axolotl care tips

axolotls are totally amazing and make great pets.  perhaps you were not aware of this, or perhaps you were not even aware of the existence of axolotls.   this post is meant to spread axolotl awareness.

axolotls are a sort of aquatic, unmetamorphosed salamanders, but they resemble a fantastic dinosaur-fish-dragon-lizard with a crazy hairdo.   (see also:  mudkipz)  they can regenerate lost limbs.  gotta respect that.

there aren't a ton of places to find axolotl info, so we'll post some things we've learned over the past year or so of sharing our home with some adorable 'lotls.

axolotl.org is a great place to get started.  we've been able to piece together answers to any questions we had by searching the axolotl forums

we got our axolotls from ward's natural science, but if we were looking for more we might check here for breeders first.

young 'lotls will be about 1-4 inches long, but they can grow to be about a foot long so make sure you have plenty of tank space.  at least 10 gallons of water per
'lotl is necessary and a wider tank is better than a deeper tank if you have a choice.  they do best alone.  tank mates will often accidentally nip at each other and can be injured - they don't seem to have very good vision and anything that moves is assumed to be food.

they will swallow any pebbles smaller than their mouths so make sure you line the bottom of the tank with large rocks or sand.  a single layer of big rocks makes it easier to clean.  they are pretty sensitive creatures and need cool water temperatures - try to keep it below 72 degrees F.  frozen water bottles floating in the top of the tank can help lower water temps on the hottest days.  they sometimes freak out and swim around the tank like crazy when they are disturbed by vibrations, like slamming doors or bumping the tank, so a quiet, dark place is ideal for tank placement.   we test the water with something like Mardel 5-in-1 Test Strips and ej slips on some nice yellow rubber gloves and uses a turkey baster and a bucket to suck out the dirt around the rocks at least once a week.

we keep a small tank of minnows and drop one each in the axolotl tanks every other day or so.  we also feed them the occasional mealworm or ghost shrimp, all obtained from the local pet shop.  earthworms are also an excellent source of food for axolotls and we can't wait to move to a place where we can keep a bucket of worms in the shed. (dream big, right?)  we fed our babies live brine shrimp and crushed salamander pellets.

they are pretty active and very graceful in the water and endlessly fun to watch.  they are much more interesting than fish without the escape risk of most small pets.  axolotls are critically endangered in the wild, so consider keeping one or a few to help ensure the survival of this incredibly cool species.