Black Sabbath

Sorry to come in on the bacteria side but if a filter was turned off for around 3 hours every 24 would the bacteria survive ok? Also what if the filter was run for 6 hours a day would that be sufficient, I am working on a similar thing at the moment and am unsure on how much to have my filter on for the purpose of the bacteria. thanks

Are you planning on putting the axolotls with the fish? The best goldfish for an outdoor pond are comets or shubunkins with short fins and tails to reduce the chance of fungi building up. Goldfish will kill axolotls by eating down their gills and also if the goldfish are too small the axolotls will eat them.

I don't know but im sure for something like this google would have enough info. I learnt most my breeding processes from there and now am finding the experience of the people here great for how to get the absulote best from my fish and the most effeciency from my filters

The little things you talk off, Are they little dark colored dots that hang around in the corners of the containers?? I have these aswell as daphnia and cyclops. Cyclops are little white things with tails that dart around and get dots on there tails ( baby cyclops ). The little dark dots are great food for my bettas when they are too young for daphnia.

Im a bit concerned that a fish solely fed on oxheart has been suddenly taken off it. Maybe taking the amount down and replacing it with the new food over the space of a month or two would be good, And oxheart is good for them. The point I am making is they need to be Varied and from the other posts it seems thats the consensus.

Now i post a question, How much time do you spend on here? Im only new and probably total 10 hours maybe 15 all up so I can sit on my high horse and ask.............

Um.... goldfish ponds included.... Lets just say I set aside Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and spend around 8 hours those days, Then ofcourse feeding and watching on the other days

My big pond looks nice with a tinge of green to it aslong as it does not start to look brown or "soupy" and frothy then I do not think it causes any harm. Can still see the fish fine

Well fed adult Minnows will not eat all the fry aslong as sufficient cover is given which is sounds like there is. But tadpoles will eat anything that fits in there mouth

Poor "almost frog tadpoles", The axolotls would of loved it. For some reason it seems less sadistic feeding them tadpoles and baby fish that are swallowed fast as opposed to a frog that has reasonable brain functions or a large fish that hangs out its mouth for half an hour

I don't like the idea of leaving it in there, I do have some magicjet filters that are mainly just for flow and an addition to the bubble filters in my 200litre tanks used for breeding swords, guppies and holding the female bettas and barbs for conditioning. I removed the carbon area and until recently had nothing there but since have added ceramic noodles to go with the sponges wit, Also another wee filter I have had built in plastic cartridges until I removed them and they are the perfect size for 3 noodles to sit on each side. Like said above why not replace them with better media than adopt the "better than nothing" attitude, especially when there is a risk it could cause harm but releasing chemicals back into the water

Earthworms and slugs commonly fall into water ways being eaten by fish/axolotls. I get your point though, I would not like to go feeding my axolotls black beetles or spiders or anything like that, In saying that i'm sure even they would occasionally get snapped up, And remember also that lots of flies start out in the water so if they are good for them then why not when they are flying about, just my thoughts, could be way off so correct me if im wrong In Regards to original question I would agree stongly with getting on a varied diet either in the way of the commercial "tuckers" available or "mixing it up" yourself. I use salmon pellets, axolotl pellets, bloodworms, axolotl tucker, small amounts of oxheart and liver. and once a year tadpoles when my frogs are breeding. All my young axolotls live on waterworms and daphnia aswell as baby snails.

Yes and you can even put some larger pebbles as mentioned below on the glass to help axolotls grip in these areas, I have had bare bottom tanks in the past but have found problems with them gripping and there legs almost loose the ability to walk overtime as they become used to swimming around, I like the look of them walking up logs and over the substrate. p.s. one of my females laid around 100 eggs in 10 minutes just before, I have never seen such a fast passing, shes still going but slowing down now. seem to all be correct and there are a lot of twins and even one triplet egg sack that I can see.

I'm cheap but sounds like to much hassle, I read somewhere that putting it in salt draws out the chemical but only read it once and I don't like to believe something I read on the internet until I see it in many different places.

Sand is great, you can even keep part of the bottom of the tank glass and seperate the sand with rocks or a log, this way when they feed they are eating of glass and digesting less sand but you still get the benefits of having substrate in the tank. The sand itself is ok if only a small amount is digested but too much can cause internal problems. also some sands can cut the little area in the axolotls throat that they use to break food down before swallowing if it is too sharp or the grains are to large. A lot of people have no substrate but I like the look so have sand at the front and a glass feeding area down one of the back corners, They know when i put food in to go straight to that area.