Inquiry

[Kendra01]

Soooo my tank has fully cycled and we just added lil guppy in yesterday... He’s so much more active then he was in his tub. However, I noticed at night time he runs across the tank and then makes a break for the water filter. He likes to sit between the glass and the tube for the sponge filter.. So he rests ontop of the actual sponge. I don’t really know if that’s just his thing or what... I also half a silk plant that he puts on his tummy and literally just lets his legs dangle off the sides, will that hurt his slime coat at all? He eats like a pig and there’s no obvious signs of stress I was just wondering if anyone else’s axolotls have a weird obsession with their water filters. He constantly runs back and forth to swim up to the water filter, falls off after a minute and repeats. Is this his way of having fun or entertaining himself?

 

[Axolou]

One of my axies loves to hang out by our filter intake too, I think maybe he just likes the gentle sucking feeling - not sure, but he's a happy healthy little one anyway - just really dumb and no spatial awareness. What is your tank setup like? do you have enough hides and dark undercover areas for him to rest on/under? It could be that he just feels safe by it or just loves the activity - axolotls are quite strange in their habits.

As for the silk plant - my other axie loves to sit on plants and I think it's just a different feeling for them than being on the ground most of the time, it shouldn't cause any problems to your axie and will probably be better than straight up plastic plants anyway. If you're worried, just keep an eye on him, it's usually quite easy to see/tell when they have damage. If you notice plants are something he really loves, you could always switch to live plants. Anubias and java fern are perfect axie plants, soft and supportive enough to hold them up, and they are also beneficial in nutrients and stuff for the water.

Feeding: axolotls are far hungrier and will need feeding more often if the temperature in the tank is quite high. As the temp decreases, so will their metabolism and hence less greed - not saying this as a solution though without knowing the temp of your tank. Also, I think they are just generally quite greedy creatures. What do you feed him and how often? What's the temperature of your tank?

 

[Kendra01]

Hi there thanks for the reply! I feed guppy a full european night crawler every two days and i between days i give him a couple pellets to tie him over. My tank is maintained between 14-16°C

 

[Kendra01]

This is what hit tanksetup looks like you can see him running for the air filter in the back lol

 

[Axolou]

Ah, that's a lovely little image. If he seems like he's running for the filter because he's hiding or he's shy, you could always chuck in another hide (PVC or ceramic pipe, coconut hide, etc) as more cover around the front left of the tank where there's a lot of space. To be honest though, he's probably just a bit weird like mine haha. Also, don't be afraid to turn up the temperature a degree or two, 14 degrees is by no means bad but it is on the low side. Looks like a great set up though