Axolotl Care Guide

Axolotl Care Guide

Cycling

Cycling is the most crucial step to complete before looking at purchasing an axolotl. It used to be common in the hobby to perform 'fisn-in' cycles. Recent information has shown that fish-in cycles are dangerous, painful, and unnecessary, therefore experienced community members have opted to no longer fish-in cycle, and instead perform a fishless cycle with an Ammonium Chloride solution.

The Nitrogen cycle is a process that occurs in all natural bodies of water, as it's nature's way of cycling water through the environment.

Ammonia is a natural byproduct of animals, as it is released into the environment, the nitric acid it produces causes deterioration of the surrounding waters. 

Nitrites are the product of ammonia being consumed by bacteria. They cause severe hypoxia and respiratory failure in moderate amounts.

Nitrates are the final product of the Nitrogen cycle. They are toxic in large amounts (above 20ppm) and they're the result of 1ppm ammonia cycling into 2.7ppm nitrite into 3.6ppm nitrate. You will need to do frequent water changes to keep them 20ppm or below, especially in a tank smaller than 40g.

Dechlorinator

There is something important called a dechlorinator. A dechlorinator, per the name, removes the chlorine in the water that prevents anything aquatic from living in it. There are different types of dechlorinator out there, and some are safe, while others are dangerous.

Dechlorinator with anything that is labeled “protects slime coat" generally means it has aloe vera in it. Aloe vera is toxic to axolotls, and actually peels their slime coat off. Definitely would avoid anything that has this labeled on their product, besides Seachem Prime and Fluval Dechlorinator. 

My personal favorite dechlorinator is Seachem Prime. It not only dechlorinates the water, but it detoxifies ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for 24 hours. It is also safe to overdose by 5 times! Each dose detoxifies 1ppm of ammonia.

To end the note on dechlorinators, it is important to know about overdosing. Dechlorinating your water is good, but is overdosing actually harmful to your axolotl? To an extent. There are cases of too much dechlorinator shrinking your axolotls gills and causing them to look pale, preventing adequate gas exchange.

Tank Size

A lot of sources online state that 20g is acceptable for a grown adult, and it is absolutely not. Adult axolotls can grow anywhere between 8”-14” and the space a 20G offers is just not enough. The floorspace is the biggest issue. Axolotls feed at the bottom of the tank, which means they will be spending the majority of their time on the floor space of the aquarium. The dimensions of a 20G is 24”x12”x16” (24” long, 12” wide, 16” height). 12” of floor space is just purely not enough for an adult axolotl.

Axolotls have heavy bioloads, which means a 20g would need multiple water changes a week just to keep the nitrate levels in the right range. The bigger the tank, the better, and the more water there is to dilute the nitrates, the better. The 40gB is the perfect size for one axolotl. The dimensions of a 40gB is 36”x18”x16”. There’s a ton of space for movement, and a ton of floor space which is why I always recommend the 40gB for one axolotl, over any other size.

Filtration

Filtration is pretty important when having an aquarium. The recommendation for filtration is 4x GPH (U.S. Gallons Per Hour) of whatever size your tank is. If your aquarium is a 40gB, then you would need a 160 GPH filter to maintain your aquarium. There are a bunch of different types of filters, so I’ll go over all of them and explain why I like the ones I do.

Sponge filter: The sponge filter is a decent option on a budget, but I personally don’t think it does enough. It’s cheap, and has a large surface for bacteria to grow on but doesn’t have any beneficial chemical filtration. You need an air pump for it to work. Hang on Back: The HOB filter is a great option. It’s cheap, can be customized to have chemical filtration, and has decent space to put your media in. It can overflow so please make sure you don’t add too much media in your HOB. The water flow can be loud if you don’t have your aquarium filled up all the way, so keep that in mind. 

Canister Filters: Canister Filters are the best option for filtration. They have a lot of storage for media so you don’t have to worry about overflowing. It can be customized with beneficial chemical filtration, and can even be hooked up to a chiller!

Cooling

Now that we’ve covered the different types of filtration let’s talk about cooling your aquarium! Axolotls are very sensitive to parameters so you need to make sure your water temperature is cool enough for them. They require 55°F 68°F/13°C - 20°C temperatures to stay healthy and alive. Let’s go over the different ways you can cool down your aquarium.

Fans: Any type of fans, desk fans, stroller fans, etc. They work great as a cheap option. They can fluctuate often if you don’t keep an eye on your aquarium temperature, which is the biggest concern. During the summer (if you live somewhere hot) you may need to use frozen water bottles (make sure you are using aquarium water with these water bottles so that way if anything happens the water from the bottle will be water that your axolotl is already in and used to) to keep the temperature at a good level. Now this brings me to my next item down the list!

Aquarium Chillers: Aquarium chillers are the best option to keep your temperatures at a good level. You can hook them straight to your canister filter to keep your water nice and cool. The nice thing about chillers is you can set a specific temperature on it, and it will keep your aquarium at that nice steady temperature. The biggest downfall is that they can be expensive but they will last a long time and you won’t ever be concerned about your axolotl’s temperature again!

Food

Let’s talk about what your axolotl is going to be eating. Worms. That’s right, just earthworms! There are different types that you can get and I will be going over them.

