Established Tank

[Foxylady]

I have a friend who is selling a very established tank , this tank has been established for around 5 years and is a picture. At the moment it houses three small fish and two medium fish and its at least a metre in length.
If i was to buy this tank would it be safe to introduce the axolotl straight away ? If not what procedures would i have to go through in order to introduce him safely to the tank ?

 

[Kal El]

Foxylady,

The size of the tank is perfectly fine and you can have at least two axolotls in there. Regarding, the term 'established' do you mean that the tank contains water already and has the filter (if any) been through the nitrogen cycle? Basically, has the tank been cycled? If not, then I'm afraid you will have to start from scratch. That being, you will have to cycle your tank and then introduce your axolotl. Here is a link to an article that has a detailed discussion on cycling:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

However, even if the tank has already been cycled (and contains water of course! ) you should ask whether your friend's fish had any previous diseases because you don't want to introduce your axolotl into a contaminated zone. If your friend's fish did have diseases, I'm not so sure how long the pathogens would continue to persist in the tank. But just to be on the safe side, I would thoroughly wash the whole tank with sodium bicarbonate including the ornaments and so forth.

Jay.

 

[Foxylady]

Thank you for that information, i know the tank has been cycled well but thanks for making me think about the fish diseases as that had completely escaped my thoughts I did think the possibilities of introducing him trouble free would be a bit optimistic !