Juvie Axolotls

[tran]

Beautiful Axolotls Tran!
It makes me want to get more.

The more the merrier eh?

Im glad to see your little guys are doing great, they hatched 2 weeks before thanksgiving.

Hi Rick! Credit goes to you for breeding these guys. I highly recommend Rick to anyone looking for axolotls. Based on this information, that would make them almost 12 weeks old. Thanks again for the babies!

 

[Kaysie]

Just to reiterate everyone else, gorgeous little axies! Makes me jealous. And I have 70 of 'em. lol.

 

[Andrew51]

Wow Maya and Ginger look stunning, and the gills on the melanoid are a gorgeous plum colour. Congratulations!

 

[Velaria]

These axies hatched 2 weeks before Thanksgiving and they're 3-4" long?? Mine hatched on November 6 (which would be THREE weeks before Thanksgiving) and my largest ones are only about an inch and a half long!! Am I doing something wrong?

I have each baby living alone in its own tupperware container. I do daily water changes and I feed each baby one bloodworm per day. The bloodworms are big, and I'm surprised that the babies can even eat one whole bloodworm. Am I feeding them too little? Is the container too small? Help please?

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi Valeria,

I like how you are approaching things. Clearly, carefully and methodically.

I think it is an excellent idea housing each axolotl alone so you can monitor their feeding and also observe their development. I also like how you take the photo with a ruler for comparison.

Performing daily water changes is also excellent. Just make sure you use clean dechlorinated water and if possible also monitor your water chemistry just to be doubly safe. (0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites <60 nitrates, neutral pH). Also keep them in a cool shaded place away from direct light.

The tupperware looks about 4-5 inches. Looking at your axie, it is alright for the time being. However axies grow really rapidly and you should start making preparations for a bigger tank/container soon if not now.

The younger an axie is, the more frequently they need to be fed. I would think 1 bloodworm per day is a bit too little. You may like to up the frequency and amount of feed. Try offering your axie babies some more food and just remove any uneaten food after 10-15min. Bloodworms are nutritious and is a good choice of feed.

Cheers

 

[rick]

I keep mine together and feed them live black worms at least 3 times a day on weekdays and even more on weekends when Im home all day and I change their water every other day because they seem to get more stressed if its every day. I hope what little info i gave you helps.

 

[tran]

First off, thanks Kaysie and Andrew for your nice comments!

@ Valaria, I agree 1 bloodworm per day is too little. You'd be surprised at how much they can eat (I know I was). When I got them from Rick and they were about 2 inches long I fed them about 5-10 blackworms (much larger than bloodworms) a day which I drop from tweezers so I can monitor how much they eat. When they are reaching 3 inches they ate 10-20 blackworms a day. Pretty much if they are still eating within 15-20 minutes of feeding, keep feeding them! And then stop after that time period has passed.

Here is a video of us feeding Maya, if you're interested :wacko: (in the video, we cut out a lot so that is only about half of what she ate...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTFSML867iE

Although I dont think there is anything wrong per se with a slow-growing axolotl. But the general thought (at least from the Ambystroma Genetic Stock Center) is that they are susceptible to disease (and cannabalism) at a young age, and so you should feed them as much as possible to get them to grow up quickly.

Right now my "kids" are each more than 4 inches long and they eat a whole cube of defrosted bloodworms a day (sometimes with additional blackworms afterwards). They are big but their body's width are still the size of their heads. But they are growing so fast I have to keep buying new containers lol

Good luck with your little ones Valaria. Your wee axie is very pretty by the way.

 

[Darkmaverick]

What an excellent way to share your axolotl care tips Tran!

The video itself is very educational. Thank you.

Cheers.

 

[Velaria]

You guys have been so helpful! Thanks so much, I will definitely start feeding them more. I had no idea they ate so much!!

One thing, though. I change their water every day because every day, I find poop in the water! So if I feed them more, then they're going to be pooping even more, which tells me that I should definitely change their water at least once a day, because who wants to live in poopy water, you know?

So Rick, if you're only changing their water every other day, then isn't there a lot of poop in the water? Is that ok?

Tran, your axies are gorgeous (my favorite is the melanoid) and I'm HOPING that my melanoids turn out as beautiful as yours. Congratulations!

 

[tran]

Velaria, have you tried siphoning out the poop with a turkey baster or a large pipette (whichever you can get your hands on)? If you just suck up the poop and dispose of it before it disintegrates then the water quality is not bad at all, in my limited experience.

Also I saw your melanoid axolotl on another thread and I have to say he is beautiful Your leucistic girl with the extra fingers is such a fighter, I hope she regrows those gill feathers. Best wishes.

 

[Velaria]

Thanks, Tran! Yeah, I love that black one. He looks like velvet.

So a couple months back, I posted a thread here because my babies were getting very sick. Thankfully, all of them survived, but what happened was that I was only doing partial water changes and siphoning out the poop with a pipette, and a few of them had (for lack of a better diagnosis) tail rot. The ends of their tails literally seemed to be disintegrating! So I took the advice of people on the forums and began doing 100% water changes every day, and the babies returned to full health very quickly. I was, at the time, feeding them baby brine shrimp, so perhaps the shrimp (or a few random shrimp egg casings that got into the water by mistake) fouled the water moreso than axolotl poop would? I don't know what exactly it was that made their water so bad.

At any rate, I guess I'm "poopaphobic" now, and I don't want them to get sick again. So you guys think that 100% water changes every other day would suffice as long as I siphoned the poop out between water changes?

By the way, I just fed each one of them about 10 bloodworms, and they ate them all! They all have bulging brown little tummies now, so I thank you all very much, and the baby axies thank you too

 

[Kerry1968]

Hey Tran, It must've taken you ages to feed each baby by hand with the tweezers! That shows dedication! I feed mine with small earthworms, they vary in size from around 1" to 4" (about 2 - 11cm) perhaps it's because I just drop the worms in and it's a free-for-all! I think the smallest one, recently named Mini, is probably not pushy enough to get it's fair share of worms!