New Axolotl owner ( need advice)

[Sherleelee]

Ok so my husband and I have been wanting an axolotl for quite some time and for v-day he decided that instead of flowers and chocolates that i would rather a tank and fish ( he knows me so well lol) I currently am a betta fanatic i own 4 tanks with 5 soon to be 6 bettas all up so i know a decent amount about fish keeping.So i was gonna just get the 60 liter tank and set it up and cycle it before i got the axie but a week after cycling started the husband and i went to the pet store to get something for my bettas and he went to the axie tank and saw one that he instantly fell in love with ( when my husband shows ne good emotion towards a fish i take it lol) it and asked me if there was any possible way we could take this lil guy home ( i belive him to be an adolacent) i thought for a bit and remberd the pet shop girl tellin me about something called Stability and how it makes it able to allow fish to be in the tank from the get go b4 the tank has started the cycling process ( i wanted to avoid this to be safe) and thought well if i do water changes of about 25% a day while using this it should be ok. so we did just that. So its been 6 days since we brought him home and the 1st few days he ate like a lil pig ( we where only feeding him meal works par what the pet store chick said to). Past couple of days i have been a bit worried though the plants in my tank are dieing and i dont understand why, the tank is cloudy. my ammonia is at about .25 right now and no nitrite yet. He hasnt eated in 3days and we even bought him ( after much reserch) frozen beef heart and still nothing. He doesnt show any signs for stress. So im just wondering if what we have done is ok. All advice would be great. If you all think that putting him in a temp tank till i get the main tank cycled will be best i do have the money to get a 25 liter as a temp. Here is a pic of him. We named him bubbles because he LOVESSSS!!!! the bubble wall we have put in the front of the tank. (cant see his face casue i dont wanna risk my cam doing flash on his eyes)

 

[animalloversfb]

Congrats on your first axie, but your tank is going to need some changes. Gravel is not axie friendly. They can ingest it and it can cause a blockage, which might be why your guy isn't eating very well. Sand is great or a bare bottom. Large rocks(much larger than the size of his head) would also work, but can be harder to clean. Axies usually uproot and destroy plants, so if you want the plants to live, I'd put them in one of your betta tanks instead.

You need to also get your ammonia down as much as possible. Do another water change. I'm not sure what's in Stability, but your tank is going to have to cycle regardless of what you add. Most of the "cycling" products won't actually speed your cycling due to shelf life of the good bacteria you need being kept in the bottles. You could add an ammonia neutralizer if you can't get your levels down(have you tested your tap water - does it have any ammonia?), but water changes would be better.

Lastly, beef heart really isn't the best food choice for him - its OK as treat, but not a staple diet. Look for live earthworms or live/frozen bloodworms.

You might want to take him out and put him in a smaller container with daily 100% water changes to monitor his appetite and see if he starts pooping out rocks - at least until you get your tank parameters under control.

 

[carsona246]

animallover has got some good advice in there. I'd just like to add that if you want the tank to cycle quicker you can add some filter media from one of your betta's tanks(assuming you've had them for 30 days to make sure you don't add illnesses) and it should cycle your tank much quicker. Plants are definatly tricky to keep with an axolotl, as they don't have eyelids and do not like too much light. My tank has less than 1 wpg, and I manage to keep some hardy low light plants alive, and plants will help with that ammonia when you're cycling.
as animallover said that gravel has gotta go, there are so many posts about axolotls ingesting gravel. Tanks tend to get cloudy when they are not cycled, and will clear up once they're balanced out. Also I didn't read anything in your post about temperature, and since you're from australia I thought I'd just make sure you knew they like cold water, so you should be trying to keep the temp at 20C or lower.

 

[Sherleelee]

Hey thanks for the reply. The temp is between 18-20 degrees.
The gravel is a bit misleading in the pic. I know about how the gravel needs to be bigger then the mouth head ect. and when i saw these i thought they would be perfect cause there pretty big imo. My husband spent 40 bucks on 2 bags of this gravel so im not really willing to get rid of it till i have eveidance that, thats the cause >.<
Thanks about the plant tip ill move all cept the dragons blood ( i think thats what it called) into my betta tanks. Ill do another water change and i have a tank that has just finished cycling so ill go ahead and and stuff outa it to help seed. I am thinking that him not being to hungry is due to him eating soo many meal worms a couple days ago and he may still be full ( i havent found any poop yet) im getting plastic feeding tongs today so ill be able to move the meat abit more infront of his nose so he seems more intrested. And ill def pick up some earthworms today at the pet store. thanks all!!!

