Axolotls! (PokeSepiroth's Little Aquatic Alien)

This topic is for general Axolotl care, and what have you. I will start off with my little one.

So, I got my first ever axolotl from bronzefighter, and I've fallen in love with it! I can't believe I've never taken care of these amazing creatures before!

It's currently about 3 1/2" long and it's the cutest thing I've seen! *squee!*

I'm starting to obsess over these things, and I wish I had more! Unfortunately, I only have a little 15 gallon tank, so I'm limited to just keeping one (No, I don't want to house more than one juvie axolotl in that tank, because they will eat eachothers limbs, no, I don't care if their limbs will grow back, it's still stress on them, so I'd rather just keep one.)

We've currently given it two names, if it turns out to be a female, we will call her Axelina Jolie. If it turns out to be a male, we call it Axel Rose. Cliche, yes, but catchy.

Here are some pictures. Take note, that I replaced the huge pebbles with smooth sand, so that I don't have to worry about it choking on a rock. =P





It does have a slightly curled tail, which usually means it's stressing out, but I think it's just because I've been keeping him in the garage where temps go below 50*F... s/he's now inside our house, in an unheated tank, so hopefully s/he will recover and de-stress a bit.

Anyone else taking care of Axolotls? Share your little critters on here! Stories, pictures, videos, anything!

Gravel = dead pet
I highly recommend sand.

Bill: . . .. did you not read the entire post? lol

Here are some pictures. Take note, that I replaced the huge pebbles with smooth sand, so that I don't have to worry about it choking on a rock. =P

Anyway, I already knew about the gravel being an issue, that's why I used huge sized pebbles, so that I knew it wouldn't try to eat anything that could fit in its mouth. Seriously, those pebbles were as big, if not bigger than its entire head. But I already knew I was going to replace it with sand shortly after.

I rarely read everything xD I just saw a picture of him with gravel xD
I apologize.

XD I do the same thing on facebook, I make a comment on someone's photo, and then I fail to realize that there are like 20 other comments that may have already addressed the same thing I was going to type. LOL.

Congrats on your new wet pet Angelo.  Axolotls are awesome.

We have two Axolotls now housed in a 33G long tank.  We got our first one at the GSAS picnic over the summer...here's a picture of the little guy that came home with us...my grandson named him "Chad"



This is the tank that we set up for Chad...we have since removed the slate piece on the far left as I didn't like the fact that I couldn't get it flat and I worried about stuff getting stuck underneath.



We have also learned that "Chad" should be called "Chadette".  We just adopted a wild type male at the most recent GSAS auction.  I think we lucked out and he is sized appropriately and so far seems to be doing OK together.  

I do have some worries about the new male as his previous food was entirely raw chopped earthworms.  I feed carnivore pellets, fly pellets, and bloodworms.  I am pretty sure he is not eating any of those still so I'm waiting to see what transpires here.  Either he will get hungry enough to eat them or he may get sick.  My biggest worry is that he will try to eat a piece of Chadette in his hunger.  I'm thinking to put a piece of eggcrate in the tank but I haven't taken that step yet.  He still looks healthy and she is getting fat because she's eating more than she should.  It worries me.  I'm not sure how to handle this.

Yipee...the male ate today. I dropped the carnivore tablets in front of him and he "bit"...yah!

EEEEEEEEEEe!!! So cute!! <3 thank you for sharing cichlid-gal!!

picture of some of my babbies

Look at all those babies...they are adorable.

OK...here are my guys...Chadette and Marley

So Adorable!! AHHHH!!!! I'm totally digging your tank, Donna! Cory and I were talking about Axolotls today, and he mentioned how you put tiles on your 33 gallon long, tank, and I was like "... omg that's genius!!"

Glad you're enjoying him/her/it/the thing. The adult axolotl that I gave my mom is pretty cool, I almost wish I kept it. He was hand fed as a juvie, so he now associates fingers with a food source, and has latched onto the tip of my finger multiple times when I'm rescaping or cleaning her tank.

OHHHH That's so cute!!!
Got a question for ya though, I've noticed that the one you gave me has 4 whitish dots on its head...they look uniform, so I figured it's nothing wrong, but I just wanted to make sure. Maybe you know what they're there for?

Also, I think it's still a bit stressed, as the tip of its tail is still curved . . . not sure what else I could be doing to make it destress...

PokeSephiroth wrote:OHHHH That's so cute!!!
Got a question for ya though, I've noticed that the one you gave me has 4 whitish dots on its head...they look uniform, so I figured it's nothing wrong, but I just wanted to make sure. Maybe you know what they're there for?

Also, I think it's still a bit stressed, as the tip of its tail is still curved . . . not sure what else I could be doing to make it destress...

hmm I don't know. I know that they get pigment on their heads, as the adult I had got used to the new environment he started coloring up a bit and now has spots of pigment on his head and back that look like freckles or dirt.

As far as a curved tail I couldn't tell you. I'm sure someone else with more experience could help you on that, or you could check in at http://www.caudata.org/forum/.

Thanks for the link bronzefighter!

they look weird as babies but the adults are cute

PokeSephiroth wrote:So Adorable!! AHHHH!!!! I'm totally digging your tank, Donna! Cory and I were talking about Axolotls today, and he mentioned how you put tiles on your 33 gallon long, tank, and I was like "... omg that's genius!!"

Thanks Angelo...the slate tiles fit perfectly other than right at the end I had like a 1/3rd inch overlap. I don't have a tile cutter so I removed the last one.

cichlid-gal:I'm surprised the place where you bought the tiles, didn't cut them for you... Hrmmm...

