My First Axolotls | Two Melanoids & A Wildtype

[KingCam]

I picked up my first three axies from a craigslist ad on Monday. After a bit of haggling I got my three axolotls, 2 melanoid 1 wildtype, ~3 inch juveniles, for a total of $35

I've had a 10 gallon tank set up with water, plants, hides, and a sponge filter for a couple of weeks now. I cut up a plastic lid from a sterilite tub, drilled holes in the pieces, and used them as tank dividers.

Now I have all 3 juvenile axies in this 10-gallon, which seems kinda small to me, but I was told they can get stressed if you put them in a big area as juveniles. I also have a ~45 gallon tank with plants, hides, drift wood, & a sponge filter setup and standing by for when they are bigger.

The guy who sold them to me said it would be safe-ish to put them back together at around 5-6 inches. If anyone has an opinion on that please feel free to chime in.

I'm going to name them when I can tell their genders, but for now they are Mel1, Mel2, and WildT.

This is Mel1, as you can see it is missing both left feet, but they appear to be regenerating and in good health. This is also my hungriest axie :P Monday night I brought them home and Mel1 immediately ate two medium lobster roaches from forceps. Mel1 then ate another small lobster roach the following (Tuesday) morning.


This is WildT. When I got home with them Monday night, I offered WildT a roach. It bit onto the roach, but then spit it out and ignored it. So far I haven't managed to get WildT to eat.






Here's Mel1 & WildT contemplating how delicious each other's legs are on the other side of the barrier.


This is Mel2, I love love love its gills! Mel2 ate 1 roach Monday night when we got home, and then another yesterday (Tuesday) morning.






And here is the tank they currently reside in




Tell me what I'm doing wrong if you notice anything that should be different!! Thanks

[Pluke]

Those things regenerate their limbs if they lose them? o_O Cool new pets man. If I knew anything about them I'd dime in, but I've got nothing.

[KingCam]

Those things regenerate their limbs if they lose them? o_O Cool new pets man. If I knew anything about them I'd dime in, but I've got nothing.

Yeah, in fact they do it quite fast as juveniles. The breeder told me he figured it would have its feet back in a week, two weeks tops. So we'll see! Pretty crazy if you ask me O_O

[Pluke]

Yeah, that is pretty crazy.. I thought only lizards grew limbs back like that. Just think, there could have been a spider-man villain called "The Axolotl" instead of "The Lizard". I suppose that wouldn't be very threatening though.

[toxxxickitten]

Axolotls are neat. I had a few before. It really isn't true juveniles will stress out in a big space - as long as you have amble places for them to hide to feel safe. In all honesty, the bigger the better. I also want to touch on their feeding. I haven't heard anything about roaches being a good staple for them, however nightcrawlers make an excellent staple - so I would suggest starting to feed them nightcrawlers instead of roaches. You can also feed them a specially formulated pellet, but if not fed at a young age they usually just ignore them. $35 was a great deal for them all. They usually go for about $35/ea.

[Jenste]

I warn you! Axolotls are quite addictive!!

Congrats on right now having no substrate. They are little hoovers and when young they often suck of any type of substrate, sand included. Once over 4 inches, they can be somewhat trusted on sand.
Sand, bare bottom, very large rocks or slate tiles (siliconed to the bottom to prevent waste from being trapped or lifted out at each water change) are the only substrate choices you have. Gravel, small rocks, marbles etc will all end up swallowed eventually and can cause impaction and possibly be fatal.

I have raised juveniles from birth to adulthood together and have not had any problems keeping them together in small groups (knock on wood) when they are properly fed and when there are adequate hides and space.
They are probably going to get stressed in the 10 gallon from the crammed conditions. They are not highly active but they do appreciate space.
Once all limbs are healed, I would put them right into the 45 gallon.

Rather than roaches (they can't digest the shell) I recommend earth worms, cut to bite size pieces. This is what they should be eating for life. At this size feed daily, once they are 6-7+ inches or over 9 month, switch to every other day.
As adults, feed 2-3 times a week, 1-2 worms depending on the size of both axolotl and worm.

Be diligent about temperature - 70 and under is best, up to 72*F is fine. Over 75* is a serious cause for concern and needs to be immediately addressed.

[KingCam]

I warn you! Axolotls are quite addictive!!