 

[carsona246]

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be.../f58-sick-axolotl/68478-large-rock-belly.html
Just check the sick axolotl section, or try a searching gravel. For some reason axolotls seem to swallow anything and everything they can fit in their mouth, and a very common problem is axolotls swallowing rocks in their tank and getting impacted. Playsand is a cheap substrate that you should be able to find for like $5 a bag, and one bag filled up my 40 breeder. Also if your feeding mealworms make sure to pinch their heads off, they can bite the inside of their bellies once they're inside.

 

[Sherleelee]

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be.../f58-sick-axolotl/68478-large-rock-belly.html
Just check the sick axolotl section, or try a searching gravel. For some reason axolotls seem to swallow anything and everything they can fit in their mouth, and a very common problem is axolotls swallowing rocks in their tank and getting impacted. Playsand is a cheap substrate that you should be able to find for like $5 a bag, and one bag filled up my 40 breeder. Also if your feeding mealworms make sure to pinch their heads off, they can bite the inside of their bellies once they're inside.

>.< I didnt know to cut off the heads!!! omg.. well ill make sure i do now. If i can find a bag of sand for under 10 bucks then i def will get some, ill do some looking around this weekend. Thanks

 

[The Banana]

Woot! Bettas! Me too, I'm just planning my next spawn - marble CTs & I think the female carries DT.
What sort are you into? Are you a member of AusAqua, if not, I recommend you join, everyone there is so nice (like here.. but fish), helpful and very informative. I'm Sarah there, not very original I know.

Yeah, axies do tend to swallow gravel, my little Aristotle Axolotl (who is as long as a pen) wouldn't eat for weeks when I got him, turns out he had swallowed FIVE pieces of large gravel. And my new girl I just got the other day has already past out OVER THIRTY pieces of small gravel. Poor girl.
Other than the gravel, the tank looks great! I'm sure your axies will LOVE playing in those plants.

Keep us updated, and good luck with your axies! ♥

 

[Sherleelee]

Woot! Bettas! Me too, I'm just planning my next spawn - marble CTs & I think the female carries DT.
What sort are you into? Are you a member of AusAqua, if not, I recommend you join, everyone there is so nice (like here.. but fish), helpful and very informative. I'm Sarah there, not very original I know.

Yeah, axies do tend to swallow gravel, my little Aristotle Axolotl (who is as long as a pen) wouldn't eat for weeks when I got him, turns out he had swallowed FIVE pieces of large gravel. And my new girl I just got the other day has already past out OVER THIRTY pieces of small gravel. Poor girl.
Other than the gravel, the tank looks great! I'm sure your axies will LOVE playing in those plants.

Keep us updated, and good luck with your axies! ♥

Aww your a darling, Yea after yall talking to me im freaking out about the gravel, im gonna look around for sand ( i figure once my husband and I's house is built im gonna have plants around the house and ill use the gravel to put on the top of it).I fed him some beef heart and he spat alot of it out so im a tad worried, but at the same time he refuses to eat anything unless it dangles in front of his mouth (swear to god) like 5 mins... I removed all the plants cept the dragons flame ( im told axies LOVE to eat it, and mine does nibble on it) and gonna get a pack of 10 silk plants at the pet store tommorw to fill the gaps ect. Did a 50% clean on the tank and OMG after a week it was terrible the bucket was brown with the decaying plants and pellets that fell through the gravel ect so im def gonna be doing at least a 10 liter water change each day. I LOVEEE HM bettas but sadly my LFS here done have them so i have orderd a pastel blue and white one off aquabid along with a monster copper SD , the rest of them are all VT im looking around for a CT for my next betta So far the only betta site i have joined is bettafish.com i have learned SOO much from that site and the people there are soo amazing and soo informative, ill def look up the website you talked about aswell. Sorry for the spam message haha

 

[The Banana]

Spam message? Where... I don't see one?
The gravel on the plants is a good idea. I would say the dirty was was because everything gets stuck in gravel.. I have river rocks bigger than my axies head so they can't swallow them, but it gets pretty dirty - I'm going to get sand to fill in the gaps.

