Rehousing four juveniles?

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gershco

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Gershon
My juveniles are currently living in individual plastic containers. They have been rehoused into larger containers a couple of times and I now think it's time I put them into a tank. The largest axie is around 8 inches long, while the other three are around 5 inches.

The pet shop recommended either a 2 or 3 foot tank. I wouldn't envisage keeping all four axies together once they are fully sized, two seems much more likely. So it seems that I'd be needing a 3ft tank. Any smaller and it would only be capable of housing one adult. I assume the 3 foot tank would be fine for the four juveniles until they get bigger.

As far as setting up the tank... I'm thinking that I'd put the biggest axie in first, do daily water changes (not sure what percentage each day though) and then add the other axies, perhaps one a week.

Does this sound about right?
 
Your tank size sounds fine to me but I'm concerned the 8 inch one might bite limbs off 5 inch ones. I would suggest keeping the larger one separate or partitioning the tank. Start getting the tank set up but do not rush the transfer. One way of getting the tank cycled is to pour the waste water from the individual axolotls into it as a water change. I call this virtual stocking! After a few weeks the tank is cycled (shown by low ammonia , nitrite and the presence of some nitrate) and can cope with the axolotls themselves.
 
I would think as long as there is plenty of hiding places I would put them in all together. One of my juveniles , a wild type is growing much faster than my melanoid, I now feed them in seperate spots of the tank to avoid one getting more food than the rest.
 
Would you both agree that there is no point in buying a 2 foot tank?
 
I started with a 2 foot tank for 2 non mature axolotl, but they out grew it very quickly and then it was a real pain trying to get the new tank set up . I have very limited space!!( having said this its pretty amazing how you can always find space for another tank, but not for anything else!!!!) . I would now go strait for the biggest and then avoid having to change later on.
 
A 2 footer would be a waste of time as you'd have to upgrade within a few months.

I agree with Bellabelloo though - I never seem to find room for other things other than extra tanks (and books!) :D
 
Any ideas for ways to support a 3 foot tank, if I bought a free standing tank?
 
oceanblue said:
Start getting the tank set up but do not rush the transfer. One way of getting the tank cycled is to pour the waste water from the individual axolotls into it as a water change. I call this virtual stocking! After a few weeks the tank is cycled (shown by low ammonia , nitrite and the presence of some nitrate) and can cope with the axolotls themselves.
Click to expand...

I assume I should mix clean treated water with the waste water (if not it will take ages to fill the tank up to 6inches)? What proportion of waste and clean water should I aim for?

When I began raising the axie larvae, I was advised to add sea salt to the water, as our water here is very soft. I've been adding about 10g to 5L. I have since been told that the juveniles shouldn't actually need this salt. Can I stop adding it to fresh water, or would it be better to lower the concentration over a number of weeks.

Finally ...

I bought a 3ft tank today and have rinsed it out in and started to add waste water. I'm thinking of using a large rock and a plastic plant to block/diffuse the outflow from the filter. How does this sound?
 
I nearly filled the tank up with clean water, (supplemented with my own salt mix), topped it up to full over about a week and then bailed out and refilled with the daily change water less the dirt in the bottom of the containers for another three weeks until nitrite disappeared.

I would not totally phase out the salt: maybe halve the level. Salts reduce the energy requirements across the gills and the calcium and magnesium also help. Our Mid- Wales water is rather like Manchester's which comes from Thirlmere in the Lake District. I use my own salt recipe but it closely approximates to 7g sea salt in 5L (I've various complicated recipes around because I grow marine organisms, my handle is not oceanblue for nothing!). My larvae certainly looked less stressed when I supplemented, and I cannot see the point in changing a successful formula. Too high a salt level is detrimental to some plants but I have no trouble with water lilies, water cress and pond weed at this level.

What you are doing sounds fine.
 
I've filled up the tank and have begun adding waste water from just the largest axie's container. Should I continue with just this waste or should I also use the waste from the other axies? Would there be a recommended volume of waste water to use each day?

Should I wait 3 weeks before testing the different water parameters or should I start testing sooner?

Thanks again and Happy New Year.
 
