Tips on daily cleaning?

[Canaveral]

Okay, what is the trick to daily leftover food removal? I have two axies in a divided tank. One does a pretty good job eatinf everything I give him, but the other one is really small and doesn't quite understand eating very well yet (can't swallow even small pellets doesn't seem to have a very good nose, will take food from my tongs but completely ignores it if it's on the ground, doesn't seem to have very good sight, etc.) so there's alwaus a mess of hundreds of tiny brine shrimp at the end of the day.

I currently just use the syphon, but by the time I've gotten out all of the excess food, I've practically done a whole water change! What do you guys do? Surely you don't do water changes every day. Is it essential to get 99% of all the food out every day?

 

[Kerry M]

Hi

How small are your little ones?

I assume that they are very small if eating baby brine shrimp. If they are that age many people (perhaps most) would keep them in small plastic containers and change 100 percent of the water daily. When cleaning plastic containers out it is recommended to scrub the containers with a salt and bicarbonate mix to remove the scum that accumulates on plastic. I would use the mix a couple if times each week and just scrub the containers out on other days and rinse in water. I have quite large axies kept like this at the moment, some are 9cms and others are 24cms. I use a turkey baster to remove waste as I see it.

You could also try blackworms. They are aquatic worms so happily live in the container until they are eaten. I do find that blackworms love to hide under my sponge filters and hides. For this reason I usually don't use sponge filters and make sure that my water changes occur daily.

 

[Kerry M]

Your little one will only respond to food that is moving in front of him as this is how babies eat from the time that they hatch. You can try to drop the pellets in front of his nose and he may eat it that way. It is a time consuming task as well as you will need to pick them up and try again if he doesn't get it. I would highly recommend that you try blackworms. I have never seen an axie refuse them. If your little one is smaller than 5cm you will perhaps need to chop them a bit. Perhaps someone in your area could recommend a supplier. If you do get some they are kept in the fridge and require rinsing daily with refrigerated aged water (not dechlorinated with ager). If you don't rinse them daily they will foul and soon all your blackworms foul. There should be good tips on the other forums for rinsing.

 

[Niels D]

For little pieces of waste you can use a large straw. Put your thumb at the end which you will keep out of the water and stick the other end in it and hold it directly above the waste you want to remove. Remove you thumb briefly from the other end of the straw (less than a second). You'll see that water has gone into the straw and hopefully the waste as well. As long as you hold your thumb on the end of the straw you will be able to get the straw completely out of the water without the water in the straw dripping out (capillary force). When you remove your thumb the water will fall out of the straw. With a little practise you'll be able to do this trick perfectly.

 

[layna]

For my babies and my adults, i use a turkey baster to suck out unwanted mess

 

[Canaveral]

I've tried to use a turkey baster, but the problem is that there's usually so much left over, it winds up being easier and quicker to just siphon it all out and do a water change, rather than.....suck, squeeze, suck, squeeze, suck, squeeze..

She is probably about 2 1/2 inches, so I really don't know why she only seems to respond to food immediately above her. Even my large axie between 6"-7" doesn't readily respond to food that is below him.

 

[nephiarising]

I've actually used a cat litter scooper on my sandy bottomed tank to get out their little poops. It works really well for bigger pieces, but small bits and uneaten food slip out of the tines very easily.

 

[Petersgirl]

I use a turkey baster too, but one way of avoiding less mess is to use a food like blackworm or bloodworm and place it in a feeding jar. You can see examples of those here:http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...rate/74439-i-wanna-see-your-feeding-jars.html

I found this prevented me from getting cloudy or oily water in my tank, which at the time was tiny and had no filter. Your axxie may take a little while to get used to it, but any uneaten food can be easily removed.

As Kerry M said, the 'wiggle' reflex (food directly in front of the axxie's face) is one of the instincts a baby axxie has - think tickling a baby on the cheek. Toothless, now 6", was hopeless even at 3", but now responds to worms on the floor in front of her.