I just got an itty bitty axie (bout 6cm) and just wanted to know if there's anything special I need to do for it...

He/She is in a 2ft tank with an air-driven sponge filter and a sand substrate. I'm feeding it a mouth full of the frozen hothouse axolotl food or a shrimp pellet daily or every 2nd day, and am doing weekly 1/3 water changes.

Is this suitable for a growing axie? Do they need any special diet or water parameters while they are growing? Will the sponge filter be suitable long term or should I invest in something more substantial?

Hi feed him every 2nd day,

do a 1/3rd water change every 2 weeks

I used to have them they are VERY EASY to keep.The axolotl food is the only source of food you need.try to make sure that he doesn't eat the sand.

I wouldnt be feeding pellets to them at that size i wait till they are at least 12-14 cm as it take 7-8 days for the pellets to digest i feed my young pieces of earthworm and bloodworm these have more feed value to younger axies then the pellets do

I used to feed my axolotls earthworms as I'm a poor student and couldn't afford to buy proper food for them, but it seemed to be enough.

If anything, when I gave them freshly caught earthworms, they started getting fungal infection (which was lethal to one of my babies!) on their body especially around their gills. Now, when I catch earthworms I put them in boiling water for a few sec to kill off bacteria etc and freeze them in the fridger.

I'm not sure if the nutrients get destroyed if I store them frozen but my axolotls are definitely loving them.

When my son kept them he only ever fed them earthworms but we didn't have any fungal problems as a result.

Oh okay. I don't know why mine had fungal infection. I change the water fortnightly (20%) as recommended by most websites. They don't have any problems like that now, but I guess it could also be the water itself was contaminated by free swimming parasites or bacteria.

We did everything wrong but didn't know any better at the time. We had 2 axolotls in a 2ft tank. UGF and gravel on top. Rarely changed the water, just topped it up when it evaporated. :roll:

How big were they when you first got them? Mine were about 5cm.... Don't think they were out of their sensitive stage

Err, this was over 20 years ago, I can't remember that much detail :-?