Axolotls eat worms, insects, small fish, and just about anything else that can fit inside their mouth and swallow whole, including other salamanders. In the lab, axolotls are fed brine shrimp, California blackworms (Lumbriculus varigatus), and salmon pellets.
The best axolotl food is a combination of earthworms, bloodworms, brine shrimp, and daphnia (a small aquatic crustacean). They also seem to enjoy lean pieces of beef and chicken. However, you should avoid the temptation to feed them too much live food, which may accidentally spread parasites and diseases.
Some food items that we recommend are: Tubifex worms, bloodworms, shrimp, beef heart, insects, feeder fish and balanced pelleted foods. Whole foods such as worms, shrimp and insects are more balanced and therefore better for your axolotl.
Axolotls live in aquariums and do best in cool or room-temperature water with low lighting. Provided each individual has 10-gallons of water they are peaceful in small groups. Besides a good aquarium pump, you do not need any special equipment to care for axolotls.
Adult axolotls poop about once a week. Usually, an adult axolotl poops about once a week. Anything above this is a sign that you're probably overfeeding your axolotl. However, if you suspect that your axolotl isn't pooping at all, it is also cause for worry.
Axolotls, like salamanders and newts, need the minerals that are found in natural water and include sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and others. Bottled water is typically spring water that is treated but then has these natural minerals and salts added in.
You can gauge whether an axolotl is stressed when it is not eating and when its gills are forward-curled. The best way to avoid this is by fitting a spray bar or flow-spreading outlet.
They have weak eyesight and seem to find food by smell and by their lateral line organs, which are sensory organs located along the sides of their head and trunk.
They like to be in areas where they can easily hide in the daytime. Aquarium thus should consist of a hiding shelter such as PVC pipes, stacked rock, hollow ceramic decorations, & even hollow ceramic rocks utilized for cichlids make a good hiding spot for axolotls. Various other decorations are just optional.
Silk or Live Plants
They love to hide in them, move them, and even sit on top of them. It is best to use silk or live plants because they are soft, plastic aquarium plants can have rough edges that could tear your axolotl's fins.
The axolotl is native only to Lake Xochimilco in the Valley of Mexico, as well as the canals and waterways of Mexico City. Because they're neotenic, their habitat reflects this: a high-altitude body of water.
Axolotl TRPV1 has a sensitivity to three irritants of capsaicin, acid, and 2-aminoethoxydiphenylborane. Heat stimulation activates axolotl TRPV1 with the threshold at 30.95 ± 0.12 °C. Axolotl might show noxious response to mild heat through TRPV1 with the unique thermal threshold.
Their teeth are designed more for gripping than tearing, so much of their food will be swallowed whole. Adult axolotls will eat live or dead food. The movement of live food like a worm is a great stimulus for the your axolotl, in fact newly hatched axolotls will only respond to live food.
Axolotls eat fish, mollusks, insects, and other axolotls. Captive axolotls may live as long as 15 years, but wild ones live for only about five or six years.
In their natural habitat, you will find axolotls munching on small insects, including worms, fish, larvae, mollusks. However, in captivity, it's best to feed your axolotl nightcrawlers, blackworms, daphnia, raw meat, brine shrimp, and pellets.
Axolotls are very curious and appear to recognize their owners as food providers. It is common for these salamanders to actively swim toward people outside their tank. They are surprisingly interactive, but should never be handled as being taken out of the water is extremely stressful.
They are also used in laboratories to study another superpower: regenerating their limbs, lungs, heart, jaws, spines, and even parts of their brain! Scientists have found that axolotls can regrow a new limb five times perfectly, in a few weeks—without even a scar.
No, axolotls cannot stay out of the water, like other salamanders. Axolotls are amphibians that do not undergo metamorphosis and stay underwater their entire lives. Like other salamanders, they possess both lungs and gills. However, they use their gills to breathe underwater.
Continuously pale gills (more obvious on white and albino axolotls), overgrown gills, and limp gill posture can all be signs of infection. There may be times when your animal's gills are pale, but a few hours later you note that they are nice and pink or red again.
Axolotls require brackish water — a mix between fresh and salt water. This is one of the main reasons that Axolotls are not recommended for first-time aquatic pet owners. It is recommended that owners be very familiar and comfortable with basic freshwater aquariums before starting with Axolotls.
Axolotls, although native to Mexico, are in fact a cold water animal. Their optimal temperature range is 16-18°C. Being a cold blooded animal, they cannot regulate their body temperature. They therefore rely on the water temperature to remain within this narrow range.
Axolotls are surprisingly great pets – not just visually but in terms of their temperament as well. Mild-mannered and calm, these aquatic reptiles love to swim around for fun, hide and play around their tank's plants and decoration, as well as come and observe you through the glass as you're watching them.