Axalotils

[Esra]

Hey,

Anyone here have any experience with these little guys?
Are they generally ok with other fish or do they try and eat them?

Esra

 

[jbarr]

Oh! Zenkatydid has one, I saw it in his/her (sry!) avatar. He mentioned they aren't that uncommon in australia...
It sure sparked my interest.
I read they are endangered in their natural habitat, but are plentiful in labs/captivity.
I also read it's best to keep them by themselves as other fish/salamanders may view their gill-portrusion-awesome-antennae as delicious food.
I would like to know if anyplace in the midwest (near MN?) may have them?

 

[zenkatydid]

yeah, i have kept axolotls before, they're easy to find in pet shops around sydney, esra i'm sure you've seen them.

you cannot keep them with fish, however, they require a species only tank. anything that is mouth-sized they will eat, and anything else will nibble on their tasty-looking fluffy gills. ithey are also _extremely_ messy so i would not keep one in a tank any smaller than about 20gal. also they can grow up to a foot long (at that size they will need more like a 50gal tank), and if well-looked-after they will live for about 15 years. i have kept 2 together, but they tended to fight and injure each other, so i would only keep one. um, what else... they need to be in water under about 23 degrees celsius - more than that and they freak out and become very prone to disease. they would be happy at 15-20 degrees.

there is a very good axolotl forum at www.caudata.org that you should check out if you're really interested