Advanced-Level Axolotl Keeping

Techniques and Advice

[axodemia]

Axolotless

As of 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time on today November 5, 2017, I will no longer own axolotls.

Regrettably, the rental my family is moving to does not allow pets of any kind. I'm not going to get into how asinine it is for a landlord to not allow a small fish tank or two in a 3 story house that has an unfinished basement... Or why my girlfriend just HAD to have the apartment that doesn't allow pets, meaning she would have to give up the rabbit she's had for 5 years and I would have to give up my axolotls... Luckily my parents have rabbits and can foster hers, but there is no one to foster my axolotls.

I will be bringing my 4 axolotls to South Shore Tropicals in Lindenhurst, NY when they open later today. I have sold this shop axolotls before, and I am confident in their ability to care for my animals and find good homes for them. If you live in NY and want axolotls, please go see them. They will have my 2 wild types, one golden albino, and one melanoid.

As I will no longer have the type of animal to which this blog is dedicated, this page will shortly go defunct. Look for the return of Axodemia in a year or two when we move out of this rental.

It has been a fun ride, but I bid you all a fond farewell.

[megurashkarchived]

[axodemia]

I stick my leggy out real far

[axodemia]

Bless you my teacher doesn't believe axolotls are reAl

LOL! Thank you for your support! Your teacher is totally missing out!!PS: this message got lost in my inbox for a while so I'm sorry for the late response!

[axodemia]

Hello! So, I'm getting some axolotls soon and I've been trying to decide if I want to use sand or a bare bottom tank. But I also recently saw someone using a non stick rug mat as a substrate. So I'm wondering if this might be a safe thing to use? I'm figuring if it is, it would be nice and easy cleaning but also give the axies something to grip onto. Thanks in advance!

Hi! Thank you for your question!

I would be worried about the mat deteriorating over time and contaminating the water or becoming an ingestion hazard. Those mats aren’t meant for underwater use. On top of that, those mats have little holes all throughout, and it would be easy for the animal to get its toes caught and tangled up. In fact, when I worked at a pet store I heard horror stories from customers who said they used a similar type of mat for their gecko, and the gecko got its toes tangled up in the holes and broke a few bones.

Ideally, price wouldn’t be an issue when you’re talking about what’s best for your animal, but unfortunately we live in the real world. If you’re worried about the price of substrate, you can drive to a local beach, river, pond, or whatever body of water and collect sand from there. You just have to be sure that: A) you take it from a clean beach that’s free of litter, B) you sift out larger rocks or pebbles that could be accidentally ingested by the animal, and C) you boil the sand in a big pot of water for a while, and then dump out the water and rinse it thoroughly before adding it to your tank.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

PS: I forgot to mention that sand is incredibly easy to clean, because the fecal matter and food scraps just sit right on top of the sand and don’t get buried or fall below the surface like it would with gravel in a fish tank. Sand also allows you to have live plants, which will consume some of the axolotl's waste.

[axodemia]

Hi. Soooo where’s the best place to order and axolotl? Or like is there a ‘chain’ store that I can go to and hand pick it out??

Hi! Great question.

First of all, DO NOT buy from buy-axolotls.com. They are extremely overpriced and probably inbred.

If my memory serves me correctly, within the axolotl section on caudata.org there is a message board devoted to buying and selling axolotls. Breeders will post photos and/or descriptions of specimens they have available, and you message that person directly and arrange a sale with them. If you read through the posts on the page, you will see reviews and thanks from people who have bought from specific breeders on the site. Go with a breeder who posts often and has good reviews from other users. I bought one from a breeder on there, I believe her name was Margie, or Marnie, or something like that? She was very courteous and knowledgeable, and I was very satisfied with the purchase. She even helped me with some questions I had after I received the specimen. Because they are shipped in the mail, the breeders will often not ship in excessively cold or hot weather. This is something to keep in mind if you live in a climate that's cold this time of year.

Another option is to call around to local fish shops in your area and ask if they have axolotls. The big national chain pet stores do not carry axolotls. Just be careful buying from a fish shop, because axolotls have very special care requirements that many store employees don't know about. Be sure to check the tank for hazards like gravel, sharp edges, and fish, and check the physical health of the animal before you make the purchase.

Good luck, and please ask if you have other questions!

[tricktster]

I got Taako and Lup dishes so they don’t lose so many worms/so they can feel reassured that they will have enough food and not want to chomp each other’s feets.

What I forgot is that they are axolotls, an animal so hellbent on only rolling 1s on their perception checks that the great DM in the sky had to give them unlimited regeneration in a halfassed attempt to balance the class before he gave up on them entirely and got really into squirrels.

