Keeping Axolotls any experience.

[Fish_lord]

I have been offered to Axolotls which are babies.i know they are species only
I was just wondering has anyone kept them or had any experience with them.
I have a spare 200 litre tank and a spare 90 litre tank.
Any help/info/tips would be great
Thanks in advance


20 gallon fancy goldfish tank
150 gallon koi tank
60 gallon cichlid tank
2 gallon neon tetra tank

 

[lindenthaler.9]

It's been awhile since I've kept them, but I'll try to include everything I remember.

If you're getting them as babies definitely order some live food cultures in- if it's not moving they won't recognize it as food. I haven't tried raising babies myself, but I've seen many people lose them because they didn't have live food available. We fed ours earthworms and pellets. (Juveniles and up)

Sand or glass bottom- Don't use gravel. They can and probably will ingest it sooner or later. I've seen a lot of people use the fake grass as a bottom in their Axolotl tanks if you'd prefer to do that instead.
Floor space and good filtration are both very important. The rule is 20 US gallons per Axolotl, with a 20 long being preferable. I think the conversion is 75 litres.
Also, they can't be housed together young or they'll be cannibalistic towards each other. I think 4" is the safe size to house them together, but I'm not 100% on that. Maybe someone else here can verify that or correct it.

 

[lindenthaler.9]

I decided to go here to confirm what size you could start keeping them together at-

http://www.axolotl.org/requirements.htm

They list 3" as the smallest, but even 6" Axolotls can pose a threat to each other.

And they're definitely species only. I've seen people try to house them with goldfish and plecos. They try goldfish because they're both cool water, and that always ends in the Axolotl losing their gills. Plecos will attach themselves to the Axis and can cause some pretty serious damage, if not death. Sadly those combinations are fairly common, especially if buying from pet stores.

 

[dragon14]

A friend of mine got one recently. I don't know much about them, though. They're cute

They like colder water and should be alone. Can get up to 12-18" long.