<--- Not an Anglo Saxon. Now where were we? Oh yes. Axolotls.
Well, there are many schools of thought regarding how one ought to lay out an axolotl's tank. Some say plants are great. Personally I feel they're more trouble than they are worth in an axolotl tank. Unless you have a very large tank with very good substrate, plants tend not to last long with axolotls. The exceptions would be very tough plants but those are usually slow growing and they tend to grow in isolation within a tank - no backdrop of greenery or jungle for the axolotl to climb through.
Regarding tank size, bigger is always better of course but axolotls seem to thrive equally well in very small tanks as they do in very large ones, provided water quality is assured by a diligent owner.
Someone mentioned cycling tanks and how drastic changes of water will severely disrupt the balance. This is true. However with a small axolotl tank ("2 foot" tank or smaller), there's a lot to be said for regularly removing all of the water and replacing it with fresh dechlorinated water. Axolotls put out an incredible amount of nitrogenous waste and this has a very large impact on water quality in small tanks. Having a good nitrogen cycle established in an axolotl tank is somewhat of a contradiction in terms, unless the tank is large and/or has a fantastic filter.
I read Paul-Mark Root's comment with some bemusement. Such a generalisation could be seen as offensive. How's that for irony. The simple fact of the matter is that many of the people on this forum are young and many don't have the sensibilities that usually only come from experience. We have exceptional young people here too so please excuse
my generalisation
.
To everyone in the thread, and indeed on the forum, I say debate is healthy - if we all agreed then we would have a lot of dead newts and salamanders.
