5 Axies, 1 tank.

[electronfusion]

wow. some of these set-ups are extremely generous.

i do wonder though, at what point it stops making a difference to the axolotls?

obviously in the wild they would have nearly limitless space, but how much of that space would they actually utilize, and how much does it effect their happiness, especially when they don't have to search for their food? for a lot of species this 'ideal' size has basically been calculated. it would be interesting to see the matter studied, especially since this species now pretty much lives entirely in captivity.

with my pets i try really hard to consider environmental sustainability as well as their needs. i figure i use massive amounts more water than the average person with all my aquatic pets, and they don't contribute to a food web, or oxygen production, or anything but their own existence and my enjoyment of them. so providing them with the amount of space they need without too much excess is my way of ensuring i'm not causing some other organism to lose its habitat by raising mine.

wow, i hope this message isn't a total downer. not meant to be. just some food for thought.

 

[Shizeric]

I understand, but rest assured, I have taken "environmental sustainability" into consideration as well. To counteract the extra water I use caring for my animals, I only take 1 shower a week. Further more, I do not brush my teeth nor do I drink water. In fact, I have even dumped a great deal of toxins into the local resevoir, to prevent people from using the water and therefor wasting it. I know I'm just 1 person, so it doesn't make too much of a difference....but I like to feel like I'm actually doing something for mother Earth.


But seriously...when you mention whether or not an Axolotl would benefit from a tank that large, the main reason I would want to invest in such a large take for that many axies would be to prevent aggression and allow for many many areas to be used as hides. My tank currently (3 ft long) has 2 very large pieces of driftwood that provide cover, and if I were to get a tank twice this size, I would use the same type of setup, just with more driftwood.

In the long run, I believe 1 large tank would be much more environmentally friendly than several smaller. I currently have a 30 gallon, 37 gallon, 10 gallon, and 20 gallon all being lit and filtered. 2 of the tanks are housing plants, while 2 are housing Axolotls. If I could condense all these tanks down to 1, I would be cutting down on my electricity with the same amount of water being consumed.

This seems like a really long post but I feel I should explain my point of view.

 

[melfly]

I understand, but rest assured, I have taken "environmental sustainability" into consideration as well. To counteract the extra water I use caring for my animals, I only take 1 shower a week. Further more, I do not brush my teeth nor do I drink water. In fact, I have even dumped a great deal of toxins into the local resevoir, to prevent people from using the water and therefor wasting it. I know I'm just 1 person, so it doesn't make too much of a difference....but I like to feel like I'm actually doing something for mother Earth.


.

:rofl::rofl:

Pretty!! lol

Mel

 

[dragonlady]

@Shizeric - lol, lol!!!

@electronfusion - How are we harming the water cycle through our pets' maintenance? Where does our used water go? However your water system works, wherever you are, I believe the water does eventually return to the Earth. Therefore, rejoining the water cycle.

If you are truly bothered by what you believe you are doing to the environment with the normal maintenance of your pets, perhaps you should reconsider your continuance of pet keeping at all. For if you feel the necessity to minimize your pet's comfort level then who is really suffering? Not meant to be a downer, just more food for thought.

 

[electronfusion]

I understand, but rest assured, I have taken "environmental sustainability" into consideration as well. To counteract the extra water I use caring for my animals, I only take 1 shower a week. Further more, I do not brush my teeth nor do I drink water. In fact, I have even dumped a great deal of toxins into the local resevoir, to prevent people from using the water and therefor wasting it. I know I'm just 1 person, so it doesn't make too much of a difference....but I like to feel like I'm actually doing something for mother Earth.

If you are truly bothered by what you believe you are doing to the environment with the normal maintenance of your pets, perhaps you should reconsider your continuance of pet keeping at all. For if you feel the necessity to minimize your pet's comfort level then who is really suffering?

Um, ouch!? Again, I didn't mean to attack anyone's habits. Sorry if I came off as abrasive.

About the water: at least where I live, and I think over a lot of the country, what comes out of our water treatment plants still has been shown to contain high concentrations of artificial estrogens from plastics, as well as prescription drugs like birth control and cardiac meds, which DO effect wildlife. And whatever water we use is pulled from the clean natural supply and mixed in with our "used" supply with all the chemicals. So water does go back into nature, but not the way it came out to start with.

That said, consolidating water and equipment into one tank probably is more efficient. There are probably a lot of ways to be more efficient. I was offering one. Shizeric, I might consider trying yours also.

Dragonlady, I don't "feel the need to minimize your [my] pet's comfort level" one bit. My two adult axolotls are both larger, healthier, and conceivably much happier than when I got them, as are all of my pets.

Getting back to my original point (independent of any individual person's set-up)- there must be a point of diminishing returns for the space given to axolotls, as there is with every other species. The widest known data on this is from the former Indiana University Axolotl Colony, which ran for decades, kept axolotls in individual buckets of a few liters each, and reported lifespans of around 15 years. I wonder if any major institutions will study the lifespan-to-space correlation further?