Red Wrigglers: These are amazing options, they are high in protein! The downside is that they are small so you would need to feed a lot to an adult axolotl. They also have a slime coat they use to protect them that some axolotls do not like. If you have problems with your axolotl not eating red wrigglers you may have to blanch them to get rid of that slime coat.

Nightcrawlers: A lot of axolotls love these (mine specifically). They can get pretty big (5”-8”) so you may have to cut them based on how much your axolotl can handle eating. These are a great substitute if your axolotl will have nothing to do with Red Wrigglers. 

Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets: Pellets? I thought you said worms! I did, and yes! These are the highest protein pellets (47% protein) I have been able to find and I would feed them as a snack (about once a week if you want to switch up their diet of only worms). I would NOT recommend using this as a substitute for worms. Your axolotl’s main diet should be worms.

Rangen Salmon Pellets: These pellets are also pretty high in protein (about 45%). As mentioned before, these are not a replacement for worms. They are to be fed alongside worms as a snack. These specific pellets are a bit harder to find in stores so would need to be ordered online.

Bloodworms: Bloodworms are a snack only kind of food. They hold minimal nutritional value. Bloodworms are to axolotls as candy is to humans.

Blackworms: Blackworms are high in protein and a great source of food for younger axolotls (under the age of 3 months). They are hard to breed, and super expensive if you need to get them shipped.

Shrimp: Neocaridina shrimp and Ghost shrimp are the only shrimp I would recommend feeding. These are not going to be your axolotl’s staple diet. Their staple diet should be earthworms. These shrimp would make a great snack! So don’t feed them often. If you get any live shrimp from a local pet store/chain pet store, you need to quarantine them. They can hold parasites that could be harmful to your axolotl, and most parasites may not be detectable for 30 days so it’s best to quarantine your shrimp for that long before adding them into your aquarium.

Fish: We do not recommend feeding any fish, and that absolutely includes live bearers. Fish tend to be nippy, and will bite at your axolotls gills filaments, harming them and stressing them out. Many fish have something called thiaminase, which can cause vitamin B deficiencies. It can cause neurological issues in reptiles and amphibians. Axolotls can’t really digest anything with an exoskeleton, skeleton, chitin, snail shells etc. It could potentially cause impaction if they can’t pass it through their digestive tract.

Cohabbing

Axolotls are solitary animals. They don’t require or benefit having another axolotl in with them. Let’s talk about what you can or can’t cohab with an axolotl.

Axolotls: Can you cohabitate 2 axolotls together? As long as they are the same sex, same size, and you have enough space for them (30g per axolotl) then yes. There are always risks when cohabbing. They can nip at each other if you’re not monitoring food and their behavior.

Fish: As stated before fish are not viable options for food, so definitely not as tank mates. They can nip at your axolotls gills, cause vitamin B deficiencies, and axolotls cannot process them through their digestive tract.

Shrimp: Yes! Well certain types, Ghost Shrimp, Amano Shrimp, Cherry Shrimp are all good options for cohabbing. But be warned if you see any shrimp missing your axolotl more than likely ate them. As stated before any shrimp you buy I would recommend quarantining them for 30 days, and if everything is in the clear then you can add them to your aquarium.

Snails: I would not recommend adding snails into your aquarium. There are trapdoor snails, which have slammed shut on axolotl faces or limbs before and could seriously harm them. Snails can crawl over your axolotl and eat their slime coat which is incredibly dangerous and harmful. As stated before axolotls cannot process snail shells through their digestive tract and it could cause impaction.

Substrate

A hugely controversial topic is substrate. I would not recommend putting an axolotl under 5” on any substrate. Putting a younger axolotl on sand when their digestive system isn’t fully developed could cause impaction. There are multiple ways to go about substrate and I will go over all the options that are axolotl safe, below.

Sand: When looking for sand the biggest thing you need to be aware of is grain size. I recommend keeping sand with a grain size under 1mm. There are a few good sand options that I recommend are CaribSea Super Naturals Moonlight sand, and ExoTerra Riverbed Sand. There are 2 new sands that have recently come to light that I wanted to mention. JBL sand is the first black sand we have found that is axolotl safe (as of right now I am only able to find this sand in EU so it is not available in the US). JBL is specifically tested on newts so is amphibian safe. The other sand option is Crayola Play Sand! Crayola Play Sand is specifically tested in aquariums so you can get bright sand that will make your axolotl pop in color!

Tiles/Slate: You can use Tiles/or Slate if you don’t want to go with sand. There are no impaction risks with tiles, and it looks super nice! I would make sure to get an aquarium safe silicone, and silicone down every single piece of slate/tile to your aquarium. Worms and debris can get caught under the tiles and could cause ammonia spikes. 

Bare Bottom: Bare bottom is probably the easiest and safest method for substrate. There’s no impaction risk, and it’s easy to clean. It is a lot harder to make it look natural.

Now, let’s talk about unsafe substrates.

Gravel: Gravel is seriously dangerous. It causes a huge impaction risk and has been known to kill axolotls. Never keep your axolotl on anything above 1mm in size that they shouldn't have in their mouth.

Black Sand: Majority of black sands I have found are not safe. They are basically just blasting sands which means the grain size is not small enough and it feels sharp to the touch. A lot of black sands I have done research on typically don't meet the 1mm and under requirement I put on all axolotl safe sands.They are known to leach chemicals into the water, and may have tiny shards of metals which are toxic to axolotls.

Any sand that is over 1mm in grain size is not safe and should not be used!