First ever Axie :) Help please!

[LlamaPanda92]

So I bought my new axolotl just under a week ago and i have a few questions..

1) He doesnt seem to be eating much...I bought pellets at the shop but i havent actually seen him eat any...a few just sit at the bottom of the tank (which i remove once its clear he wont eat them) Im thinking of getting some blood worms from the same shop since thats what they were feeding them. is this a good idea?

2) my tank seems to not drop below 22 degrees during the day even after trying ice cubes. i know it shouldnt go higher then 24 but how can i cool it any other way?

3)Its normal for them to swim around the tank during the day right?

These are probably silly questions that have already been answered but I really want to treat my Axie well so he stays alive! Any help would be great

 

[lea]

firstly congrats on the axie...now some answers
the best food for a axies is the good old earthworm, you can get them from your garden or buy them from a shop(this is what i do). I also fed mine pellets and bloodworms as a treat.

With cooling you should be ok at the moment with winter coming but in summer you would are best buying a chiller so start saving your money and get on ebay and score yourself a chiller before summer gets here.
Yes they can swim around during the day but frantic swimming can be a sign of stress so just keep an eye on him. I would check the water parameters just to be safe

There is no silly question. We all had to start at the beginning.

 

[lea]

Can tell us about your tank? do you have gravel or sand? how big is the tank? do you hides for him?

 

[LlamaPanda92]

Thanks for responding! Ill definatly start saving now. I have aircondition in my room (thats where the tank is) should that also be ok for summer?

My tank is a 20 L tank (a bit small) and has gravel. The stones are about 1cm. Theres a small plant and a fake plant near the corner of the tank that he seems to enjoy hiding behind, but not sure if i should buy a log or some sort of other hiding place

 

[Jossie]

OK, get rid of that gravel.
The sooner the better.
If it's smaller than an axie mouth it will get eaten and it can kill your axie.

He should have at least one hiding place, two is best, but your tank size is going to restrict this.
They like the dark, so little caves would be good.

Your tank is rather small, the general rule is 10 gallons per axie, and yours is only roughly 6 gallons.

You have loads of time to worry about and prepare for summer, just focus on getting him settled and eating again.

(Sorry Lea for cutting in.
I seem to have joined the anti-gravel 'wemusttellthenewpersonasap' squad :/ )

 

[LlamaPanda92]

Really? I read somewhere that they can usually pass gravel with no problems? Also the lady at the shop i got him from said it was fine =/ but shall definatly look into the sand.
Thanks for your help

P.S also there more like smallish pebbles. They still bad?

 

[Kaysie]

No offense to the lady at the shop, but they don't know everything. And in reality, she's a shop owner; her job is to sell you things.

Axolotls cannot pass gravel easily. They can become impacted and this can lead to death. You need either a substrate that is quite small (like sand), or with particles that are bigger than your axolotl's head.

Check out The Axolotl Site to get you started.

 

[Jossie]

P.S also there more like smallish pebbles. They still bad?

From what I've read a bare bottom tank is better than having any small pebbles, they might be ok, but it's better safe than sorry.
They can pass sand easily because it's tiny. The pebbles might be small to you, but to an axie they're large enough to hurt. Imagine if you ate a rock half the size of your mouth that was just small enough to swallow.
I've read that if you want gravel/pebbles it's best to get them bigger than 2cm, which can be rather expensive.
You'd be better off buying children's play sand from Bunnings (I believe it costs about $9 for a lot of sand), and washing it very very very well to get rid of any nasties. The sand should be no more than, from memory, 2cm in depth because it causes build up of toxic materials.

Pet shop people tend not to know how to deal with more 'exotic' pets.
I've watched my friend's fish pick up a pebble swim around with it in its mouth and spit it out again when it realises that it isn't tasty.
Axies on the other hand are like little vacuum cleaners- they such the food and whatever he food is on up.


I just noticed you were dropping ice in.
When you do this you need to make sure you've used whatever you use to declorinate/condition the water in your tank first, so it doesn't change the concentrations in your tank.
Also doing this can be a bit stressful for your axie as the water temp keeps changing.