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My new family member! (Axolotl)


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Oh man all I can say is I'm in love. I absolutely adore this little guy, I picked him up for 40$ the other day at one of our LFS here in Edmonton, and I've been smitten ever since. I've been surfing the web pretty vigorously to get as much information on them as possible, and the more I read the more I fall in love haha. Take for instance I just read last night that you can hand feed them, and by today I already have him scurrying to my hand in hopes for food. He's such a little pig lol. Though I must say that I find it extremely interesting that these "fish" are just salamanders that sort of have chosen not to grow up haha, keeping the external gills, the awesome tadpole appearance, and somehow learned to mate before becoming an adult (Where have I heard that before? ;) ). Though in all my searching I have yet to see if I can get a tank mate for him, he will in a month or so be upgraded to a 55 gal., granted he's only 2 inches now, so he has a bit lol. I know not to get fish, as they'll nip at they're gills and legs, and it says that if not given enough room housed with each other they might take a nip at each other. Though personally I feel with a 55 and lots of hiding places they'd be fine together given the room they have to stay apart if they want too. I thought I might just pipe in and see if anyone has any thoughts on the matter! Also if anyone has any previous experience with these lovely guys I'd love to hear whatever you'd like to share! Also I was wondering where I could get myself some soft trout feeding pellets, as they suggest it is good food for my taco (His name, given they're also called Mexican Walking fish, lame I know :P) as they don't have teeth! That and where I could snag myself another one, preferably one of the black ones!

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You could safely house 3-4 adult axies in your 55 gal. As for food, the trout pellets are not necessary as they will gladly take cichlid pellets. The cichlid pellets don't break down as easily and so are a lot cleaner to use. I would pre-soak them before feeding. As for information, the best site on the net is a link on caudata.org to a related axolotl web-site. Sorry I don't know how to put the web-site on this message directly. Enjoy!

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Haha that link was the main one I was reading! But I think I might have missed how many I could hold haha. Though 3-4 eh, hmm I guess I'm going to have to starting finding myself a breeder or browsing the LFSs to see what I can come across. Thank you so much :)

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Congrats on your new fish!

I will add to Paul's comment by stating that not only are trout pellets not necessary, most trout chow has a very high crude fat content, which your axolotl most defintely does not require. Excessive fat content in fish food produces the same results as excessive fat content in human food, fatty tissue deposition in & around the organs, and decreased lifespan.

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My grandson got one about 3 years ago at 2 inches, he is now a good solid 8 inches. I have it housed in a 25 gal tank with a couple pieces of moss covered driftwood and a few other plants in the tank. I have fed this guy nothing but NLS 3mm sinking pellets and the occasional white cloud minnow. I had 30 in with him (now 8), but with the odd and long hours I work he never goes hungry. I keep the temp in the tank between 72 and 74 and he likes it, 20% W/C weekly (any more and he gets stressed for a day or two) They also prefer very low light.

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Is there a brand you recommend at all for the pellets? I'm rather curious to give New Life Spectrum a go, that or a good sinking pellet I could feed him, that'd be on the softer side. A suggestion for both would be great cause I wanna get my african cichilds a nice new food too lol. (Or if RD has a nice suggestion of which NLS would fit both my scenarios, I'm all ears to give the product a go, and you seem to know a rather lot on the food offerings from NLS :P)

Edited by CursiveDuck
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I have 8-9" haps that eat the 2mm Medium Fish formula, which should also work well for your 2" axolotl. You could move the axolotl up to the 3mm Large Fish formula as it gains size.

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Kk we'll I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt to get both sizes anyways, he's eventually going to grow up lol. Now to just find a breeder or place where I can get my hands on a black and a gray colour variation, of preferably the same size right now! Thanks for all the help RD :)

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Kk we'll I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt to get both sizes anyways, he's eventually going to grow up lol. Now to just find a breeder or place where I can get my hands on a black and a gray colour variation, of preferably the same size right now! Thanks for all the help RD :)

Big Al's has some natural colored axies.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Kk we'll I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt to get both sizes anyways, he's eventually going to grow up lol. Now to just find a breeder or place where I can get my hands on a black and a gray colour variation, of preferably the same size right now! Thanks for all the help RD smile.gif

I was at big al's last weekend and they had 1 maybe 2 that was black and grey coloration for the same price($40).

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Kk we'll I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt to get both sizes anyways, he's eventually going to grow up lol. Now to just find a breeder or place where I can get my hands on a black and a gray colour variation, of preferably the same size right now! Thanks for all the help RD smile.gif

I was at big al's last weekend and they had 1 maybe 2 that was black and grey coloration for the same price($40).

If you can make it to grande prairie I can give you a few.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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