New to axolotls in Alabama

[Yucca Patrol]

Hello everyone,

I just received my first pair of axolotls (white leucistic) yesterday. They are housed in a 29 gallon tank that previously contained a couple of baby red eared slider turtles and a couple schools of small tetras/zebra danios. I have an aquaclear 50 running at the slowest setting and there are no strong currents in the tank.

My wife and I have 8 planted aquariums, and we both have wanted axolotls for a very long time.

The substrate is Tahitian moon sand, and the tank is decorated with sturdy plants (java fern, anubias, tough crypts) and driftwood stumps that I have collected and kept in water for several years until it would sink). The white axolotls look great against the black colored sand.

I bought a bag of soft salmon pellets, but my new little axolotls have ignored them but do love frozen bloodworms. They are still small (3 inches or so), and I plan to feed them earthworms from my wife's organic garden once they get big enough to eat a worm (or I need to look for smaller worms).

I also have an aquatic newt that I have not been able to identify, but he is in another tank.

I've lurked here for a while, but since I now have axolotls, I figured I'd better drink the kool-aid and join the fun.

 

[ianclick]

Hi Yucca Patrol

Welcome to the site, it would be great to see some photos

 

[Yucca Patrol]

I'll take some photos today of the aquarium they are in. I already have some nice photos of the young axolotls themselves.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[coichards]

Warm welcomes are what we are here for.

You sound like you are very experinced with fish and in case you have not read this page it is worth a look: http://www.axolotl.org.

Should have all the information your after.

 

[Jennewt]

If you post a photo of the newt, we can help identify it. Welcome!

 

[John]

Welcome to the forum. Being in Alabama I hope you are prepared for the summer heat - your axolotls could suffer and die if they experience more than a day or so above 75 F/ 24 oC (and some individuals are more sensitive than that).

 

[Yucca Patrol]

Thanks again to everyone for the warm welcome.

Our "fish" room is the coolest in the house, and even though we live in a warm climate, we can keep it at 20-21'C year round. If the temp begins to creep up beyond that this summer, we will get a chiller.

I've got some photos of the new axolotls as well as the newt which I would love help identifying. The newt was given to me by someone who could no longer care for it and all I know is that it is an aquatic newt. He's about 6 inches long, brown on the top with bright orange spots on the belly and a bright orange line underneath the tail.

And now a couple photos of the unidentified newt:

 

[John]

Very nice photos. You should enter the Calendar Competition .

 

[Jennewt]

Your newt is a Paramesotriton (warty newt), probably P. chinensis.

 

[Yucca Patrol]

Your newt is a Paramesotriton (warty newt), probably P. chinensis.

Thanks for the quick help identifying the newt. I wasn't quite sure which species it was, but my wife will be happy to know that she was right!

Very nice photos. You should enter the Calendar Competition .

Well, these were just some quick shots to have something to show, but I'll keep working at it and see what I can come up with.

I became interested in salamanders and newts again after I began going caving a lot and found lots of interesting salamanders near cave entrances and inside them. I really love the bright orange cave salamanders and especially the threatened/endangered Tennessee Cave Salamander (Gyrinophilus palleucus) which is also neotenic like the axolotls.

I have some nice pics of the Tennessee salamanders on another computer, but they are harder to photograph since they must be photographed in the caves with an underwater camera.

 

[roobot5000]

your tank and your axolotls/newt look great.

 

[EdsExotics]

Welcome and great newts and axolotls

Ed

 

[Yucca Patrol]

I now also have two wild type axies. A friend and I shared the shipping cost for a few more. They each live in their own 10 gallon tanks. I'll get photos of them up soon.

They love live earthworms and I am not impressed with the small size of the Hikari blood worms. The other brand I had were significantly larger.

 

[ianclick]

Hi Yucca Patrol,

Beautiful axolotls, tank and newt. I like the gills on your leucistic