Estes' Ultra Reef Marine Sand, says nothing about salt in it and says right on the bag it's safe for fresh water set ups as well - is it still a no no? What 'type' of sand should I be looking for? I'd rather get aquaria sand vs. children's sand for asthetics sake! I got 3 x 5lb bags. That should be enough for a 10 US gallon tank, right?

No one mentioned anything about my tank size so I assume it will be okay until they get bigger?

My ammonia test is going LOLPANICATTHEDISCO so I'm going to do more changing and remove the plant I got in there too and pop in a shelter I bought today for them so I can clean the water better. I feel so incompetnent with these problems. I'm no newb but this post says otherwise, heh!

Also when I do get the sand what should the process be for moving it and replacing the gravel? Should I use my spare 10 gallon tank and use that as a temp area for them until the real tank is working again? I'm tempted to cycle the whole damn tank again but don't want to leave them stressed out in a tank with a glass bottom - but that would be better? Cycle the new sand tank, have them in temp home for a few days until the tank is better? Or I could always just put a little bit of their water in the 'new' tank but then that kind of starts the old problem non with the ammonia?

Sigh. Oddly enough with all their problems they aren't exhibiting any symptoms of stress. No curled tail, no puffy gills and no spots on their body. They still have an appetite and swim around and stuff.

Again thanks in advance for all the help.

Was trying to find out more about the sand I got - it's silica sand? And supposedly alright for fresh water fish despite the label of marine sand. But I'll wait to see if someone else has experience with this brand or if I should just return it!

Hehehe, isn't all sand silica sand? If it says it's OK for fresh water, it should be. My sand was 'marine and freshwater sand' and seems to have been fine.

And don't worry TOO much about your ammonium level. All the levels will go funny until your tank has had time to cycle, especially with two axies producing waste. Just keep doing daily 20% water changes - doing so dilutes the ammonia each time without too much disturbance to the flora in there

When I changed from gravel to sand, I put my axie in a box with some of the tank water in a cool, dark place. I then put most of the aquarium water into big, 5 litre bottles. Then I picked out all the rocks from under a big of water, and poured the water away (it will be really really scummy). I washed the tank around a bit, put in the sand and then gently poured the aquarium water plus some fresh dechlorinated water back on and left it to settle. I think I've heard 24 hours mentioned, but I must admit I probably only left it 5 or 6. It's up to you to decide when the water looks clear I guess. My axie seemed fine. If you leave it 24 hours you should do at least 1 full water change of the boxes your axies are in.

Hope that's vaguely useful.
Someone will come and tell me off if I've said something wrong

sorry, but YES you should worry about your ammonia levels, ammonia is TOXIC and the levels need to be brought down immediately. As Cori said you need to be doing 20% water changes daily at least, what is your ammonia level? you may need to do an immediate 50%+ water change to bring it down followed by 20% daily, test the ammonia daily too until your tank is cycled.

Too much ammonia can kill a tough fish, let alone an axie which breathes through it's skin as well as it's gills. Axolotls can get REALLY bad ammonia burns.

Hi Jonathan,

The other issue with Marine sand is the presence of shell fragments which can harden your water altering your Ph level.