Axolotls with big goldfish temporarily

[NiaCas]

*sigh* After all the research I've done I feel like this is a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway.

Someone near me is selling some axolotls that are ready to find homes now. Two of them are pretty perfect. A perfect melanoid, all black with great red gills and a leucistic with no spots, both probably male though not sure how the guy figured that out so early. I asked the guy if he would hold them for a couple weeks until my tank is finished cycling and he said yes, but he emailed me today and said he decided he doesn't have room. He won't even accept prepayment. I'm only about halfway through cycling. Could I put these axies in my 55 gallon goldfish tank for a couple weeks? There are four goldfish in there and 7 shad minnows (btw, can axies eat those? because that would be AWESOME), it's a bare bottom tank, and the smallest goldfish is as big as the axolotls (about 6 inches). I've had the goldfish for a while and they've never bothered anything I've put in there - even the stuff they were supposed to eat! They seemed to befriend the shrimp I put in there for them to snack on. They've been in with other small fish and done nothing and they don't even nibble at the plants I have in there (some of which they were also supposed to eat lol) so I don't think they'll nip at the axies gills.

I know the general consensus here is to not put axies in with anything unless it's on the list of approved fish they can eat like guppies, white cloud minnows, and shrimp (I already have those in a 10 gallon) but do you think they'll be ok for just a couple weeks? If not, is there a better solution or should I just wait and try to find a pair of axies like them somewhere else?

 

[smiley1996]

If you deseprately want those Axies then by all means have them.
Put them in the tank they are meant to be going in but because you havent finished cycling your tank do 80% water changes every day and habe a routine for checking your water parameters (nitrites0 nitrates under 40 ammonia 0 once the readings state them figures the cycling is complete ) ... there is ways around the cycling situation but its just best if the axie has their tank cycled in the beginning but not going to lie when I got mine I thought I did all the research I needed and the day I brought the axie is the day he went in his tank. Obviously I know alot more about the species and needs now but I guess everyone makes mistakes she's now very happy abd hasnt been ill once *touch wood* I'm not the only one I know others in this forum who have had the same situation but all you can do and MUST do is keep ontop of water parameters get a liquid testing kit and 80% water changes daily goodluck!
P.s a bigger mistake would of been putting them in with the goldfish never do that haha!

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[auntiejude]

Fish + axies = NO!

At the very least you would need to quarantine the axies before putting thm in - which takes as long as cycling anyway.

If you need to take your axies sooner than you'd really like you can keep them in plastic tubs or buckets with large daily water changes until your tank is cycled, or you can do a fish-in cycle if you're careful.

Large fish WILL injure your axies. Small fish WILL be eaten. Don't do it.

 

[Azhael]

If you deseprately want those Axies then by all means have them.
Put them in the tank they are meant to be going in but because you havent finished cycling your tank do 80% water changes every day and habe a routine for checking your water parameters (nitrites0 nitrates under 40 ammonia 0 once the readings state them figures the cycling is complete ) ... there is ways around the cycling situation but its just best if the axie has their tank cycled in the beginning but not going to lie when I got mine I thought I did all the research I needed and the day I brought the axie is the day he went in his tank. Obviously I know alot more about the species and needs now but I guess everyone makes mistakes she's now very happy abd hasnt been ill once *touch wood* I'm not the only one I know others in this forum who have had the same situation but all you can do and MUST do is keep ontop of water parameters get a liquid testing kit and 80% water changes daily goodluck!
P.s a bigger mistake would of been putting them in with the goldfish never do that haha!

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That´s terrible advice :S

If you can´t currently provide adequate conditions for the axolotls, do the right thing and wait until you do. Putting your desires before the well-being of the animals is negligent and cruel. Mixing axolotls with goldfish is trully a terrible idea and so is acquiring animals on a whim when you aren´t ready for them.
If the tank is not cycled, doing 80% water changes will guarantee that it never happens...

