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Hey,

Does anyone keep an axolotl for a pet? I care for them as lab animals and they are awesome! If you do have one, where did you get it and how do you have the tank set up for them?

Kept them up until last year, 4 ft tank for two adults, lots of floating and clumped plants to encourage spawning, large smooth pebbly gravel, good filtration, slightly acid water and good oxygenation. They fed on bloodworm , earthworms, crickets , waxworms, small fish, and the reptomin turtle pellets. Dimly lit tank with a few caves etc.They got to about 10 inches and then I passed them on to someone who wanted a breeding group.Still alive as far as I know, he was a good keeper. The only fish I kept with them was a medium sized tiger plec who sorted the algae for me. Cool pet , if a little e to fungal infections. Lousy in community settings though, they will eat small fish and have those frilly gills get nipped.

Nice animal for a lake bed setup.

The axo's I had were rescues from a batch of 20 that had been kept with red eared turtle neonates, they were ultimately the only survivors, the others all had chunks missing out of them and succumbed to infection. They were a natural colour, and a black morph.


Last edited by longhairedgit at 07-Dec-2005 18:21

I have two, a male and a female.

I bought the female on impulse at an auction. She was quite small (10cm?) and has only 5 gill stalks.
The BF thought she was lonely and convinced me to buy her a friend. The closest to her size i could fin was a good 5cm bigger. needless to say 3 gills and 2.5 legs later the male found himself living in a storage box while i nursed the girl back to her former self.

All legs present and accounted for.

I have recently moved them both into a divided 2' tank (juggling at the moment, they will be getting larger quarters in a month or so. I am not brave enough to put them together again in case the male gets mouthy again.

I have them on a sand substrate with large river rocks. It was one of the other because they kept eating anything in between. the large river rocks hide too much waste so the filter can't grab it, so sand and rocks seems to be a good alternative.
They get mainly sinking algae wafers (Hikari, high protien content, designed for the more carnivorous bottom feeders) and tubifex, and the off cricket. mealies werent a big hit, neither like frozen food (brainfreeze?) and beefheart is not something I want to give them.
earthworms go down a treat, as do small fish I never have to worry about culling betta fry

It is not the most ideal setup at the moment, but soon i'm hoping that I can make the tank into a bit of a display piece. I'm having difficulty doing it while keeping the water level low, but i'm sure i'll come up with something.

When I first got her (TINY!)


When i first got him. She has a belly full of stones *sigh*

I don't have any more recent ones, but the girl has quite a 'feminine' shape. I always thought that she was oddly conformed, but its quite obvious now that she is all belly. very weirdlt put-together little lady.

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For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett