Too soon to setup a tank?

[Phantomlink]

I have 4 baby axolotls which are at least 2.5 months old, two are a decent size I believe, the third is catching up and the 4th is half the size and still working on his back legs. I wanted to setup my 10 gallon I have for them because I was hoping they might grow a little faster having an actual place to live rather then a ziplock container they are in now.

I saw a thread about feeding jars and tried putting bloodworms in their container but unless I put it infront of their face they wont eat them at all. I dont mind handfeeding them but I'm hoping once I get my Daphnia later this month they will eat them since they swim around the tank. Are some just picky or are they too young to smell food so far away from them to find it?

Here is a picture of one of my largest, two of them are about the same size they all came from the same clutch of eggs I'll try to post pictures of all 4 so you can get an idea soon just doing a water change in my 125g for my fish

I figure if they must be handfed I can always take them out to feed, I just dunno how I would get them out. They're too small to pickup and right now I just pick them up with a large spoon when doing the waterchange

 

[Phantomlink]

Here are the four babies

This is the largest one I believe, I had to use a toothpick for scale

Here is the smallest

Here is the middle sized/middle child

And one of the bigger ones

 

[snuggly time]

If the tank isn't set up I'd start to set it up anyway to get your cycle going. They grow so fast! Perhaps they're still too small, but I'd wait until someone with more baby experience can help. :happy:

 

[Hayleyy]

I don't really have experience with bub axy's, but with the feeding I think that once you get something in there that wriggles around they'll eat it on their own. I'd guess that they're not going for the bloodworms because they're not moving around

 

[Phantomlink]

If the tank isn't set up I'd start to set it up anyway to get your cycle going. They grow so fast! Perhaps they're still too small, but I'd wait until someone with more baby experience can help. :happy:

My only experience is cycling fish tanks using large canister filters, I've never setup a tank using a sponge filter I have no idea how much ammonia to put in the water and if I need it at 4-5ppm or not

 

[Mortimer]

I don't know too much about this, but I'm raising two little ones who were in that size range not too long ago. At that size, mine couldn't really find food. It needed to be right in front of their faces. And sometimes worms scared them! It took probably a week of them being here to finally start hogging down food. Mine were pretty skiddish at that size.

Also, I wouldn't take them out to feed them. Handling them damages their slime coat and can lead to infections.

Are you keeping them together? With the size differences, I wouldn't. Especially if they aren't eating a lot.

 

[Phantomlink]

I don't know too much about this, but I'm raising two little ones who were in that size range not too long ago. At that size, mine couldn't really find food. It needed to be right in front of their faces. And sometimes worms scared them! It took probably a week of them being here to finally start hogging down food. Mine were pretty skiddish at that size.

Also, I wouldn't take them out to feed them. Handling them damages their slime coat and can lead to infections.

Are you keeping them together? With the size differences, I wouldn't. Especially if they aren't eating a lot.

When they were smaller they were all sharing the same 9x6 plastic container but a few weeks ago I put them in their own 9x6 containers to get some leg room. I know they grow at different speeds but since I was planning to put them all in a single tank when juvies/adults its going to be hard to introduce the 2 small ones to the 2 larger ones months down the line after they've established their own spaces inside the tank. I figured with a 10 gallon tank they have more room to swim and might grow a little faster. The largest ones dont stop eating, I could prob feed them an entire brick of blood worms if I wanted to but the smallest one might only eat 2 worms per feeding he wont touch anymore

 

[Minniechild]

From my axies, i had a number if increments in accommodation- up until they were over 10 cm, they were in tupperware containers ( av.30 x30cm) or a small 20L tank (which my first three went back into in the feb when the temp skyrocketed), before upgrading to the 4 ft tank where they definitely put on a heap of weight and length. Una, bubbles and Blinky (my current babies) are just beginning to get over 6 cm (una's at 8), so i'm beginning to think about moving them out of the takeaway containers they're currently in. Hopefully next weekend I can start scheming on if i can smuggle in another tank, or if a toy crate will be their home
Another thing you can do is set aside an area at the front of your tank, which has a clear view out so they can see you and is reasonably visible from the rest of the tank to act as your feeding area. At first, guide them out with a trail of worm crumbs, then once they're in the area, feed a nice, big dinner. Repeat until they come whenever you're there- and if possible have something small like blackworms next to the tank to reward them whenever they come without overfeeding them .

 

[Phantomlink]

From my axies, i had a number if increments in accommodation- up until they were over 10 cm, they were in tupperware containers ( av.30 x30cm) or a small 20L tank (which my first three went back into in the feb when the temp skyrocketed), before upgrading to the 4 ft tank where they definitely put on a heap of weight and length. Una, bubbles and Blinky (my current babies) are just beginning to get over 6 cm (una's at 8), so i'm beginning to think about moving them out of the takeaway containers they're currently in. Hopefully next weekend I can start scheming on if i can smuggle in another tank, or if a toy crate will be their home
Another thing you can do is set aside an area at the front of your tank, which has a clear view out so they can see you and is reasonably visible from the rest of the tank to act as your feeding area. At first, guide them out with a trail of worm crumbs, then once they're in the area, feed a nice, big dinner. Repeat until they come whenever you're there- and if possible have something small like blackworms next to the tank to reward them whenever they come without overfeeding them .

I tried, but they will still only eat whats placed infront of them. I tried adding bloodworms across their container and they never went to them at all. I'm going to try injecting the bloodworms infront of their mouth with a syringe underwater and see how that goes