What I’m saying is that without my immediate intervention they’re going to starve to death.

[tricktster]

Update: this morning, Taako, the little shit, was just sitting in his food dish. Just chilling. He can get in there no problem. Much like my friend Kyle’s favorite t-shirt in 2003, the little dude had NO FEAR.

A reminder of what I had to do yesterday to convince him that the bowl was safe to peer into:

He ate an entire leisurely dinner like that while my fingers went numb. I just realized something.

…Maybe he’s not the dumb one in this equation.

[axodemia]

This is exactly why I gave up on using dishes to feed my axolotls.

[axodemia]

"Hi food please"

[axodemia]

Meet Øquimiqatlcēhuatlihtic, a 9 month old melanoid axolotl! This is the only one I kept from the clutch of eggs that hatched this past winter. His name roughly translates to "I kill them from water shadow" in Nahuatl. If anyone out there actually speaks Nahuatl, please help me verify that I have the correct translation.

[axodemia]

Never realized this handsome fellow was a melanoid albino until I put him in a tank with decent lighting! Don’t mind all the copepods on the glass.

[axodemia]

I seem to have caused some confusion by adding the descriptor “albino” to the phenotype “melanoid.” Although melanism is a type of albinism, “melanoid” and “albino” refer to separate genes expressing dominant or recessive traits.

(Table from http://www.axolotl.org/genetics.htm)

I acknowledge that calling it a “melanoid albino” was pleonastic and misleading.

According to this table, the specimen in this photo is just melanoid, and not melanoid albino.

Over time its greenish xanthophores will disappear, and it will become velvety black.

[axodemia]

Table 12-1 from "Developmental Biology of the Axolotl" regarding the scientifically recognized color variants of Ambystoma mexicanum. Note: this is scientific literature from 1987 and does not account for all of the "designer" phenotype axolotls found in the pet trade today.

[axodemia]

Never realized this handsome fellow was a melanoid albino until I put him in a tank with decent lighting! Don’t mind all the copepods on the glass.

[axolotlapothecary]

Melanoid albino are actually white with no irodophores! He’s a handsome regular melanoid :)

[axodemia]

Melanism is a type of albinism where they lack iridophores but have melanophores and xanthophores. The names for the different types of albinism in Ambystoma mexicanum are largely disputed, and I'm probably referencing different literature than you.

I will post a scan of the albinism chart from "Developmental Biology of the Axolotl" when I get home tonight.

[axodemia]

Never realized this handsome fellow was a melanoid albino until I put him in a tank with decent lighting! Don't mind all the copepods on the glass.

[smaxolotl]

I was heavy-handed with the bloodworms last night…

I once read that you should feed your young axolotl until its belly is as wide as its head. I suppose growing juveniles could put the extra food to good use, but there’s no way I’m feeding my little ones like this every day. It’s nice when they finally learn how to  hunt on their own though. You can trust that the stray pellet or worm here and there will be snapped up in no time once the human feeder walks away and they remember food doesn’t only come directly from him.

[axodemia]

At a quick glance, an axolotl's belly-to-head width ratio is the key to determining how well-nourished it is, assuming that it's eating the average axolotl diet.

In the wild, it is rare to see aquatic salamanders reach an even belly-to-head width ratio. Twisting their whole body back and forth to swim everywhere burns a huge amount of calories (especially in any kind of current), and prey may not be as readily available as they would prefer.

In captivity, handlers are able provide an optimal diet comprising an endless supply of specially formulated meals. Axolotls, unlike the proverbial goldfish, know their limits with food intake. It is the handler's duty to provide the axolotl with enough food to fully satisfy its hunger. Food should be offered daily, and uneaten food should be removed from the enclosure within 30 minutes.

Be advised that the axolotl will not consume the same amount of food everyday. Some days, the axolotl may not eat anything - this is not necessarily a sign of poor health, more likely that the axolotl is fully sated. Remember that wild aquatic salamanders may not find food everyday, and it will seem natural that the axolotl's metabolism doesn't require it to eat everyday.

[axodemia]

there are some random seeds sprouting in my outdoor aquarium. really curious to see what they are.

[axodemia]

where the pellet went?

[axodemia]

Has anyone tried these pellets for axolotls? Mine just spit them out. I think they're too hard, but I tried softening them up in a dish of water ahead of time and they don't go for those either. They're picky little critters. If you feed your axolotls pellets, please message me or comment what pellet you use and where you buy them. Thanks!

[axodemia]

there's an axolotl in there... somewhere.