Question: New Axolotl owner, read plenty (now: diary of Fred's new owner)

[ted22]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Oh and I was also informed that Gomez is a melanoid axie and not the wild type i first thought,I get the impression they are quite hard to come by in the uk compared to most others I always knew he was abit special! I diddnt chose him coz of that tho it was like getting a dog he chose me! haha!

 

[tomkeogh]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Oh and I was also informed that Gomez is a melanoid axie and not the wild type i first thought,I get the impression they are quite hard to come by in the uk compared to most others I always knew he was abit special! I diddnt chose him coz of that tho it was like getting a dog he chose me! haha!

That is so true Ted, I also think they have personalities similar to Dog's the way they beg for food and 'whine' to make you feel bad. I remember the other day my little guy was swimming up to the surface and nosediving back down, well after a few times he misjudged his landing and bombed into the sand, he got up just looked at me laughing and went and sulked in his hide!

Darren- I also have the elite60 tank I have noticed the lid vibrates when light is on if the lid is not quiet on right or a filter wire is under the lid not in the slot...it is vibration.

 

[dazkeirle]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

ok thanks, that's good to know.

I'll investigate, Hopefully LED's will be a good and lower heat solution for me, but if not I saw those reflective 15W moonlight bulbs for £12 on the weekend so will pick one up.

Quick question, how often should I be feeding Fred and how much?

There's a lot of conflicting advice around, and if i fed him every time he looked hungry or begged for food it would be all day every day.

I have been feeding him about 1 bloodworm cube an evening, and he eats that no probs, I'm wondering should it be less, like 1 cube every other evening or more so I feed him till he can't eat any more?

I don't want to stuff him so he grows too quickly.

Also about 3-4 days back one morning there was piles of poo which i cleared up.

That was the only day i've actually seen poo, in any quantity in the tank. How often do they go and what typically does it look like?

I'm wondering if what i saw that day was vomit, as it was around the time he got rid of all that white stone in his belly.

 

[tomkeogh]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

You just have to moniter his weight and go from there, as you look down his head and body should be same width.

How big is he? as they get older the frequency of feeding goes down...some people feed there adults once or twice a week.

 

[dazkeirle]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

Well he's 8-9 months now.

I'd say width wise since losing all the gravel his head is a bit bigger so I'll let him chow down daily until it gets the same size.

Today's an exciting day.

I thought before i get the aeration setup I'd experiment with backing for the back of the tank.

I'd tried some of those photo ones but to me they look really cheesy so I just went with plain black card, makes the tank pop in my opinion, what you think?:

Think it'll look good with bubbles and LED's, speaking of which my £2 bargain £20 air pump just turned up complete with tubing and non-return valves:

So just popped down pets at home and got him some stones. They were all out of inch stones so settled for the smallest disc, it's it's too much I can always restrict the flow:

Just looking forward to the lighting arriving, and finding out what the ambbient temp of the tank will be with aeration without and with the fan.

Record with fan alone now sits at 18.3 degrees.

 

[tomkeogh]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

I am glad I am not in your shoes having to clean that grass carpet and moss ball...that is probably were all of his poop is!

Have you tried some earthworm yet? that will get him nice and chunky...a couple wax worms will get him up to size (although these are axolotl junk food!). I have two they are 6-7 months old and they eat 3 cubes of bloodworm between them every second day, or earthworm if they feel like eating them.

Maybe try some trial and error, chuck in 3-4 bloodworm and see how many he eats in 5-10 minutes. I am told adult axolotl are good at not over-eatin.

 

[dazkeirle]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

i must admit, it does get covered in like a grey fluff, which i assume is dead food that hasn't been eaten, which i do clean off.

i gave him 2 cubes a bit ago and once he'd realised he gulped it down.

I think i confused him when i was setting up the aeration equipment as i decided that i had accidentally set up the tank back to front, and there was a mark on the back.

So I turned it around 180 degrees and set everything up as it was, jus after rotating through 180 lol.

I had a hell of a lot of trouble keeping the stones down. In the end i've used the round plent as a weight and the disc is hooked under the log with another plant as a weight.

Gonna need something more permanent.

As Ted expected it is quite powerful, the disc that is, the long stone is perfect but the disc has quite a lot of power and so will need a valve on there.

Interested to see what the temp will be like tomorrow when i do a full day with bubbles and fan.

Also interested to see how Fred feels about it. Truth is, he's so blind I doubt he'll realise.

 

[Mac Myers]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

That is an awesome Moss Ball! Just roll it around every day or so and it'll stay clean.

