Axolotls in trashquariums

[Lotl]

Hello everyone.
Back to the first sunny days of June, I discovered an accidental clutch of our favorite animals' eggs in the aquarium. As I was due to leave some time later, I did not know what to do. Confused, and guilt-ridden, I gently poured the eggs and first youngsters into a small water bin outdoors, knowing, or supposing, that it was an indirect way of culling them after all. The clutch was bad, a lot of eggs had mold and a high mortality spread among the young.

So now, I'm in front of the trash bin in my garden, and stands startled before the microfauna developing in the muddy water. I'm curious. So I have a try with the fishnet. Nothing. Of course. I feel a bit disappointed, but I know I was not likely to find something. Last try. WAAAAAT? A huge baby lotl of a month old, fat, wild, beautiful. Ok, only one, but, I think that sometimes, it is better to let Nature do its work. This one had survived the cold beginning of this summer in Eastern France and will soon be fully developed. He is even much larger than some of his older siblings...



This post is mostly meant to remember that an aquarium is something MIMICKING Nature, but only mimicking it.

So put your baby lotls in the bin next summer and go for it !
Cheers !

W.G.

 

[Quentari]

Holy ****! I think you and he were meant to be?

 

[Lotl]

He his so cute. And he seems healthy. It could be cool to exchange points of view on keeping lotls outdoors all year round. What sort of food (fish, crustaceans, bugs) to have in a pond as a sustainable food source.

 

[auntiejude]

He's probably survived on larvae from flies and mosquitoes, daphnia and other little pond critters.

Can I give you a name for him? Stig. There is a famous book about a man who lives wild in an old quarry and trash dump - Stig of the Dump by Clive King.

 

[Lotl]

Very witty ! He thus shall be named that way

 

[Niels D]

I put my larvae of T.dobrogicus outside each year as well. I'm using a plastic container with metal netting over the opening to keep predatory animals out of it. Flies and mosquitoes can reach the water surface to drop their eggs though. Dragonflies can't get through. I still have to feed them, because I don't want them to go too much "cannibalistic" on eachother, but not as much as I would have to if they were standing inside.

 

[Petersgirl]

Some people apparently do keep their axolotls in ponds year round

Stig is really sweet! What a trooper.