Too big for Bloodworms...

Toothless is a big Axxie, and I thought lets give him a little treat i'd give him some bloodworms (he has them from time to time to vary his diet and seems to like them). but today aside from his usual dinner they looked like on proportion you might expect the size of spaghetti you might get in a tin is to us).

He sulked, he ate his main dinner. bum still hanging out the back of his den idly flapping his gills at me with the expression of 'Really? is that it?' before contemplating his next rampage of plant destruction.

I might try him on normal wurms... I think I detected distain xxx

Can't sleep, Toothless is chilling out perhaps paying a little bit of Grandma's footsteps delicately balanced on top of some Millfoil if you can imagine delicate and Toothless in the same sentence.

Since finishing this post he is nose down poking around doing a rather undelicate handstand before sloping off for more rummaging, He might be on snail patrol, all I can see is a furtive tail wriggling about. xxx :grin:

Today for the first time and after careful consideration and reading some of the brilliant threads Toothless had his first 3 worms two were small about 3cms on length and another was about 8cms long. the bigger one ended up having to be chopped up as Toothless had a little trouble wrangling the biggest little critter.

He has a fairly staple diet but now and then he gets something different as a treat. he's never had feeder fish although a paddle tailed newt I had in the past had a resident shoal of breeding cloud minnows that ended up as third gen (sometimes newer ones were added to prevent inbreeding) which he would sometimes take if they got too close were a bit old and slow, swum in front of his chops etc.

Had anyone got any suggestions on Axxie nibbles for him to try bearing in mind he is big so would most likely ignore daphnia, bloodworm as of the last thread and he absolutely hates wax worms. Ox liver makes him windy, Lambs I've heard is a nono and his main staple is pig's liver which he thrives on although I try not to give him too much as I know this can be bad.

What treats do you give your's, or what staples do you think I should try? what would you say is a no no? I am pretty good at identifying inverts. I would just love to hear other views and widen his palette but I'm a little reluctant to wild catch prey items (except worms from good Devonshire soil that are from 'Clean' uncontaminated source) as there are some rare species of moths and butterflies around where I live.

sorry it's a long thread but he is getting bigger so I need to consider variation (I'm hoping to get him a bigger tank soon too) xxx

Earthworms or pellets (trout/salmon/axolotl pellets) are good as a staple, as a treat have you tried thawed prawns? I buy a bag of value asda prawns every now and again for my lot, and they seem to enjoy them. How big is your Toothless?

Hi Sammy, he quite likes prawns but I have to chop them up fairly small as they can be a bit too chewy. He's 33cms in size and around 1lb in weight.
(I'll have to remember to get some more as I like them too so an excellent reminder).

What do you think on small (cooked) flakes of salmon as a now and then? he likes this but do you think as a treat it is ok. I know someone who suggested teeny bits of ham as a now and then too.

I never realised you can get axxie pellets either where do you get them from? xxx

I'm not sure on cooked fish, I wouldn't think it would be as nutritionally beneficial as raw fish, but if he seems to like it I can't see it causing a problem. Axies don't really chew food, they swallow it whole, so he should be able to eat anything that fits in his mouth. My bigger lot eat 12"+ lob worms whole. Pellets can be brought from Ebay (at least that's were I get mine) the only thing to watch with pellets is that they can affect your water quality fairly quickly, so uneaten ones should be removed from the tank.

I've not heard of lob worms before, I might try them on him. When he had his first worm it was a swallow,bring up,bite,spit,bite etc until i chopped it up he had smaller worms too he seemed to like. with cooked fish (as a treat) I tend to let him have salmon as white fish aren't massively nutritious and the waft oily fish such mackerel apart from affecting water quality (possibly) I think he might run a mile from.

I might consider pellets to see if he likes them xxx :happy: