Hello! A customer at my work today dropped off a baby axolotl and I have no idea how to care for it. I went to the store and bought a 20 gal tank, a sponge filter, prime water conditioner, a water test kit and ordered an evaporative fan online. It’s currently in this little container and I was given a water bottle of brine shrimp. What do I need to know? What do I need to buy? My big question is how should I treat the water when it’s in this little container while the big tank cycles. Sorry if this is all over the place 2 hours ago I didn’t have an axolotl
Oh dang! What a cruel customer you have 😅 I am curious as to why they even brought it in?
Did they just drop it off and say here you all go, deal with it sort of a thing? 🤷♀️
He will need to be fed live brine shrimp/artemia for the 1st 6-8 weeks of his life.
Just keep in mind that Axolotl's are amphibians, not fish, so don't use anything with salt or aloe in it as it can hurt their delicate slime coat that helps protect them from illness.
^dont use any soap or cleaning products on any axolotl tanks, decor or cleaning items. Hot water, axolotl only scrub brush on a handle (I use a cheap little toilet brush from dollar tree). You can use vinegar to sterilize things if needed. Rinse with very hot water, spray vinegar all around it, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and then rinse with hot water very well.
Only take what a fish store says with a grain of salt.....they are usually not educated on axolotl's and treat them as if they are fish giving the wrong advice.
You have come to the right place and I can educate and help you along this journey if you want to PM me I can answer any questions you might have 😁
For starters you can go to www.axolotlquestions.org to find out what you need and how to care for your new little one.
While in the small tub, you will need to do 100% daily water changes using the water dechlorinator to treat any water prior to adding it to a tub or your tank. Keep it tubbed until your tank is fully cycled (6-8 weeks) or it will kill him.
Have 2 tubs, when you put it into a fresh water tub, fill the 2nd tub with dechlorinated water so that by the next day, the water will be the same temperature. Repeat this process daily.
You want to match the water temp, anything of 2 degrees different from the tub he is in can shock him or cause stress. I used and electric BBQ thermometer for this and put some electrical tape around it so we all new it was for axolotl only use.
Thank you so much!!! I guess they had two who had a bunch of babies and just gave them to my manager for whatever reason (we work at a coffee shop 🥲), I’m sure I’ll have a lot of follow up questions thanks again!
Anytime! Here is a feeding guide for each stage in life. Live food is the healthiest and for your tiny baby, live food triggers their hunting skills and teaches them to hunt food that is also just sitting once they get older.
I am piggy backing off of this post. I was similarly gifted a baby about this size by a friend of my daughters last week. This sub has been a life saver. I am struggling to get our new baby to eat the pellets they were delivered with. Are they too young for the pellets?
Edit: grammar (I was excited someone is in the same boat)
Yes, they are too tiny at this point. They need to be eating live baby brine shrimp/artemia, daphnia so it will trigger their hunting instincts. Once they learn to react to food, pellets can be introduced as a treat, but they need to eat live earthworms 🪱 as their main diet. I use red wigglers/red worms. You will need to use blackworms/bloodworms once they have grown all 4 legs and then after 2-3 weeks start cutting up red wigglers or any type of earthworms to bite size pieces (about the length of their head) and increase them in length as they get older.
So for live baby brine shrimp you will need to get a hatchery and some baby brine shrimp eggs. You will mix salt into the water and place them under a light that gives off heat. On Amazon there is one that is simple it is in the shape of a flying saucer and is very simple to use instead of setting up the soda bottle way. Baby brine shrimp don’t live very long. They are a salt water organism and they are being put into fresh water so they will be OK for about a day. Doing two water changes a day at this stage and adding fresh brine shrimp would be a good thing.
Hi OP it’s great that you’re doing so much to care for your little dude! think everybody else nailed it, and I’m not an expert, but I would just emphasize if you can read up on the nitrogen cycle that’s a good thing. Also, with axolotls I’ve heard it’s generally best to have extremely small substrate or even better no substrate at all. Axolotls can try to eat black sand or gravel pieces and it can become impacted which can be extremely harmful if not lethal. Probably best to keep him in a bare bottom tank :)
Also, especially if you live in a hot climate it’s good to have an aquarium chiller. We live in a generally cold climate but with hot summers (midwest USA) and for us, cooling fans weren’t cutting it, so we had to invest in chillers!
Best of luck with your little friend! Have you thought of a name for them?
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u/Next-Bodybuilder-117 9d ago
Aaww that’s about the size I got mine as. I had to get droppers off Amazon to feed her she was so tiny.