# Axolotl



## lwbfl (May 9, 2006)

My wife had an Axolotl as a kid and it lived for several years before passing on to the big river in the sky.  Back in September 05, she decided she wanted another one.  What a pain this turned out to be.  We called every pet store we could find within 100 miles, searched the net, etc.  Nobody had any nor could they order any.  We finally found a pet shop in Des Moines, IA (www.aqualandpetsplus.com/index.htm) and he agreed to ship us one to Florida for us.  Well, shipping became a problem with first one carrier, then another but we finally got him in!  Larry was very helpful both with e-mails and phone conversations and wouldn't even accept our payment until after we had made sure our "Ax" was in good shape (about a week!).  I've only found a few people that even know what one is and it's a great conversation starter for company!  I know a few of you have these also, lets see them!


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## Mushroom Spore (May 9, 2006)

How on earth does shipping work for aquatics? I'd dearly love one, but I don't know if our local exotics shop could get any. 

Ditto for wondering how difficult they are to move in general, like if I have to go from one apartment to another a few blocks away (ah, the wonders of college life, always looking for the cheapest  ).


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## lwbfl (May 9, 2006)

Mushroom Spore said:
			
		

> How on earth does shipping work for aquatics? I'd dearly love one, but I don't know if our local exotics shop could get any.
> 
> Ditto for wondering how difficult they are to move in general, like if I have to go from one apartment to another a few blocks away (ah, the wonders of college life, always looking for the cheapest  ).


This sounds funny but it's how they get them and how they all ship them.  They put them in the fridge overnight, pack them in a styrofoam cooler with icepacks in very little water.  If you were just moving a few blocks, no different than having fish.  Just put it/them in a ziplock bag with water (I'd pack them last and set them up first).


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## Marcelo (May 9, 2006)

Regarding to Axolots  they come from the chapapala and texcoco lakes near  Mexico City. My father told me that there are seafood restaurants around there were you can eat axolotl soup. 
As you might now  nowadays it is difficult to find axolots, I used to have some of them in the past.

Good luck with yours.


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## GailC (May 9, 2006)

I had axolots in the past, very cool little guys. Some times you can find them for sale at http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24563/24563.html?1147121248


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## lwbfl (May 9, 2006)

Marcelo said:
			
		

> Regarding to Axolots  they come from the chapapala and texcoco lakes near  Mexico City. My father told me that there are seafood restaurants around there were you can eat axolotl soup.
> As you might now  nowadays it is difficult to find axolots, I used to have some of them in the past.
> 
> Good luck with yours.


They are also a major fish bait in Mexico, which also makes them harder to get now.


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## Alissa (May 10, 2006)

I have a leucistic one. It's my favorite baby  (actually, its named the fetus which is apt but gross). I've had it for a few years now, from a little almost legless baby, it's getting huge. (only traumatic event was when a firebellied newt escaped its tank and crawled into the axos, eating chunks of its gill and 2 legs). I cried and had to kick the crap out of my brother for laughing at me, and the legs and gills eventually regenerated like new.


I think most of the ones in the US right now are descended from/actually from the axolotl colony at a university in Indiana. caudata.org has more info on them, and thats a place to contact if you can't find one anywhere, I think. Because of their ability to regenerate limbs/etc they are widely used in genetic studies (this is because they reach sexual maturity in the larval stage, I believe).


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## Mushroom Spore (May 10, 2006)

Hey, can axolotls eat crickets? I've been toying with raising my own crickets or something before long, as weekly trips to the petshop are becoming inconvenient. It would also give me an excuse to get more pets that eat crickets.  

I was already thinking about a leopard gecko, but maybe I could FINALLY get an axy too, if they'll eat these. And if they're as easy to move as it sounds, that takes another major worry off my mind. :clap:


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## GailC (May 10, 2006)

I never could get mine to eat crickets. I feed earthworms and raw, cut up prawns.


