Silly Axie

[natasha]

Here is Shortie hanging upside down like a monkey weird.

 

[natasha]

Doh, that didn't display properly, the third one was just beacuse I thought it was cute hehe.

 

[rheann]

Hey natasha, what is that black thing in the tank? I can't tell what it is. is it a filter or somethign else?

 

[cynthia]

Rheann - it appears to be the internal fluval filter or a similar brand filter.

Natasha - the on the log picture is very cute

 

[rheann]

an internal filter huh

That's pretty cool, I don't think I've ever seen one that goes all the way in the tank. It must make the perfect water current for Axolotls.

 

[cynthia]

Actually I have an internal fluval 1 filter and I really don't like it. I had it on my frog tank and I thought it makes too much current, doesn't hold enough media, and takes up too much room. I switched them back to the old school corner filter that uses floss/carbon/air pump.

 

[anne-marie]

I have an internal filter and 2 corner sponge filters for extra filter bacteria space. I have seen my axies hanging around behind the internal filter and they always look like they're stuck - I hate it when they do that to me. Then I come back 10 minutes later and they've moved off somewhere else. Phew.

 

[grant]

I use an internal fluval filter but I set it high and have this plastic thing that makes the current stay on the top part of the water rather than under where my axie is. The plants don't even move from it. I will try to post up pictures if I can get a hold of a camera again. I also use carbon filters they seem to keep the tank cleaner (I use them in my fish tanks as well). But my axie never goes crazy with the filter like yours but he does float up by it and then swims away and then floats back up. Kind of an endless cycle.

 

[natasha]

Yeah, it's a fluval 2 plus. I point the part that pushed out the water at the back wall of the tank. She has always had it. No probs with it. The plants don't sway in the current and all the current seems to be at the surface on one side. Sometimes she likes to get up in it weird. Her gills have always been straight and haven't shown signs of curving from stress of the flow.

I rinse it out every time I clean the tank (every two weeks) in some of her aqurium water. Replace the carbon every month and the sponges every three. She also has an airstone on low in the opposite corner. She likes to sit on top of the airstone sometimes very bizarre.

I just brought a new ornament thing off ebay and a whole heap of silk plants to redo her tank, waiting for it to arrive in the post, I can't wait . Will redo my goldfish tank at the same time. Will post new pics when it's all done.

 

[natasha]

Oh, can anyone tell me if she looks too skinny? I see other peoples female axies and they are sooo fat!!, she is around eighteen months old lives on her own. Fed every second day, staple of crickets with occasional beefheart, brine shrimp and dried tubiflex.

She ate eight crickets last night the piggy!, normally I would give her around four medium size ones is this enough? except last night a heap jumped out of their container into the tank so she came up and ate them.

 

[anne-marie]

She looks pretty healthy to me Natasha.

 

[nathan]

I have one of those filter thingys and
have found that the current is a bit too
strong but that’s only my experience. I
was actually thinking of hocking up some
water fall thing so the clean water goes up
a tube and spill over the top of a
waterfall setup. It would aerate the tank a
bit too, but a bit to lazy to take it on. I
May do it some day though.

 

[grant]

Well I wouldn't use crickets as a staple because they aren't as nutritious as earthworms or many other foods. Also beefheart isn't to good for them either. I use crickets as well as beefheart as treats for my axie. And do you feed frozen brine shrimp because your axie looks a little to big for live. And all dried food is basically nutritionless. But here is a link that shows a lot of foods and talks about how good they are as well as their advantages and disadvantages: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/foods.shtml

 

[cynthia]

As I recall she is the axolotl that refuses to eat worms, isn't she? Do you gut load her crickets?

She looks good in her upside down "I think I can fit through this tiny space" picture, plumper than in your profile pic.

 

[grant]

Oh yea forgot to say she looks healthy and she looks "plump." So I wouldn't worry about her weight to much. My axie refuses earthworms but he will eat red worms...I have no idea why lol.

 

[natasha]

She will not eat earthworms lately at all. She just spits them out, even when I cut them up. What is gut loading crickets? I just shake about four out of their container then grab them with a pair of tweezers by their back leg and feed them to her, she loves them. I don't know what else to do, I was worried about freeze dried tubiflex and beef heart being her main diet, she seems to have fattened up a bit with the crickets.

Anyone in WA about who feeds earthworms and where do they get them from?

The only ones I could get was a worm farm I brought from bunnings they were quite red in colour. Their in the garden now after many unsuccessful attempts at feeding them. I use to get some earthworms from Morley Aquariums she did eat, this was over a year ago now as they stopped stocking them and I have tried everywhere looking for them this side of the river since (north). Any ideas anyone?

 

[rheann]

Natasha, Gut Loaded Crickets refers to the nutrisous foods that the Crickets eat, and they are filled with the nutrients for reptiles and amphebiens. Most pet stores carry cricket food. It is very important if you breed crickets or keep a lot in a cricket tank that they get this special food because the crickets alone won't bring nutrion to your axies or other pets that eat crickets. I have known a few of my friends to only feed bits of different food to their crickets for their animals, and it always made me worry their animals weren't getting enough Nutrion, because they wouldn't dust their crickets either, so they probibly didn't know. Also, with reptiles it is important to dust the crickets with vietamins and calcium, but with amphebians, I don't know if there is something that can be used, I have been wondering that for a while, but since I feed earthworms as a staple diet, I don't worry about it. I only feed crickets as a treat once a week or so, just so they won't get bored with eating the worms

I also like to feed them the Indiana Axolotl pellets, but I don't knwo if they will ship those to Australia. Hopefully soem people on this site can let you know if they do, because the pellets are also very nutrious for Axolotls. Maybe you could try and stimulate her eating worms with blood worms? My pen Pal in Ireland does this, and it works really well for her when she has trouble getting her Axolotls to eat. She's a very good Axolotl mom

Maybe the pieces you cut up for your Axolotl are too big? I have had this problem a couple of times, because the worm wiggles so much and stretches out a lot when I am making the cuts, so it's hard to get it just the right size. I hope this helps, and I hope others can help you too

I hope I got my facts strieght. If I didn't, please somone let Natasha know so I don't miss lead her, Thanks

 

[grant]

Are you sure the worms you were trying to feed were actually earthworms? Because you said they were red in color. Have you gone to bait shops and looks for earthworms? Those worms are just as good as pet store bought worms. But gutloading as Rheann said is just feeding the crickets food that will be good for your axie. But yes crickets are a lot better than dried tubifex or beefheart. I wouldn't feed the tubifex at all but I do feed beefheart about once every other week to my axie.

 

[lisa]

Grant, I know you probably already know, and I hate to sound patronising. But beef heart is bad for them, it contains way too much saturated fat. I found out the hard way when my first axie developed fat deposits all over her because I didn't know what to feed her.

 

[rheann]

Natasha, when you purchase earthworms, make sure you don't purcase something that looks like earthworms, that are called blood worms. These are poisonous, and may or will harm or cause worse damage to your Axolotl. They can land a pretty nasty sting on a human! here is a link. http://www.mainebait.com/bloodworm.html
There is another type of worm called blood worms, and this is the right blood worms to feed your Axolotls,They are nutritious, but shouldn't be fed just alone. here is a link. http://www.naturegrid.org.uk/biodiversity/invert/midges.html
Try and give your Axie a veriety so he gets the right nutrients. Don't feed animal meat such as beef, chicken, etc to them, it's too fatty. I started out feeding Tubifex worms to my Axolotls, and thanks to several helpful people on this site I learned that I shouldn't. They are fatty, and only should be fed as a rariety if ever at at. They will cause problems for your axolotl in the future.