I love the lighting in these pics It just makes them stand out so much better! Also love to see that other peoples' melanoids also have slightly paler bellies - Toothless is a little paler on hers too, I was wondering if it was normal. Got to love seeing big healthy frondy gills!
I hope to post Toothless on here when I can. She's really little and needs to grow her gills too but she's already got so much character!
Axolotls follow the food source. If you feed pellets or other food on the bottom they will hang about there if they are hungry. If you add frogs or fish that hang about under/on the surface thats where you will find a hungry axolotl. It is surprising to see what an active predator they can be when they have larger live foods in their tank, they are not just an ambush predator, they cruise around searching for food, then drift towards their target and lunge when it is within range. If you look at a wild type axolotl you will see its belly is often lighter than the rest of it, this is a common adaption to break up an animals silhouette to avoid predation from below it, which indicates they are not just bottom feeders.