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## lwbfl (May 10, 2006)

Alissa said:
			
		

> I have a leucistic one. It's my favorite baby  (actually, its named the fetus which is apt but gross). I've had it for a few years now, from a little almost legless baby, it's getting huge. (only traumatic event was when a firebellied newt escaped its tank and crawled into the axos, eating chunks of its gill and 2 legs). I cried and had to kick the crap out of my brother for laughing at me, and the legs and gills eventually regenerated like new.
> 
> 
> I think most of the ones in the US right now are descended from/actually from the axolotl colony at a university in Indiana. caudata.org has more info on them, and thats a place to contact if you can't find one anywhere, I think. Because of their ability to regenerate limbs/etc they are widely used in genetic studies (this is because they reach sexual maturity in the larval stage, I believe).


Good info, I didn't know they could grow back thier legs!  What do you feed yours?  We feed ours bloodworms (frozen), shrimp pellets, tubiflex worms, and keep a couple of small feederfish in his tank so sometimes he gets lucky and catches one.


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## RVS (May 10, 2006)

I kept axolotls as a child. I'd love to keep them again!


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## Marcelo (May 11, 2006)

Yes, they can eat crickets 

cheers


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## intrepidus6 (May 11, 2006)

Do axolotls make good pets?


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## lwbfl (May 11, 2006)

If you like to simply watch something sit around doing nothing until feeding time, yes they make good pets.  Mine is set up at the end of my couch and he will move over to the side of the tank to stare at you.  As far as eating crickets, mine is so clumsy and eyesight is to poor that he can catch much if it's moving.  I don't know how these guys make it in the wild.  Mine finds food more by smell than sight it seems.  If something happens to get close enough to touch his head he will snap it up, but other than that he has to smell it.


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## Alissa (May 11, 2006)

intrepidus6 said:
			
		

> Do axolotls make good pets?


Mine is my favorite pet and the one I am the most emotionally attached to. It's probably also the stupidest and grossest animal I own, which should be a testament to how endearing it is to be able to get away with that.




			
				lwbfl said:
			
		

> Good info, I didn't know they could grow back thier legs!  What do you feed yours?  We feed ours bloodworms (frozen), shrimp pellets, tubiflex worms, and keep a couple of small feederfish in his tank so sometimes he gets lucky and catches one.


I feed mine frozen bloodworms (I put him in a smaller seperate tank to eat them so he doesn't foul up the water), freezedried krill, earthworms that I dig up outside (no pesticides, ferts, etc in my yard and worms have a good calcium to phosphorus ratio), and the occasional small feeder roach. I try to give him a pretty good variety of food, and what your feeding it sounds about perfect. It's a pain in the ass to get it to take the crickets from the top of the tank, but he eventually finds em. I'm afraid to give him feeder fish or live tubifex just because I'm paranoid about parasites. A lot of people feed beef heart but its too fattening and I don't think its a good source of food. Another common food is trout chow but I don't like pellets very much.

I ended up taking all the gravel out of the tank because it was eating it. I tried bigger rocks, but it ate those too. I felt pretty bad for the poor guy, he was barfing up rocks for awhile after I emptied the tank. Now he just has terracotta flowerpot halves to hide in. The only downside to this is that the tank doesn't look very cute or natural, but I really perfer sanitary and safe to pretty. It's pretty easy to vacuum out the waste and I give him fairly frequent water changes, and have a good sized filter on its tank (set to the lowest setting to avoid stress but it has a good volume of filter media for ammonia converting bacteria). I think thats pretty much the extent of what I do, care is pretty easy.


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## lwbfl (May 12, 2006)

Yeah, eating can be a mess, but I usually keep some very small feeder guppies in his tank to help keep it clean.  I have a 55 gallon tank with tropical fish that I usually put them in for a couple of weeks, that way the treated water will (hopefully) keep illness and parasites down.  We have a small canister type submersible filter in the tank that doesn't disturb the water much to help also.   I know what you mean about the rocks, we knew that from previous experience and only have large rocks in our tank. My wifes was white like our current one and you could see the pink and blue rocks in it's belly!  It was weird to see him spit or poop them out!


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## lwbfl (May 24, 2006)

Well, the feeder guppy I had in my Ax's tank got too brave and began nipping his gills.  So, I "assisted" my clumsy friend in catching him.  He got real excited to eat love prey again!


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