The paradox of caring for Mexican axolotls is that they need extremely clean water, but their eating habits are extravagantly messy – creating anxiety for our Animal Caretakers at Pacific Science Center. Fortunately, our creative staff have figured out a way to keep our amphibians’ habitat clean and healthy.
Axolotls are native to two lakes in Mexico; their habitat is very threatened in the wild. They do well in captivity and are fascinating animals for those who are willing to work hard to keep water quality high.
Unfortunately axolotls are very messy eaters. They dive at food, eating as much as they can and letting the leftovers scatter through the water. In an aquarium habitat, this leads to loss of water quality and can make the animals fall ill.
Pacific Science Center's animal care team takes this problem seriously - but they also like to have fun. Adrian and Nancy have been working on some feeding schemes to help keep the mess to a confined area. Here are Nancy's drawings.
And here is the feeding chamber.
The animals can learn to go in, eat, and come out again safely. The chamber can then be pulled back out, taking most (but never 100%) of the leftover food with it, and leaving the water relatively clean.
Anything for those amphibians!
ReplyDeleteI have heard that all kinds of amphibians are endangered in the wild. Does Pacific Science Center work with anyone who tries to help them?
feeding was fun!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a Naked Mole Rat enclosure! Way to be creative animal caretakers!
ReplyDeleteI have six axolotls at home and have been feeding them with reusable plastic pipettes. I suck up the bloodworms and the axies come up to it as soon as I approach the tank and try to suck out the worms. I can control how much food I put in and it fun to watch. I also feed them earth worms of and on -- those get sucked up and leave no leftovers -- just waste. I don't have substrate or rocks in the the bottom of the tank for easier clean up. I use a turkey baster to suck up the waste when I see it. That's harder to do when they have rocks to "hide" the waste under. :)
ReplyDeleteCheck out the axolotl.org site. They have a wealth of information there.
Sabine
I always fed my axolotls with either guppies or feeder gold fish. Only the occasional worm feast.They did very well until we had a toxic leak into our water supply. They are great critters.
ReplyDeleteLintninja, I'm glad you mentioned the problem with your water supply. We once lost a group of babies to a water toxin with water straight from the tap. One day they were fine, the next day, with every procedure the same, they were all gone, and no disease showed up on the necropsy result. Our vet said that very low levels of contaminant in the water can harm the young ones.
ReplyDeleteWe offered feeder guppies but they ended up settling in and becoming resident.
I will try the baster approach - that sounds like a winner, and is how we feed many of our messier tidepool animals.
Sonja & Chris, good eye. It is a repurposed mole-rat chamber. Why waste a good invention?
Thanks everyone!
I feed my axies by hand and they love earthworms and waxworms and the water stays nice and clean.
ReplyDeleteI am new to this, so please look past the stupid question that I am going to ask. Can you just go out to your yard and get the earth worms or is there something special that I need to buy at the pet store.
ReplyDeleteIf you can easily find earthworms in your yard, there’s nothing that makes the pet store earthworms special. It’s great to give your axos a varied diet too. You can try ice cubes of bloodworms, pinky mice, beef heart too. I hope you enjoy working with your new pet!
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