New tank and three little new axolotls!

[christine]

My axolotls arrived today! I now am the proud "mom" to three little ones, one wild type, one leucistic, and one golden albino. Theyre' each between 7 and 10 cm long. They don't have names yet. My students are going to help me name them, but I welcome any suggestions anyways!

The tank:

Closer:

And the cuties:

And just for fun... already hunting shrimpies:

If anyone wants to see bigger versions and a few more

(Message edited by turtblu on December 02, 2006)

 

[morrissey]

Wow! They are so cute! Especially the leucistic babe!!!
But wondering if the shrimp's a little too big for them? Just pay attention to them if there's any harmful to your cute kids...

 

[christine]

The shrimp is a Bamboo shrimp. It is a filter feeder, doesn't have claws of any sort.

 

[greta]

Hey christine, beautiful axies and tank set up!

 

[amber]

Ah, Bamboo shrimp are a little slow. Be warned that the 'lotls will probably eat them when they get bigger.
Good shrimp to keep as pets though.

They are beautiful little lotties!
I think the gold would suit Hathor - the curved rami (gill stalks) arch up like love Goddess Hathor's from Egyptian mythology!

 

[annmarie]

I am glad to see you are using axolotl as a tool of education. You can also use your shrimp as a tool of education. What grade are your students and what sort of education will the axolotl bring classroom?

Your bamboo shrimp, Atyopsis moluccensis, can become a great learning tool for conservation, the negative effects of taking animals for the wild, etc, for there is no solid proof of them being commercially bred, ie. the ones in the pet store possibly are wild caught imports. If you want a more advanced lession I can give your information of the progress of people attempting to raise them and reproduce them, and having students to help in a process like that is golden!

Your little tank can be a wonderful learning tool, and I am glad to see you useing it as a learning/awareness tool, especially since your habitat seems like a pretty good axolotl land. Might not be too fun cleaning the axolol waste, food waste from between the rock, but I am sure you can turn that into a learning tool about why it is important not to pollute water or something Good luck!

 

[christine]

My students are in eighth grade. The axolotls get to be more classroom pets than anything else because here 8th grade science covers Space Science mostly. I am going to use them as an example when we talk about evolution though. The shrimp too, and apple snails. The bulletin board talks about all three.
I guess and I just love to see them all clustered around the tank each morning trying to find everything and argueing over the purpose of the gills and whether it is asleep or awake and whether they are fish or reptiles or amphibeans. Some of them are getting to be little experts and will tell off everyone else if they get things wrong.

The rocks are annoying to clean, yes. They're likely temporary. The tank was there I moved into my classroom, just a big tank with big rocks and a refrigeration unit (chiller). They used it for a salmon spawning program previosly. I just left the rocks in when I set it up. I may be moving to another school soon, in which case the tank is coming with me but the rocks are staying behind. Way too heavy!

I'm dreaming of creating a solid "fake rock" bottom (from the "great stuff" foam)like you often see in the other caudata forums so that it is super easy (like bare bottom) to clean, but looks natural.

 

[amber]

*grins* I like amphibeans - I might have to nick that phrase.

Sand is a much better medium, and you can keep some of the rocks in for them to climb on then.
It's really easy to clean, axolotl love to snuffle and scrape around in it, and you can see their footprints all over it then!
(And it's a LOT lighter!)

 

[annmarie]

That it just great you having the axolotl in the classroom and using it as a learning tool. As for axolotl teaching in evolution-they look like those monsters that left the water to live on land that everything on land descended from

A lot better than a class hamster! It is great your students are getting a lot of of this and it stimulates their thinking process.

I have experamented with a lot of substrate for axolotl. They seem to love to climb on big rocks, this is why I made several rock piles. All big rock makes it hard for them to walk arround. With the rock piles, they have sand, and they love to sift through the sand, dig in the sand, etc. It seems as if they are hunting for little snails, and I have witnessed this action. Sand is not as hard to clean as one may think. it is quite easy to syphon off "gunk" ontop of the sand. In a sand aquarium, I find the addition or plants, little snails, and algae eating shrimp a great tool to help maintain the underwater environment. Algae eating shrimp may be small, but they are too fast for axolotl to eat. If axolotl catch and eat one, more than likey it was sick or dieing. The shrimp you have a great for filter feeding and probably love to hang out by a filter output, that is because they eat directly from the water column.

Goodluck! and it is nice to know your students will appreciate your axolotl farm for life and probably know more about them than half the people who bought one at the LFS. Just dont let them start cutting off legs to witness the wonders of limb regeneration.

I am curious to the interaction of the axolotl and the bamboo shrimp. I wonder wether or not they can thrive together. Let me know how it works out, I love those little critters.

(Message edited by mantighoul on December 06, 2006)

 

[christine]

They now have names! (after a class vote)

Wild Type: Snaxolotl (Snax)
Leucistic: Rutabaga (Rutie)
Golden Albino: Jejunum (Juju)