Project Axolotl

The 2 Juveniles with fungus are much better after their salt baths love the last couple days. There is no more white fluffy fungus on their fluffs which is a great sign. Now the fungus has gone I can see that there is some damage to the gills which over time should heal up. I will continue to give salt baths for another 3 days to make sure that the fungus has all gone and I will leave the 4 Juveniles separated in the 2 tanks for the time being.

Have had an issue with the tank in the kitchen as 2 of the juveniles have got fungus on their gills. I have seperated the 2 healthy ones into another tank in the lounge and have started giving salt baths as per: https://sillyaxolotls.wixsite.com/sillyaxolotls/saltbath This basically involves adding 2 tablespoons of sea salt to 2 litres of treated water and leaving each affected axolotl in the bath for 15 minutes. I have been keeping a close eye on the two in the seperate tank and they don't appear to have any fungus at the moment so fingers crossed they will be ok.

I moved the big juveniles into the big tank last night and they seem really happy in there. They have now settled in and the water has gone clearer. I originally thought that I would be able to fit loads more of the juveniles in the big tank but I think that the 6 that I have in there now is about the limit.  I am going to clean out the 2ft tank and move it into my bedroom and move the 4 smaller juveniles from my smallest tank into it. I am then going to move my other 2ft tank into the kitchen so that I can dismantle the shelves to free up space as planned. I will then move the tanks around to make the lounge work the best.  Once the bigger juveniles are a bit bigger I will move them out into the pond with the big axolotls and move the next biggest into the big tank.

This morning I have finished filling up the pond and also set up the pump and spondge filter as well. I have also caught the big axolotls and put them in individual tubs and I am floating them in the water to get used to the new water temperature. I have now covered the pond over so that the axolotls are less stressed and also to stop anything trying to eat them while they acclimate. I am now cleaning the tank that the big axolotls came out of ready to move the juveniles into in a couple of days.

The pond arrived yesterday and I got it built and half filled with water too. I left it half full as it was raining so I wanted to see if the level would rise much over night. I am also going to take a lot of the water from the aquarium where the axolotl's are at the moment to help with the cycling of the pond.  The solar air pump arrived today too so I have charged it up ready to set up tomorrow too.

I changed my mind about the pond as it would take another 2 weeks to arrive and I wanted to get the juvenile's moved into the pond and out of my lounge sooner rather than later. So last night I cancelled the 380 liter pond liner that I had bought and bought a Hozelock Ltd Hozelock Outdoor Aquarium, Black from here . This is a purpose made 500+ litre pond that will hold all of my axolotls easily even when they are fully grown. I am planning to build the pond as soon as it arrives and then move all of the babies into the pond except the 4 smallest ones who will move into a bigger tank and be moved into my bedroom for now. So to start with there will be 10 axolotls in the pond. I have also bought a solar air pump so that I can add 2 large sponge filters to the pong to help keep the water clean and aerated. HERE is a link to it. Hopefully it will be powerful enough to power the filters but if not I have also bought 20m of airline so I can pass the line from a pump inside t...

I did a water change and aquarium clean on the juvenile tanks yesterday and while I was doing this I had an idea. I have decided that I am going to buy a pond for the garden and move the large axies from the big aquarium into it and then move the juvenile's into the big aquarium and then I can grow them out until they are big enough for the pond and then move them out into the pond too. This will mean that I do not have to sell any of the juvenile's and I can also get rid of the small tanks and the shelving unit that they are on and get my lounge back 🎉 I bought a pond on Amazon which will arrive in a couple of weeks and also 20m of air line and anew spondge filter so that I can run air to the pond. The pond can be seen here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heissner-Preformed-Rectangular-Water-Garden/dp/B008HCX4WE It was the best cheap option and is 380l so it should house all of my axies once it is established. It is pretty large at 149cm X 79cm X 45cm high so it will g...