Ki roto i te Whare nei

Heres some photos of Hendrix in his new whare its a 70L tank with no substrate at present, but sand on order. I have mainly fake plants with two live ones. He seems to like it alot better but who knows.

At least now he has a couple of places to hide, heaps of room to move and a long 3" wide glass ramp running the length of the tank from 1/3 from the bottom of the tank to the top. It was intended to help diffuse the water from the filter but he has adopted it as a resting place.

Looks cool when hes sitting on it, from the front of the tank it looks like he is suspended motionless in the middle of the tank.

The second lot are Ollie (to young to sex) ollies in a smaller 30L tank it was thin when we got it so iys been having two feeds a day. It is working and its starting to look better nourished.

The Ollie photos were taken just before I removed the gravel substrate from his tank. Whilst substrate adds to the aesthetics, the tanks are way easier to clean without it.

I live in New Zealand, can any other kiwis or anyone tell me what worms we have down here that they can eat? we have heaps of common NZ Earthworms and Tiger worms will they do the trick?

Hi Ian

Tanks are starting to take shape!

Common earthworms are fine, I haven't tried tiger worms (my compost and worm bins have common earthworms as opposed to tiger worms, that some buy for their compost). Now is a good time, if you're areas rainy to send the kids out hunting for worms (mine love doing it and have worm competitions to see who can collect the most even though I don't need them. It also keeps them occupied!). Easy places to find like under potplants or garden furniture, bricks, pieces of wood, stone, under the big mound of leaves (if you have trees etc...) As long as you don't use garden chemicals round your property you should be fine. Majority of gardens surrounding our property are older people (60-70s) who don't like using sprays or weedkillers thankfully.

If your axolotls have a problem eating the worm persevere as it sometimes can take a week or so for them to get used to new food and either chop the worm in bits (start from the tail end and chop about a cm) or look for the smaller ones. A worm can last a week or so in the fridge once cut. Otherwise if you put them back in the dirt/compost tailless they do regrow them!

If by chance you don't have a garden, or can't find any there are a no. of worm sellers online that will ship them.

Earthworms it is then

Kia ora Kapo,

We do have a garden, organic at that, so no chemical sprays or soil additives and heaps of earthworms in the garden and the compost and yep its been wet as usual for a hamilton winter so they have been literally lying on the gound.

Do I need to purge them? and if so for how long? Our Tiger worms are all pretty big at the moment so I may try them later on when there are some babies around.

Cheers

Ian

No need to purge them, I sometimes just use a small marg container of tankwater and dip the worms in to wash any compost dirt of their bodies then drop them in the tank. My remaining axolotl larvae love chopped earthworms as they still wriggle enough for them to be interesting!

worms

Hi there Ian,
fine axie home- We get the common old earthworms from the compost but i am sure they taste yukky or something as the axies recoil a bit when they first grab the worm. Our male axie actually has got fussy and will spit them out! I rinse the mud off first.
I tend to feed ours axolotl pellets and fresh meat- liver, heart, schnitzel and raw fish, chicken- actually often keep them a raw piece of whatever i am about to cook for tea. Did do mince initially but its quite messy and fatty.They'll get steak if they are lucky- and us too!

Thanks Mary

Ours as well I have even tried purging them and they still are not to impressed. I have given them steak but convincing the boys that axies deserve steak as well is another matter.

I will do a bit of a menu change trial. To coin a common cliche " Variety is the spice of Life"

Since my compost bin has gone berserk my axolotl aren't keen on them.. It is rather potent at the moment as the temp has gone up! I am now having to fish out the worms and wash them then they sit in the fridge for a day or two...the things I do for them...worse than the kids!

I know what you mean, but at least mine don't answer back, the axies I mean

Re: Tiger worms

My fish accept earthworms readily enough. A local supplier of compost worms said fish (axolotls?) don't eat them, because of their smell. Do fish, axolotls eat tiger worms?

Re: Tiger worms

Hi
My fish accept earthworms readily. A local supplier of compost worms said fish (axolotls?) don't eat tiger worms, because of their smell. Do fish or axolotls eat tiger worms?

Tiger worms will give off a noxious smelling substance when they're harassed or cut. If you cut them, then rinse them and wipe them off on a paper towel, you can remove most of that fluid. But mine will eat just about anything, no matter how foul.