So you got of AquaBid? They have to go through Jodi-Lea correct?
When I get pairs, I get them directly from HER. HM are GORGEOUS!
This is the pair my parents got me for my birthday, but sadly the female died the other week.. so I'll have to find another girl for him.
Where are you in Australia? I'm Sydney.. oppies.. looks to me to be spam messages now, Bettas not axies.. I mean I should do axies not Bettas, that's it.

 

[Sherleelee]

Spam message? Where... I don't see one?
The gravel on the plants is a good idea. I would say the dirty was was because everything gets stuck in gravel.. I have river rocks bigger than my axies head so they can't swallow them, but it gets pretty dirty - I'm going to get sand to fill in the gaps.

So you got of AquaBid? They have to go through Jodi-Lea correct?
When I get pairs, I get them directly from HER. HM are GORGEOUS!
This is the pair my parents got me for my birthday, but sadly the female died the other week.. so I'll have to find another girl for him.
Where are you in Australia? I'm Sydney.. oppies.. looks to me to be spam messages now, Bettas not axies.. I mean I should do axies not Bettas, that's it.

Aye i belive its sooo bloody dirty casue it sinks way below the gravel. Plus he has started eating the beef heart and ffs that stuff gets EVERYWHERE!!! gonna def stick to just worms after i finish off the pack. Yes im going through jodi-lea i didnt really know about her till AFTER i bought the fish on aquabid still in love with them tho. Here are the pics of them. Its been over a month but they finaly will be shipped out next wed!! sooo exctied!!! The betta you got off her is sooo gorgeous im sorry that she passed away ahh nice sydney! would looooove to go there one day im originally from alberta canada but met my now husband on a game called world of warcraft ended up comming down go engaged and then married ( you know how it goes lol) so now her perm living in ballarat vic.
Going to the pet store today so i can pick up tongs, (hopfully sand) worms and some fake plants hopfully they have all the stuff i need ^.^

 

[animalloversfb]

See if you can find earthworms. Even if you cut the heads off the mealworms, they're still not a good staple food for them. They can't digest their outer exoskeleton and in some cases, it can build up and cause a blockage.

Your bettas are absolutely gorgeous!

 

[The Banana]

*droolllllsss* WOW. I love the blue boy, he has quite a wide dorsal, do you think he carries DT?
Are you getting females to spawn them with, or just as pets?

Hope you find all you need at the LFS today - good luck with your axies, and good luck with the Bettas. Jodi-Lea is absolutely amazing, and will take good care of them. ♥

 

[Joanne]

There should be a Bunnings in Ballarat yeah? That's where I got my sand - play sand $6.30 for 20kg. Won't need nearly that much but it's the cheapest option, wash it really really well first. You can also get earthworms from there too aparently, I haven't looked cause still in early stages of setting up my tank but give Bunnings a try

 

[The Banana]

Oh yeah, you can get compost worms, you can use them to start your own form-farm.

 

[The Banana]

.... at Bunnings I mean.

 

[Colinna]

I picked up some live earth worms from City Farmers. But I've just notices that they are only in Qld & WA. Local produce stores might have them as well. I know that they keep them for birds etc in some shops.

 

[Sherleelee]

Hey thanks all, Not sure if he carries DT good question. I plan on naming him sky and the green on Ash They will just be pets i dont really have the resources to breed them or else i could see that being pretty fun Plus female bettas REALLY dont appeal to me for some reason.
Thanks heaps on the tip about bunnings!!! ill def check it out i got to go there tommorw to pick up a saw blade for the father in law so he can cut by divider into the right size None of the pet stores have earthworms so i have gotten one of them to order in some for me Any of yall have any idea why my tank water would be smelling a bit fishy ? ( i dont know if thats normal for axies or not) I have been doing gravel vac 40% water changes everyday so far and the tank has cleared up a bunch but still is a tad smelly. Bubbles has been eating 1 chunk of beefd heart in the morn and 1 at night so that is pretty good, least when i get the earthworms ill be able to monitor how much exacly he is eating.

 

[carsona246]

I've always been told that the fishy smell from fish tanks is due to ammonia. But 40% waterchanges should be helping, do you have any test kits?

 

[Sherleelee]

Yes i got test kits, since i have been doing 40-50% water changes today the tank has cleared up and the smell is normal now pretty happy def gonna be doing these water changes everyday till all is done ^.^ Thanks

 

[carsona246]

I know how annoying they can be, my tank recently became uncycled, and now I'm starting from scratch