First time Axolotl owner

[sammie68]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time Axolotl owner. We've had our axolotl (Taco) for just under a week now.

I originally bought him for my young son (who still thinks that Taco is his but his really mine now since I am becoming more and more attached to him each day lol)

Anyway he seems to be doing fine and the boys and I really enjoying digging up fresh earthworms from the backyard to feed him. (I am certain that where we are getting the worms from has not been in contact with any chemicals, you just have to look at the amount of weeds and bindis in my yard and you can be sure that the ground has never been anywhere near chemical ! lol). So this brings me to my question, ; at the pet shop, the lady there told me to only feed him one earthworm a day and she gave me pellets and said to only give them to him every second day. So far Taco has only been eating earthworms, he will not even look at the pellets. Is it OK to be feeding him earthworms only at this stage ? Also this morning he ate 4 fresh earthworms although they were small, the other earthworms were rather fat and big and took him a little while to swallow down. I would like to vary his diet and make sure he is getting everything he needs from his food. Will he get what he needs from earthworms alone and if not what else can I supplement him with ?

Another question - can anyone tell from the attached pictures if I'm right when I say Taco is a golden albino ?

I also have a million questions about my tank set up but I will post those in the relevant section.

Thanks for your advice and time, very much appreciated, thank you.

 

[yellowpebble]

Hi! I have an axolotl called Taco too, she is black.

He is definitely a golden albino, and what a golden! he is so yellow.

Earthworms are a great diet for them, and provide everything they need. You do not need to supplement or vary it, although you can offer him treats occasionally of fresh meat, garden snails (without shell), slugs, feeder fish, shrimp or bloodworm.

While pellets are also a nutritionally complete option, from experience once an axolotl eats worms they will never look at pellets the same again. They must not be as tasty. If you wanted to get him to eat the pellets, he will after a few days of no worms from being so hungry. Also soaking them is meant to make them more palatable.

Some people who farm worms say putting egg shells in their food provides them, and the axolotl with more calcium, which can't hurt. Making a worm farm is a great activity for kids, and means you will have a never ending supply of axolotl food and garden fertiliser, and disposal for kitchen waste. You can also supplement the worms how you wish, however they are usually just fine normally.

 

[shells]

Welcome.

Taco looks lovely :happy:

Earthworms are definitely the best thing to feed Taco, they contain all the nutrients they could want.... When the worms in your garden run out you could start a worm farm, Im sure that something the boys would also love.

Its hard to tell how long Taco is from the pictures, this would help determine how much to feed him. Some I know won't eat anymore when they've had enough, we as some (like mine) would eat till he exploded!!

As for colouring, I'm not that exprienced so I will leave that up to someone else.

Enjoy your new addition

 

[sammie68]

Thank you both so much, for the great advice. I love the idea about starting a worm farm and I think the boys and I will get onto that this weekend. As for the egg shells, I have heard the same thing so I will give that a go as well.

Also if Taco is happy with earthworms then so am I lol.

 

[blackdog]

Good to see -

* A healthy specimen having been sold from a shop (good weight, nice gills, no missing limbs) i dont even have to be told to know it was a good set up at the shop
* Good advice been given from the shop re food (and even set up, seeing i can see a hide and no substrate there in the pics)
* A new owner who obviously researched BEFORE you bought the bloody thing home (that gets me annoyed every time grrr)

Good job!

I feed earthworms & pellets and have some feeder minnows and guppies in the tank.

I only feed my guys (full grown) every 2-3 days, and i simply toss the pellets in these days. The very few they leave behind i scoop out. The feeder fish are very very good at avoiding my guys, and we only lose a few fish in the first few days usually (then they work out - top of tank good, bottom of tank bad)

Well done all round to you!

you didn't mention anything about cycling the tank? I can assume then you either know everything about cycling a tank, or you know absolutely nothing about cycling a tank

So, if you know, again well done keep doing what you are doing.

If you have no idea what i'm talking about then search for "nitrogen cycle" here in the forum (top menu) or google. It's a pretty easy thing to get your head around with a little research.

Bren

 

[sammie68]

Hi Bren,

Thanks again for great advice and yes the pet shop I use is better than others I've seen that's for sure. Taco was kept in a small tank by himself in a section of the shop reserved for axolotls. My boys and I chose him because we liked him as soon as we saw him, he was swimming around and putting his face right against the glass, my boys were convinced he was smiling at them lol.

As for cycling the tank, I know a little about it but I'm no expert by any means. What I do know is that it can take close to a month or longer to let it cycle properly and before we added Taco I checked ph and ammonia, both were good. As for nitrate and nitrite I've yet to get my hands on a kit for those, so I'm fixing that this weekend or sooner if possible.

 

[xxianxx]

Be carefull about feeding wild caught invertebrates, worms are generally considered safe as long as they are from a chemically free area however slugs eat (literally!) all kinds of ****, their guts are loaded with nasties. Slugs are often quoted as being a good snack for axolotls but i personaly wouldnt let one anywhere near my guys.

 

[sammie68]

Be carefull about feeding wild caught invertebrates, worms are generally considered safe as long as they are from a chemically free area

Thanks Ian, the worms we have been feeding him have come straight from the backyard where I have never used pesticides or other chemicals, however a good point was made to me about neighbours using chemicals which I never thought of. So I'm going to go to our local store and buy some worms just to be on the safe side. Also I'm going to look into keeping my own worms or making a worm farm, I know the kids will love it.

Thanks for your advice, greatly appreciated.

 

[Icarez]

Thats indeed one bright little bugger

The only thing I didn't read about is your tankbottom
Only glass is good, don't worry about that, but it's said sand is the very best option
Just a fine seasand for example.
They can live without, but glass is hard to get a grip on, it's like a dog running on laminate

I just moved my axies from big stones onto sand, and they really dig it not into it, but they seem very playfull and I sometimes catch them doing a sprint across the tank now

Good luck with your axie
Cheers