FS: Axolotl

[Fish rookie]

Up for sale is my home grown axolotls.

These are very healthy and all eat Hikari frozen bloodworm, frozen krill, live white worm, live daphnia, earthworm, blackworm mealworm, and high protein sinking pellets. You can feed them Hikari frozen bloodworm as a staple diet.

You can refer to my journal here: https://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/breed...ots-pic-76041/

Price:

Wild green spotted (4"+): $20 each

White leucistic (4"+): $40 each

Buy two or more, get additional 10% off each additional axolotl.

Please PM me. I will reply to my PM within 24 hours. For Richmond customers delivery is possible.

Thank you very much.

[Fish rookie]

This is one of the "axolotl hatchery" in my home. It is a 45 gallon with a 24W UV sterilizer, a Rena XP3 with loads of bio and purigen, and also an eheim Ecco with bio, as well as a Fluval G4 mainly for mechanical filtration.
I change 50% of their water once every 3-4 days.
As you can see, they are very healthy and active.

[Nicole]

Just wondering, is it actually okay for bloodworms to be the staple diet for these guys? I thought bloodworms weren't very nutritious?

[Fish rookie]

Just wondering, is it actually okay for bloodworms to be the staple diet for these guys? I thought bloodworms weren't very nutritious?

Hi Nicole,

That is a very good question. I have read and researched a lot on this topic myself when I first had mine.

I feed a variety of diets but if you do not have the time to do what I do, most axolotl keepers would recommend feeding frozen bloodworm and a high quality pellet with high protein.

Hikari bloodworm is not a bad food, it has a bit more than 50% protein, aquatic, fatty acid, lot of added vitamin and I know some people (e.g. Kenny of Kenny's Discus in CA USA) use that even as the staple diet for discus--which is a fish known to be very demanding on high quality food. Some discus people also couple that with something like Tetra color bits, or Omega flakes for their adult and it works very well.

When you first get your new axolotl into your home, it is nice to have something they really like so you can reduce their stress of being in a new environment. I choose to feed them a variety of food because I want them to be able to eat most of what their new owners could find in their new homes so they can settle faster. It can be frustrating if you buy an axolotl and he will not eat for a week or so no matter what you try. Hikari bloodworm is something they like very much and is readily available in most LFS.

After you have had them for a while, you can certainly feed them whatever you like. Some people like to use live earthworms gut loaded with nutrients, and some people also breed their own guppies to feed them.

But if you do not have time, Hikari bloodworm is a good diet for their growth and it is also something they love to eat very much. At this age, it is easy for you to train them to eat a new food or a pellets (e.g. Danichi, Northfin, Omega One...etc) as a complimentary diet to bloodworm.

When they were very young, I fed them live baby brine shrimps, live daphnia, live white worms, live microworms...but I know most people do not have time to do that so once they got bigger I started to train them to eat frozen food. I sometimes soak the worms in selcon for additional vitamin. I also feed them blackworm that I use for my discus but those are very pricey (they were eating blackworm rehydrated in the pictures shown in the first post). My axolotl are very active, and healthy. I believe the vitamins are very helpful especially when they were younger. If you read other axolotl journal some of them seem to have a very high death rate at the early stage but that never happened to me. Mine have been very healthy and I attribute that largely to the diet.

Of all the common frozen foods (brine shrimp, bloodworm, krills) found in LFS, bloodworm has higher protein than brine shrimps so I chose to condition them to eat that at an early age. I also feed them chopped up krills which they like. Hikari frozen krills is a very nutritious food as it contains load of HUFA, vitamin, and protein.

I understand not all breeders would spend the kind of money and time I have on food, but I believe food is very important in their early grow out stage and it is beneficial for them to have a taste of a wide spectrum of food so they can develop a better appetite which can help them to settle in their new homes with less stress. A large variety of diet also ensure that they get a lot of nutrients for better health at an early age.

The axolotl I am selling are not babies anymore; they are kind of like young adults. In a way I have done all the hard work (keep them in small containers with daily water changes, feeding them live food many times a day, conditioning them to eat a variety of frozen food...etc) so you can now just feed them Hikari bloodworm and/or a pellets to keep them growing.

If you do not want to deal with bloodworm you can use bloodworm in the beginning and train them to eat a pellet of your choice, which you can use as the staple diet. It is really up to you.

If I were buying one, I would have no problem using Hikari bloodworm as their staple diet, and may be compliment with some frozen krills and/or pellets, with earthworm, kingworm, and waxworm as a treat once in a while when they are bigger.

Soon, you only need to feed them once a day then once every few days. They will continue to develop and grow healthily.

I hope this has answered your question. Thank you very much for reading my thread.

P.S. I want to also add that if you watch some videos of axolotl on youtube a lot of axolotl keepers use a jar or a dish to feed bloodworm to their axolotl. May be that is what their axolotl were used to but I have trained my axolotl to eat bloodworm they find on the bottom. I think this is more convenient for most keepers as not everyone likes to have a jar or dish in his/her tank. So, you do not need to worry about how to feed them bloodworm--just drop them in the tank and they will go find them.

[Fish rookie]

This wild green spotted "dragon" is going to his new home in Vancouver today.







Are you ready to train the dragon?

[WishX]

Thank you so much, love the little guy
I may pick up a friend for him in a week or two

[Livyding]

Wow! I love that video of the hatchery... I wouldn't have thought something so awkward looking could swim so gracefully. They look great.

[Fish rookie]

Wow! I love that video of the hatchery... I wouldn't have thought something so awkward looking could swim so gracefully. They look great.

Thanks a lot. That video was taken by an old camera that I got some 5 years ago. LOL They move quite fast so a bit too blurry but at least it shows how active they are. Some people may think they only sit on the bottom all day. LOL. I love to watch them swim as they tuck all their arms and legs tight to their bodies. It is very cool.

Thank you so much, love the little guy
I may pick up a friend for him in a week or two

Sure, with a friend they will both be much more active and the horns/gills will grow longer. Your 20 gallon should be big enough for them.
I cannot sex them at this point but there is a chance they may even breed for you.
Thanks a lot for giving the "dragon" a good home. Enjoy.

[Fish rookie]

If you want to buy the pellets that they have been trained to eat, you may contact Pat of Canadian Aquatic. He goes by the name Mykiss on this forum.
Thanks a lot for the interest everyone.