I'd be inclined to to throw in all the waste water bar the crud at the bottom from all the axolotls you intend to put in the tank eventually. Three weeks is a sensible time to wait before testing if you want to be economical. It doesn't matter if there is a nitrite spike as there is no stock in the tank. If you feel under pressure to get the axolotls into the tank earlier start testing sooner, but from personal experience you are probably wiser to sit back and wait. Happy New Year.
 
It's been three weeks. I've not transfered any axies. I've been adding waste water and pre-removing similar volumes of water from the tank and I've just checked the parameters. I think I've got a long way to go...

Ammonia is around 4.9 mg/L
Nitrate between 0 and 10
Nitrite between 0 and 1

Should I continue adding waste water or will that just maintain high ammonia levels? I was thinking about partial daily or alternate daily water changes. Would 10% work? How often should I check the paramaters and when is the ammonia likely to drop and the other two rise?

By the way,

pH was 6.8. Is that a little low?
General hardness was <3degrees dH
Carbonate hardness appeared to be near the top of the scale.
 
The cycling is appears to be very slow. Running with a high ammonia, which is safe if you have no stock in the tank, is supposed to be the way to get cycling over quickly. Did you measure just after adding waste water? If so wait 24 hours and see if the ammonia has gone. It may be all is well and you have a very efficient cycle with removal of nitrate by the water changes giving these results. pH 6.8 is OK for axolotls but high carbonate hardness is usually associated with alkalinity so I suspect either the pH or carbonate hardness measurement is wrong. High carbonate hardness helps feed nitrifying bacteria and should also speed cycling.
 
Thanks for writing back. I've just retested results and it's now 36 hours since I last added/changed water.

Ammonia 4.9mg/L but possibly lighter than yesterday.
Nitrate and nitrite both around zero.

General hardness <3
Carbonate hardness between 0 and 3 (I think colour had travelled between testers on the strip
yesterday)
pH between 6.4 and 6.8

There have a few days here and there when I didn't empty waste water into the tank. Would that have made a big difference? A good change of the four axies water produces around 2L of waste. Should this be enough?
 
You have soft slightly acid water which may be why the tank is so slow to cycle. The plus side is that at low pH an ammonia level of 4.9 is almost entirely the non-toxic ionised form and so you could put the axolotls in the tank and just do daily 10-20% water changes. If you do decide to do this watch out for a nitrite spike. Can you transfer decor or filter material from a working tank to attempt to speed up cycling?
 
I haven't got a working tank. I started off with a gift of eggs last year and now have just the four growing juveniles in individual containers. I think I might put the biggest into the tank, do daily 20% changes and see what happens. However I am a little concerned that the Fluval 2+ filter is producing too strong a current. I'll take a photo of the setup and try to post it. I might need to think of some tank decorations that could help disrupt the flow of water. Any ideas?
 
The latest tank I set up has rather an over-powerful filter pump. I've merely put it in a corner and pointed the outflow back over the top of the pump into the corner. This seems to be enough to not stress my juveniles. In other threads I've seen people recommending trickle bars and home-made perforated tubes attached to the outflow. The filter is appropriately sized for the 3ft tank so merely aiming the outflow in the right direction is probably enough.
 
Gershon I use a fluval 2+ and have had no problems with it, the flow is turned down to minimum and the outflow pipe is directed towards the side of the tank which breaks up the current, the axolotls aren't displaying any signs of stress.My tank is just a few inches short of 3ft but is quite deep so i have positioned the filter slightly higher up so the current near the bottom is less.
 
Thanks Becky. Are you using suction pads to hold the filter to the tank? If yes, are they stuck to a wall or the base. Mine are stuck to the back wall, though I was thinking that if I changed them to the base, I would be able to direct the flow back towards the side of the tank. As the filter is positioned currently, I can only point the flow into the tank.
 
yes I use suction pads to hold the filter in place, i have it positioned on a side wall a few inches below the waters surface with the directional outflow pointing towards the back of the tank. here is a link to a photo of my setup, you can see my filter on the left hand side high up in the tank.


http://www.caudata.org/photoplog/index.php?n=1005
 
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