# Axolotl laying eggs! Need to know what to feed baby Axies



## kamikazechocobo

Hi all,

I adopted a male Axolotl last night and put him into one of my Axo habitats with two females.

Apparently, this guy knows how to impress the ladies since there's now a whole bunch of seemingly-fertilized eggs all over my tank.

I've been reading up online that baby Axolotls will only eat small, live foods (such as Daphnia and baby brine shrimp), but I've never had any experience creating a live food culture.

Does anybody know if baby Axos will eat "simulated" live food? I was thinking of just pouring mashed up axo pellets into the water and stirring the water around so it looks like the pellet mash is alive. 

I've read that baby Axos will instinctively snap at live food (which is why you have to feed them live food), so I figure if little bits of food floats around erratically enough, that'll do the trick.

Any thoughts?


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## Mykiss

I've found that live is best. When I had mine I used newly hatchery BBS which worked VERY well. Then I moved them up to a mix of BBS and live daphnia, and then used daphnia and some live blackworms, and then mixed in some frozen blood worms and finally pellets. I'm sure you can omit some of the steps but I think you should make sure that you have the first two as it's vital that they get a lot of food when growing up. When you starve them, they will fight each other and will even eat the limbs off of their siblings. It's not nice to see missing limbs but at least they can grow them back


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## kamikazechocobo

Great advice, Pat! I definitely don't want the babies cannibalizing each other so I'll make sure they're well fed. I guess I'll go build a little brine shrimp hatchery out of my old DIY CO2 reactor.  

Wow, you really fed them the works growing up, didn't you? I'll probably just start off with the BBS and Daphnia and see how things go


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## Pamela

If you'd like I can give you some Grindal worms to get a culture started. They're teensy worms that fry & small fish love to eat so I'm sure that baby Axies would probably like them as well. The worms are very easy to keep & raise.


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## kamikazechocobo

Hey Pam! Thanks for your generous offer.  Are they the same as whiteworms? I tried starting up a whiteworm culture a while ago but couldn't stand the stench after a couple of weeks. Each time I opened the lid on the white worm culture box, I'd be greeted with an amazingly pungent stench of fresh poop.

Does this happen with Grindal worms as well?


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## Pamela

kamikazechocobo said:


> Hey Pam! Thanks for your generous offer.  Are they the same as whiteworms? I tried starting up a whiteworm culture a while ago but couldn't stand the stench after a couple of weeks. Each time I opened the lid on the white worm culture box, I'd be greeted with an amazingly pungent stench of fresh poop.
> 
> Does this happen with Grindal worms as well?


Grindal worms are different than white worms. They're smaller. They don't smell too bad. The odd time I catch a bit of an odour from them when the lid is open but the worms can be removed from the container very fast so the lid doesn't have to be off for long.

That's odd that your white worms smelled so horrible. Did you have them in peat moss? Maybe you were keeping them too moist. My white worms actually smell really good, like sweet lemons!! I realized how nice they smell because one time the dirt looked a little shiny & I was concerned that it was going to get moldy so I took a sniff to see if it smelled un-fresh. To my surprise it smelled really good. I even convinced my kids (who thought I was trying to play a nasty joke on them) to smell the worms & everyone agrees that they smell terrific.

Microworms smell really bad to me ...I got rid of mine because I couldn't handle their smell.


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## kamikazechocobo

How in the world did you get your worm culture to smell like lemons??!?!?!

Apparently I've been doing things all wrong! I'll need to ask you how you set them up! Maybe I'll swing by and grab some off you.  How small are they? Axolotls start off about 1.5 cm in size, so I don't think they can really eat anything too large. 

Maybe I used the wrong media. I used peat moss with some potting soil. I definitely watered it down very frequently.. maybe too much?


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## Pamela

Trust me, I too was very surprised to discover that the white worms smell so good! I give them a little sniff every once in awhile to make sure they still smell the same & they do ...kind of like lemons or lemongrass. Mine are in a shallow plastic container with a peat moss/potting soil mixture. I feed the white worms moistened instant oatmeal. I don't mist/water the worms very often because they seem to get enough moisture from the oatmeal mixture.

The Grindal worms would probably be better for the baby Axolotls though because they are considerably smaller than white worms. When I have fry I feed them baby brine shrimp and Grindal worms first, then white worms when they've grown bigger. If you want some Grindals message me when you'd like to come by & I'll give you my address.


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## kamikazechocobo

Just a quick update!

My baby Axos are growing steadily -- I can see the beginnings of their front arms coming in! I've got about 25 babies that I hope will make it to adulthood. Happy days! I'm going to have to rehome these guys eventually! 

(Also, my BNPs also decided to go for a romp in the sack lately .. so I've got baby BNPs to tend to as well!)


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## macframalama

as soon as they are a stable size I have a home for 2 maybe four of them , my sister is over in van and she was just asking me to hook her up with the gear to get some of these guys so please let me know when there ready to go , way rather buy from a local than somewhere else

super cool by the way , i have a coldwater tank cycling myself for some unknown occupant so i stopped and stared at the axo tanks today at the lfs and i was like should i......... and i paused on it .i should learn a bit more about them before i go neck deep


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## kamikazechocobo

I'll definitely shoot you a PM when they've grown out some more. The largest ones are only about 3/4 an inch long right now while the whole brood is averaging about 1/2 inches.

I agree -- they are absolutely fantastic! I've turned three of my tanks into Axo habitats. I love the reaction I get from friends when they come over and I introduce them to these little critters.

This is the best Axolotl resource I've found: Axolotls: The Fascinating Mexican Axolotl and the Tiger Salamander
Everything you need to know from a single source! You can also visit the caudata forum for great tips as well: Beginner Newt, Salamander, Axolotl & Help Topics - Axolotls (_Ambystoma mexicanum_) at Caudata.org Newt and Salamander Portal

Honestly, Axos are pretty easy to house. I'd say the only difficulty is keeping their tanks cool during the summer -- most sources I've read say that if the water temp stays above 25 constantly, it can eventually be fatal. These guys prefer colder temperatures. I've kept them on the higher range of the scale for quite some time with no ill effects, so maybe these online sources are a bit off.


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## macframalama

sweet , my cold water tank is in my office which our heat pump keeps at north pole lol... I was struggling to keep it heated so i just moved the fish and set it up as A COLDWATER , I WAS GONNA SCOOP SOME TILAPIA fingerlings but guy has vanished for now so still it sits and some axo`s would be neat to watch when im on here geeked out lol , day dreaming about flowerhorns , and dovii hybrids haha


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## FishLover5335

Are any of you guys- or girls selling any Axolotls?

I am willing to buy it for $15-20 if you live in vancouver bc


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## FishLover5335

Are any of you guys or girls selling Axolotls?

That is pretty small cause I am willing to buy it from you guys


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