 

[dazkeirle]

Re: New Axolotl owner, read plenty, just want to confirm a few things.

haha i would have done if.......

I wasn't using it to hold the bloody airstones in place. lol

It took about an hour to get them in position wih the tubes carefully running under the sand and more importantly under the ball.

Note to anybody, sand does not work to weight down tubing, don't bother trying.

What were just plants are now weights to hold the stones down near their connectors, but hey, I've done it and it looks pretty cool.

Fred is a little unimpressed at howI've turned his new home upside down and replacing it exactly as it was but with these strange new features.

I decided the air disc was just too powerful but after looking at the valves i realise they just restrict flow so i made my own by bending the tube over and wrapping around a zip tie. Works brilliantly, want more air, let a bit out and make the bend less severe and hey presto.

That's £2.90 your now getting of my money Elite!

 

[dazkeirle]

Here's some photos of the setup with my aeration in.

So here's the tank with everything full on:

Here's my makeshift restriction valve:

Here it is with the restricted flow to the disc:

Gonna need to get some rocks to hold tubing in place, if he moves that ball all hell will break lose.

 

[ted22]

Yo darren tis all coming along nicely It'll all be worth it in the end you're pretty much at that point where you can stand back and admire your work haha!

Got Gomez into his new home hes lovin it the amount of space he has now is amazing he's one lucky axie, problem is now that all my airbubble stuff is too small for the tank now so gonna need to get sum bigger bubble walls and stuff. The 3ft tank only cost me £4.50 in the end twas such a bargain I'l post up some pics when the sand has cleared abit!

Wish our axies could meet I think theyd get along swimmingly!

 

[dazkeirle]

£4.50 for a 3 foot tank?

That's an amazing deal, good work.

I was admiring some 200 litre tanks at the garden centre on the weekend, the temptations....

All I'm waiting on is some new lighting now then it's just a case of keeping him happy.

He's already become a bit interested in the wall.

I caught him this morning waving his gills through the bubbles, stood side on. Must be like getting O2 shots.

He also seems to like putting his tail through it.

Now it's a case of running it all together to see what / if it makes a huge amount of difference on the temp.

I bet Gomez is chuffed, I showed my mrs him last night, who said she didn't like the darker axies, but when she saw the photos of his smile she said "he's like the one on Google" which is a testament to how photogenic he is.

 

[ted22]

Haha thanks, Gomez is blushing from all the compliments, ive heard that some axies dont like the bubbles but gomez loves em, I think it must feel nice on his belly and tail he some times just rests his chin in the bubbles hehe!

Yeah the tank was a steal, not in perfect condition by a long shot (couple of scratches, crusted on limescale etc) but for £4.50 I cant complain and gomez certainly isnt complaining! Il try and get a pic up today!

Laters

>ed<

 

[dazkeirle]

Exciting times, the new light has arrived and I must say for £8 I think it's amazing quality:

All nicely sealed, feels very durable and has what looks like a good quality inverter (even came with a handy 3 to 2 pin adapter, not that i need one for this but handy to have all the same for hols)

Like I say, looks like a pretty bright even light, although nowhere near as bright as the lamp. We'll have to see how it looks in the water. (the light i mean, not the unit itself).

 

[Mac Myers]

Let me know Daz..... I've been looking at LED lighting myself.

 

[dazkeirle]

It's actually really good Mac a very balanced blue light, not too bright but bright enough to illuminate the tank.

I was thinking it was too bright to begin with but Fred got straight out and has barely been back in since it was switched on.

It's obviously very hard to capture on a camera, but i have recorded a little video for you. Not 100% representation of the colour or the effect (seems to make Fred glow on the cam) but it gives you an idea.

I'll post the vid as soon a youtube is done processing.

I'd buy it again at a drop of a that though, silent, and even lighting for £8. Awesome.

 

[dazkeirle]

As promised here's the vid:

YouTube - Fred the Axolotl with new moonlight LEDs
​

I got a little carried away and so filmed a bit more than expected. Turned the lights on to let the white balance work properly but to no avail.

It's close to how it looks in RL but not 100%

p.s. Fred can swim better than that, he was knocking his right legs against the tank side. He does seem to be out more when the light is on though.

 

[Mac Myers]

Looks great! Who's singing the bluesy sound track... sounds like a Jonny Lang thing. Very cool... but I haven't heard it before.

 

[dazkeirle]

haha no idea. I thought I'd use youtube to add a track instead of my clicking about.

Searched under the word blue in blues (as the light is blue) and it was one of top ones )

I'm a big blues fan but never heard it before, think some unknown artist.

 

[Mac Myers]

Eh... can't find it. Like it though.