Congrats on right now having no substrate. They are little hoovers and when young they often suck of any type of substrate, sand included. Once over 4 inches, they can be somewhat trusted on sand.
Sand, bare bottom, very large rocks or slate tiles (siliconed to the bottom to prevent waste from being trapped or lifted out at each water change) are the only substrate choices you have. Gravel, small rocks, marbles etc will all end up swallowed eventually and can cause impaction and possibly be fatal.

I have raised juveniles from birth to adulthood together and have not had any problems keeping them together in small groups (knock on wood) when they are properly fed and when there are adequate hides and space.
They are probably going to get stressed in the 10 gallon from the crammed conditions. They are not highly active but they do appreciate space.
Once all limbs are healed, I would put them right into the 45 gallon.

Rather than roaches (they can't digest the shell) I recommend earth worms, cut to bite size pieces. This is what they should be eating for life. At this size feed daily, once they are 6-7+ inches or over 9 month, switch to every other day.
As adults, feed 2-3 times a week, 1-2 worms depending on the size of both axolotl and worm.

Be diligent about temperature - 70 and under is best, up to 72*F is fine. Over 75* is a serious cause for concern and needs to be immediately addressed.

Thanks for all the advice, thanks to you too, Kitten. I think I will go ahead and put the two with all their limbs in the 45 and leave the injured axie in the 10 until he's all healed up. I will buy some nighcrawlers to feed them. I will cut them into more appropriatly sized pieces since nightcrawlers can be quite large.

[Jenste]

Sounds perfect!

Can't wait to see them as they grow! One of my youngin's, a male leucistic named Spryo was from an egg laying in early January, he declared he was *quite* the he back in June and is already topping the scales as my largest axolotl, both in bulk and length.

My two year old axolotls, 1 female 1 male are about 1 to 1/2 inches smaller, so be prepared for your little guys to have the potential to really grow!

[Heatheranne]

Very pretty! I've always liked these. Never had any as pets though. I'll be enjoying them vicariously through you and your posts .

[KingCam]

Can't wait to see them as they grow! One of my youngin's, a male leucistic named Spryo was from an egg laying in early January, he declared he was *quite* the he back in June and is already topping the scales as my largest axolotl, both in bulk and length.

My two year old axolotls, 1 female 1 male are about 1 to 1/2 inches smaller, so be prepared for your little guys to have the potential to really grow!

I hope mine grow very big! Diet certainly isn't going to be a limiting factor, cause I'm going to make sure they are fed on a daily basis until adulthood.



Oh, and on temperature. Their tank is in my basement. Even during the hottest days of summer (110F) it never gets above 73F down there. It will be mid 60's during Fall, Winter, and Spring.

[KingCam]

Random Update.

All of the axolotls have been moved into a 45 gallon tank without dividers. So far so good.

My tank seems to be doing really good. I had a population explosion of hydras and other water inverts. None of them seem to be bothering the axolotls, and after running the photos past a few people in chat on caudata.org it would seem I have nothing to worry about.

I am going to take this invertebrate invasion to be a sign of the tank being properly cycled and healthy.

Here are a few of the critters rooming with my axolotls. Let me know if you see anything I should be worried about.

Detritus worms? (They were on the opposite side of the sponge filter and seem to have vanished now that I've added a second sponge filter to the other side of the tank)


Black worms or something similar?


Hydras






The tank has filled in nicely with plants. I have to thin the duckweed multiple times per week in order to give the frog bit room to grow.




All of the axolotls are tong feeding readily now. They get night crawlers, young lobster roaches, and the soft sinking pellets the breeder gave me when I bought them.

My two melanoids are growing rapidly. They are getting bigger than my wildtype quickly. The melanoid with two missing hands has regrown both of them already! The most damaged one is still growing & getting bigger, but the other one looks completely healed.










Here is my wild type. He's staying smaller and his gills don't seem to be getting any bigger like the others. In fact, his seem to be a little bit damaged in the back. I am keeping an eye on him. They haven't gotten worse, but they don't seem to be getting better either. I might have to fridge him soon if I don't see any improvement.


For some reason the wildtype runs from the camera. Don't have as many photos of him.

The tank is staying a very consistent 69F (20.5C)

[Namio]

Congrats to the addition of these aquatic salamanders! Axolotls are hearty animals and I enjoy them a lot! I also enjoy the pics that you posted here. There are several axolotl pellet food on the market that you can use to feed alternatively to nightcrawlers. Pellets plus nigthcrawlers can basically serve as their staple diet.

[AquaticJess]

Those Melanoids are beautiful! I've been keeping an eye out for one at the reptile shows around here. So far, no luck :\