| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| dairycow7 |
Posted - 31 March 2004 : 3:47:05 PM
Hey Everyone.
I'm Emma and have just bought my first axolotyl on sunday march
28th 2004. She's only 6months old and is golden in colour, with pink
gills that lighten in colour when she sleeps.
Currently i'm feeding her pellets called 'axolotl food'. She seems
to like it enough.
I did so much reading up on them before I purchased one, I was
wondering whether someone could tell me whether or not they are
blind or vision impaired a little?
It seems that Bella (that's her name), isn't though. Like, the other
day, she was sitting with her face in the back right hand corner of
the tank, and i bent down and put my face close to the middle of the
front of the glass, and immediately she came over, swam up a bit and
put her 2 front legs on the glass and just looked up at me. So,
although I wouldn't bet my life on her being able to see, I do
believe that she can. Also, was wondering, if they can see, are they colour blind?
I was wondering, if you could give me any handy hints on keeping
them as pets. I mean, when I was researching the topic, I came
across one website that said that i should put something in the tank
so that they can hide in it, cause they don't have eyelids. Is this
also true or not?
Could you please tell me what the different types are, and what colours/attributes they are/have? Thanks.
Any feedback would be great. Thanks.
Regards,
Emma
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| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| paulmelba |
Posted - 16 May 2007 : 04:43:34 AM
Personal Loan
13eda8b1t |
| dholwerda |
Posted - 07 April 2004 : 10:23:55 AM
come on - don't be modest - you are the guru |
| shy |
Posted - 06 April 2004 : 01:06:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by dholwerda
shy said it all - again - good luck with Bella!
Huh? *dumb look* -- what I do?
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| dholwerda |
Posted - 05 April 2004 : 11:55:41 AM
hi Emma,
shy said it all - again - good luck with Bella! |
| shy |
Posted - 01 April 2004 : 10:24:04 AM
quote:
Originally posted by dairycow7
Bella does eat out of my hand, already. The ppl at the fish shop had her for 5 days and that's the only way that they fed her. So incidently she's so used to it, that she won't eat, unless I hand feed it to her.
We prefer hand feeding as then you know exactly how much food they are getting, with one axy it's not so hard, cause you put food in and its gone then they have eaten it, but with 10 its hard to know who is getting what, especially because some of larger ones can eat up to two blocks of bloodworms in a sitting compared to the smaller ones that are happy with a half a block.
quote:
Regarding the heat, I have a temp gauge set up so that i can monitor it, and have been keeping it at the desired level. Although when it does get up higher, I'm a bit worried, b/c at the moment, for a week or so, we're going to have her in a 12" x 7" x 8" tank, and when it gets hot, i put ice cubes in there to cool it down, but I'm concerned that it may be too soon of a temp change. Just wondering how, I could avoid it being too sudden.
As long as the temperature is dropping they will be fine with the temperature change. With our sick axies, we put them in the frig straight from the tank, but getting them out of the frig, they have to stay in a container with lots of ice until they adjust to the room temp or tank temp.
quote:
I was just wondering, are there any tricks you can make ur axy's do?
You will find that they will invent their own tricks.
 In the Tank of Death, Herb and Ivan are the kings of synchronized swimming and Erszebet is also learning to do this, yet the others don't.
If there is trouble happening in the tank Big Ed is always in the middle of it, unless he has caused it. And has become a serial axy beater and has been exhiled to another tank.
 Little Ivan loves he's food, and doesn't like waiting in the line. I have seen him run up another axy's back when they are getting fed and take their food and run and hide in the pirate ship to eat it. He is often refered to as our little footballer as that's what it looks like when he runs up the back of another axy!
Herb is the tank grinner. At any given time he will be at the front of the tank, standing taller on his front legs giving you what looks like a big grin!
 And of course Andrei who is the ringleader for this puppy begging position. Since coming into the tank has taught just about all the axolotls to stand on their back legs at feeding time.
To read more about the axies in our tank - http://www.tankofdeath.com/archive.asp or to have a look at the movies of axy antics - http://www.tankofdeath.com/video.asp
quote:
You know like a dog does when they have food on their nose and they throw it up in the air and catch it in their mouth? Well, anyway, it was so adorable!
Well this would make sense Emma as the true meaning of the word axolotl is not clear, but one viable explanations is "water-dog", atl meaning water and xolotl meaning dog. So for them to behave like dogs makes sense. I know we see a lot of puppy-like action in the tank.
quote:
I was just wondering, how much should I handle her and what's the best way w/o hurting her? Cause when i first got her, she was really frightened when I touched her, I mean, she just swam away from my hand as quickly as she could. Now, she's okay with me touching her, but doesn't like it too often. Is this normal? OR should i not touch her at all?
I do not know the absolute correct answer for this, but with ours, they like to be petted, rubs on the head, back and tummy are things they will line up for. I have found the best way to hold them is around the middle, with your palm on their belly and holding loosely around their legs, they feel like chicken fillets and will squirm if they don't like what you are doing.
quote:
Another question, her right back foot, has 4 and a half digits on it. Is this okay? I only noticed the other day, and I got a little worried about her.