As Judie has said, you could keep the axies in large plastic containers (go as big as possible since the larger the volume the better). If the volume is large enough you don´t need to do water changes larger than 20%, but regardless the best way to ensure that conditions are adequate in an uncycled container is to have huge amounts of live plants. They will do the job of an stablished bacterial colony.

Anyway the best option is definitely waiting for another opportunity. Read until your eyes bleed in the mean time, make sure you have everything ready, cycled tank, food cultures if necessary, and that you know so much about axolotls that your friends and family can´t stand your company.

 

[smiley1996]

That´s terrible advice :S

If you can´t currently provide adequate conditions for the axolotls, do the right thing and wait until you do. Putting your desires before the well-being of the animals is negligent and cruel. Mixing axolotls with goldfish is trully a terrible idea and so is acquiring animals on a whim when you aren´t ready for them.
If the tank is not cycled, doing 80% water changes will guarantee that it never happens...

As Judie has said, you could keep the axies in large plastic containers (go as big as possible since the larger the volume the better). If the volume is large enough you don´t need to do water changes larger than 20%, but regardless the best way to ensure that conditions are adequate in an uncycled container is to have huge amounts of live plants. They will do the job of an stablished bacterial colony.

Anyway the best option is definitely waiting for another opportunity. Read until your eyes bleed in the mean time, make sure you have everything ready, cycled tank, food cultures if necessary, and that you know so much about axolotls that your friends and family can´t stand your company.

I didnt say it was the best either I said its a last minute thing.
Not many people know what they are doing and thats qhat happens yet till this day their axies are very healthy.
I never said for this person to definitely do it ive learnt from my mistake but clearly if other peoples axies including my own are doing fine because we went the right way around it like doing 80% water changes etc then no its clearly not terrible advice.
Qhats terrible is the pet stores nit knowing what they are doing with these animals and selling this way.
The amount of people doing it this way increases all the time!
I find it sort of rude that you've gone about my comment this way when I knew what I thought was needed for my beauty at the beginning and thankyou to the people on this forum I now know alot more!
Its to do with learning! You cant criticise what people say if they arent actually telling people to do it as a first option. I was stating that was my mistake and no doubt plebty others and if nothing else could be done then that could be a last option. But thankyou for your input

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[Azhael]

"If you deseprately want those Axies then by all means have them. "

That sounds a hell of a lot like "yeah, definitely do it if you really want those axolotls". That´s the sentence that i think is terrible advice. I don´t care if it´s a last minute thing, it´s bad advice.
Well, that and proposing that 80% daily water changes are the thing to do when cycling a tank, when that´s exactly the kind of thing that will prevent the cycling process from ocurring at all and will even reset an already fully cycled tank to zero.

I´m sorry you found it rude, but i bet you would have found it ruder if i had given you bad rep. which is what others would have done for such bad advice. I didn´t want to do that, but i also wanted to be really clear about how bad your advice was in this particular post, for the sake of NiaCas and others who might read it.

 

[smiley1996]

You clearly understood nothing about where I was going with my post.
Yes I said by all means have them, however there was other ways arpund it. This was an open thread and auntiejude gave some advice I didnt even think of so yes by all means have them and do what auntiejude said. Sorry you got so affected by one sentence thay you clearly thought I was saying do it and put them in a tank that hadnt been tampered witj as a first option. Like I said I learnt from my mistake and using it as an example its wrong way to do things but as said before I didnt tell this threads host to do it.
80% water changes is what I got told and have read that would be best for an un cycled tank for ammonia purposes nitrites nitrates etc. Sorry if thats wrong but only passing on other info that ove been told that know no different but to claim its right. On ither posts that I have said 80% water changes not once have I been corrected adding to the reason as to keep saying it.

But its fine il delete the post if its so atrocious and such terrible bad life threatening to the axies advice

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[Elise]

Don't forget that if you decide on temporary holding them in a plastic container, you need meet the temperature requirements for axolotls. A stable 12C-16C with temperature matched water changes.

You should also consider asking the seller for some filter media from the axolotl tank to help complete your cycling process.