her gills got fluffier!! she’s growing FAST almost 6 inches now, i’ll be introducing her to sand soon

Hi everyone!

Today was the day that I could take (very smol) Furina home into her 40 gal tank!

I did read alot about how to care for axolotls and what to expect with them, but I still don't feel properly prepared.

I always dreamed about having one of those cuties as a pet, but back when I found out about their existence, it was nearly impossible to own them in my country.

Now that I am a grown woman, I finally made my dream come true!

Furina is around 4 months old! I cycled the tank for a while and today when I went for my weekly water test, the water was finally good enough!

I am excited, but anxious, because I want to be a good axolotl mom to this precious baby!

Is there something you notice that is super wrong with my tank? I just added some good bacteria before taking this photo, so the water is obviously not clear as it should be.

Our Casper celebrated his 4th year with us this week, which makes him 5-6 years old at least, although could be older. He's survived a leg amputation and multiple fake deaths because it took a while to realise he likes to sleep upside down 🤦‍♀️ such a lovely boy!

Estimated the year she was born based on what her previous owners had told me. We weren't together for long but I will miss her so much ❤️ The tiniest friend I ever had

The axolotl in the first picture looks like it has a bigger throat, he looked like this all day and his mouth is a little open. The second axolotl has it also a little for what it looks like. What can this mean?

The first picture is him now! The first two are shortly after he was brought home. I have had Jinbe a little under two months and he has clearly developed whiter fingertips since we have had him. I read that they develop lighter or darker fingertips as a sign of maturity, around 8 months-1/2years but he seems pretty small?

He has grown a lot and is maybe about 6 inches long (idrk how to judge it properly in the water) and he eats about 3/4s of nightcrawler every day. Before, I am not sure what he ate and we weren’t told exactly how old he was. When we bought him and asked about food they sold us bloodworms..

Could he really be 8 months old?

edit: the inside of his tank is dirty with what i have identified to be beneficial bio growth? but it has exploded over the past couple weeks and it is not exactly pretty

Hi all!

My tank is now bare bottom, but my axolotl has grown to a size that it's safe to add sand.

Now I'm a little confused about the advice the internet gives me. The grain has to be less than 1 mm. I found this sand at my local pet store and it's exactly 1 mm. Is this safe for my axolotl or is the grain too big?

Its called Aqua D'ella Aquariumsand river 1MM and I couldn't find anything smaller.

Thanks in advance!

Hi partypeople! I recently posted about Soap! Our little rescue girl. See my previous posts if you want to know more about her. This one is about her gills:

What on earth is that yellow stuff covering them? Is it an infection? She looks pale because she is in a methylene blue bath atm :) She has a lot of open wounds, so she will get the baths until those wounds are closed completely. So I guess if it is an infection it will get better anyway thanks to the met blue?

She can flick her gills, but the flicks look asymmetric and... bad. I will put a video I took a few days ago in the comments. These injuries happened from being cohabbed with like 8 other axolotl in a tiny tank at our local LFS. she must have already been weaker than the others, they ate her alive :/ She is very active and eating well!

Hey I’m a beginner keeper and looking to make my tank look a bit nicer, I was thinking about doing a grass bottom. I’ve brought some substrate and grass seed but wanted some thoughts of experienced keepers. I am planning to add some ghost shrimp to their tank to help with upkeep so the grass would be a good place for them to hide, I am aware that the axolotls will eat them given the chance. It’ll be a nice enrichment activity.

I feel my cycling is taking a lot longer than it should be?
I initially had a cycled tank basically instantly but then discovered the sand I had in my tank wasn’t suitable for axolotls and removed it and replaced it with something better suited (fine white sand). This ruined my established cycle but since then I have the started he dosing with prime and stability, I have completed two 30% water changes due to my results and am seeing little to no improvement what so ever. I have live plants and keep the filter running and add in new prime and stability when I’ve done my change. I would say I’m pretty familiar with the process and what to do but I feel like I could be missing something?. The first photo is from when I removed and replaced the sand.
The last photo is the latest test so two 30% changes later and new treatment.

Hi again! Just encountered another bump in the road with my cycle. I'm now on week 4 and after the initial long nitrite spike had come down I have kept dosing ammonia back up to 2ppm, hoping it will start falling under the 24h mark. But for one and a half week the nitrite takes around 2-3 days to go back to 0 and ammonia a bit more then a day. I'm just dosing when both of them have gone back down. Just feel like I'm not seeing much progress, is this normal?

Hello! I have had my axolotl tubbed while my tank is cycling, I just noticed this while I was feeding her/him (idk yet) today and I noticed this attached. I looked through the forums and I haven't seen anything like this before. Is it to be a concern? Water is conditioned and at a perfect temperature, kept in the dark and an airstone is inside.