MorganEA: Am I missing something here? The babies and adults look the same to me. LOL

Lol! the adults have filled out more and don't look so strange, the babies look like tadpoles.

PokeSephiroth wrote:cichlid-gal:I'm surprised the place where you bought the tiles, didn't cut them for you... Hrmmm...

MorganEA: Am I missing something here? The babies and adults look the same to me. LOL

I actually bought those tiles for another tank project and then didn't use them. So they were just sitting around and I decided to use them for this tank. I was really happy that they fit so well. So no complaints here.

Oh nice! Yeah, I had recently bought a 12 gallon long (Mr. Aqua) tank at Aquarium Co-Op, and figured I could put my axolotl in there for the time being. Then Cory mentioned how you placed yours in a 33 gallon long tank, which I kinda wish I had gotten instead, LOL... alas, I'm happy with my 12 long.

I might have to go tile shopping soon! =P

Here's a quick video of Axl Rosalotl/Axelina Jolie in her new 12 Gallon Long Tank:
(I seriously though s/he was going to go after the worm, but s/he ended up not eating it at all. Hahaha)

Ha ha ha... she went into hiding. She looks good, no curled tail so you must have got that figured out. I know they don't like much current in the tank. I have a sponge filter over my output (I run a Fluval 306 on that 33G long and have cut a long sponge piece to act like a diffused spraybar). Works great.

cichlid-gal: Huh... I thought that it was curled, because the veeeeeery tip of the tail (like the last 2 millimeters) is kinda curved in almost like a 90 degree angle.

I have a Penn Plax Cascade 300 Internal Filter, with a spray bar that's spraying water right up against the glass, to diffuse the strength of flow.

KaraWolf: LOL!! I was actually tempted to make some kind of audio dialog with something similar to that, alas, my voice is not talented enough to make a voice that suits what I think axolotls sound like. HAHAHA!

oh...I see the curl now...not sure about that

Here's a better video where you can see the "curled" tail... I'm starting to think that it may have just grown "wrong" and is permanently like that... although, I will keep a close eye on him/her

That's a pretty good possibility! The adult my mom has only has 3 toes on one foot, and due to the 'fluidity' of their genetics (growing back limbs, organs, etc) things like missing or extra limbs isn't uncommon.

I saw one of these for the first time last week at Denny's in Totem Lake, and I sort of want to get one... although I would like to start from a baby and not an adult, so if anyone has extra babies at any point, I will totally buy one! They are very cute looking

Also, do they breed in captivity? I guess I assumed so with that picture of all the babies

Very cute! I looked into axolotls a few years ago, but I didn't think I would be able to keep the water cool enough for them in the summertime. My house gets quite warm during those months.

LuminousAphid: I'm pretty sure they've been bred in captivity. There are tons of youtube videos on how to breed them, and showing the eggs hatching and whatnot.

Ive consider keeping these, but in the end the bichir fever hit. Maybe in my next tank.... I might try out some of these.

Very cool little alien Poke!  

DMD123: Oh man, I am SOOOO tempted to try my hands on keeping a Bichir, but I don't want to keep it in a 55 gallon tank. :\ . . . someday, I will keep one in a large large laaaaaaaarge tank.

My Axolotl no longer has a curved tail! WHOOPEEE!!!

These are awesome little critters. Glad he's settled in Poke!

I wanna spoil him rotten!

Do post pics of the straightened Axelina Jolie

MRTom: I'll do you one even better! Video!

daawww... too cute!  

cichlid-gal wrote:OK...here are my guys...Chadette and Marley

How big are these guys? They look absolutely enormous!!!

Pneumostome wrote:

cichlid-gal wrote:OK...here are my guys...Chadette and Marley

How big are these guys?  They look absolutely enormous!!!

They are probably about 9" each now....Chadette just wouldn't turn around and pose for the photo shoot...sorry

Whoa, I did t realize that there was a heater in there. What's the water temp in there?
I'm struggling to keep the water in my tank below 65*f...its currently around 68-70*f

I think that 68-70 is OK Angelo at least from my readings. My temp is 69.5 or around there. Our house is 68 degrees during the day and 65 at night so sometimes the heater will kick on.

Yeah keeping these guys is a lot of fun and if anyone wants to know how to breed or interested in babies I spawn them from time to time...

Oooh, interesting! I'm glad that they can do well in those temps. I do have some backup frozen water bottles in the freezer in case the water gets too warm in his tank (might become a problem once summer hits, but at least I'm ready for it. LOL!)

I recently added a little feeding dish in Axl Rosalotl's tank, to prevent *most* of the mess from spreading around in the tank, and it seems to really keep the food in place! It's great for live blackworms, that way they don't burrow into the sand or any decor, and they all stay in the same place, just waiting to be eaten.

I'm happy to say, that Axl Rosalotl has finally discovered the food dish!

I still enjoy hand feeding him, that's for sure

if you raise the eggs warm and hatch them warm and keep them warm then you wont have issues with them in the summer weird thing though and it should matter but I don't get 50/50 sexing that way but sure pays off in the long run.. ive had guys at 80+ for more than a week no issues and yes the water bottle trick is awesome for summer months especially if you normaly keep them cooler..

I have to hand feed Marley...he just won't hunt down food...silly lotl. Now Chadette...she's an eater...no problems there. She will find any leftovers in the tank and clean them up for me. But I do watch for uneaten foods and siphon them out right away if they are not eaten in short order so their water doesn't foul.

Wow, he's grown so much!

Indeed he has!