Axies will loose and grow limbs as required. So if they loose a limb and they don't feel they need it, it will not grow back, if a limb is injured, it will wither and drop off and can grow it back again if they want to. Though the process of dropping a limb is stressful for them, if you keep them cool and fed they will go through it quite well. I know little Ivan hasn't got an original limb left on him, yet he quite happily mixes it up with the other tank inhabitants.
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| dairycow7 |
Posted - 01 April 2004 : 08:50:40 AM
Thanks for all that info Shy. It's greatly appreciated.
Bella does eat out of my hand, already. The ppl at the fish shop had her for 5 days and that's the only way that they fed her. So incidently she's so used to it, that she won't eat, unless I hand feed it to her.
Regarding the heat, I have a temp gauge set up so that i can monitor it, and have been keeping it at the desired level. Although when it does get up higher, I'm a bit worried, b/c at the moment, for a week or so, we're going to have her in a 12" x 7" x 8" tank, and when it gets hot, i put ice cubes in there to cool it down, but I'm concerned that it may be too soon of a temp change. Just wondering how, I could avoid it being too sudden.
I was just wondering, are there any tricks you can make ur axy's do? Or any that they just do on there own? Just wondering, b/c yesterday, when I fed Bella, rather than actually feed it to her, I put it on her nose and she tilted her head upward, so that the pellet gently floated up in the water, and then snapped it up. You know like a dog does when they have food on their nose and they throw it up in the air and catch it in their mouth? Well, anyway, it was so adorable!
I was just wondering, how much should I handle her and what's the best way w/o hurting her? Cause when i first got her, she was really frightened when I touched her, I mean, she just swam away from my hand as quickly as she could. Now, she's okay with me touching her, but doesn't like it too often. Is this normal? OR should i not touch her at all?
Another question, her right back foot, has 4 and a half digits on it. Is this okay? I only noticed the other day, and I got a little worried about her.
Thanks, I appreciate all the info and feed back that you're giving me.
Regards,
Emma |
| shy |
Posted - 31 March 2004 : 11:17:59 PM
quote:
Originally posted by dairycow7
I'm Emma and have just bought my first axolotyl on sunday march
28th 2004. She's only 6months old and is golden in colour, with pink
gills that lighten in colour when she sleeps.
Congrats on your first axy Emma! - The gills are often refered to as 'feathers' and you will find when the axolotl is feeding or soon after feeding they will glow and when the food is digested and before feeding they are dull. Some feathers are spectacular colours, our most recent addition to the Tank of Death, Edmund is a large black axy and his feathers glow a deep purple colour!
quote:
Currently i'm feeding her pellets called 'axolotl food'. She seems to like it enough.
Just remember that axolotls like a varied diet including bloodworms, crickets, earth worms, feeder fish, and brine shrimp, all of which are available at pet stores or you can start your own worm farm like we did. Be careful with the pellets as all uneaten pellets should be removed from the tank.
quote:
I did so much reading up on them before I purchased one, I was
wondering whether someone could tell me whether or not they are
blind or vision impaired a little?
Some axys are totally blind, while most can see shadows.
quote:
It seems that Bella (that's her name), isn't though. Like, the other day, she was sitting with her face in the back right hand corner of the tank, and i bent down and put my face close to the middle of the front of the glass, and immediately she came over, swam up a bit and put her 2 front legs on the glass and just looked up at me. So, although I wouldn't bet my life on her being able to see, I do believe that she can. Also, was wondering, if they can see, are they colour blind?
This is very possible, she could have picked up on your shadow across the tank or even the sound of your footsteps vibrating through the water. You just have to walk passed the room where the Tank of Death is and they all come running to the front for a feed, we have floorboards in our house.
quote:
I was wondering, if you could give me any handy hints on keeping them as pets. I mean, when I was researching the topic, I came across one website that said that i should put something in the tank so that they can hide in it, cause they don't have eyelids. Is this also true or not?
This is actually true Emma. Axolotls are very sensitive to light. We do have a light in our Tank, but its mainly used during feeding and photo taking, other than that it stays off. We have a lot of things in the tank for the axies to hide in. Axolotls suffer from stress and not having somewhere to hide if they want can be very stressful for them.
Other tips... hmm... try training her to let you hand feed her, though this is somewhat time consuming it is very rewarding! Keep her diet varied, her tank clean and make sure she has something to hide in. Also axies don't like the heat, their tank should be kept between 15 and 20 degrees, so think about getting a little temperature gauge to keep an eye on it and if the tank is getting too warm a frozen bottle of water (depending on the size of the tank) can do wonders! Also ensure that the pebbles in the tank are too big for the axy to eat or small enough to pass through her system, she will eat rocks and too many rocks make them float which will stress her.
The best thing of all Emma is that I have learnt each of our 10 axies has a different personality, different preference to diet and all interact with me differently, the learning process is wonderful and extremely rewarding!
Again congrats on Bella and have fun!
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