Before I start off, a really big thanks to John for Axolotls: The Fascinating Mexican Axolotl and the Tiger Salamander - just sucha brilliant and helpful website with all the info from beginer level to pro!

Now the story: At the moment in Gauteng South Africa, our local nature conservation has been on a full blown attack to destroy all exotic amphibians brought into the country and on sale. I went into a 'back alley' pet shop and saw 2 axolotls on display, I returned to that pet shop this weekend to see if they were still there after I heard through the gravevine that nature conservation was on the look out. The guy still had the axolotls and had no idea how to keep them and what to do - he told me that if you want to breed them you just put marbles in the tank. He had them on very small pebbles which could easily be digested and had fish in with them . Unfortunatly the fish have nibbled most of the gills which is worrying. Is there anything that I can do to help, will they be okay?

So after a bit of negotiating we knocked the price to something we both agreed on (about $120 for the pair) and I rushed them home and put them in a spare tank I had. Unfortunatly my filter motor bombed out when I was setting it up, but the important thing is they set up and safe from being exterminated from Nature Conservation - even though its now illegal for me to have them...

Next is to get a bigger tank and a better filter that won't break.

Now the questions:

  • they eagerly took hake strips from me today, but I cut them the size of my thumb which I think was too big cause they spat them out afterwards
  • can i feed them small koi pellets
  • I am certain the white one (leusistic?) is the male and the black the female
  • will the gills grow back

Thanks in advance and here are the pics: