Hey guys! So, today, I'm making my video on axolotls.
I've had people ask me about this video for a long time now.
So I'm going to go ahead and finally get it done.
It is storming really bad outside right now and my lights keep going off for like two seconds
and then coming back on so-um-I'm really hoping that that doesn't happen while I'm filming and that the electricity doesn't go like permanently out.
Because I would like to not film in the dark and if that happens,
I probably won't upload the video because I don't want to film a video in the dark.
So, I hope that just doesn't grow in my video. You know that'd be nice.
It'd be nice to get through this video without it being ruined.
So, here's hoping that I will make it through the video. If you are watching this video, obviously I did. So yay! OK.
Let's get started on axolotls!
Before I start telling you the things that you need for an axolotl, let's talk about what an axolotl is.
That's actually a question I get a lot. I have people asking me, you know, is it a fish?
Is it a lizard? What the heck is that thing that you have that is in the water?
Can't really see him right now because he is right there, hiding out, and this camera sucks
Axolotls are in the salamander family. So, basically, if you don't know much about salamanders,
they kind of go through the same metamorphosis as a frog does.
[They] start out as tadpoles that live only in the water,
and then, they metamorphosize and turn into a land animal. Basically an axolotl is a tadpole of a salamander,
[but] the difference between the regular salamander tadpole and the axolotl,
is that the tadpole will metamorphosize and turn into a salamander, and the
axolotl never-will never-metamorphosize. So, basically, a tadpole of a salamanders is also known as a water dog
and if you look at water dogs, they do look exactly like
Axolotls so with axolotls like I said they never metamorphosize
And they stay axolotls all their life giving them their own species axolotls were indigenous only to one lake in Mexico
That is where they come from now axolotls are pretty much extinct now in the wild [due] to global warming and human
Construction things like that the lake was no longer very sustainable for life for axolotls now it's found that axolotls do thrive in Captivity
So axolotls
As a whole aren't almost extinct just in the wild now that you know what an axolotl is you can learn
how to take care of it axolotls are fully aquatic
They will never leave the water ever in their life, so this means. No you can't pick it up
You can't play [with] it
You can't hold it if you sterilize your hands you can [put] [your] hand in the water and like touch it
But you don't really want to do that much because that you have a slime coat
And it can be damaged from excessive touching
They don't really like it that much so I would leave touching to a very minimum
[I] will you know sometimes pick him up when I take a picture, and he'll rest in my hand, but even that
I only do that for like a few seconds, and I'm like okay. I'll let you go cause
I know you ain't loving that. So if you want an animal you can handle and touch and hold this is not the animal
For you yes, you can interact with it
But not the same way you would interact with an animal that you can hold and touch and love and all that stuff. You have
To love it from the far axolotls come from a lake like I said in Mexico. That is actually very very cold
This is where they thrive
They don't survive in hot water so what you will have to do for your axolotl is always keep the water
Under 70 degrees they really do best in temperatures 66 and lower
so
Axolotls need really cold water to survive which means if you live in a really warm state you have to understand that you might potentially
Have [to] buy a chiller
Chillers are not cheap
They're probably one of the most stupidly expensive
Things I've [ever] seen and I am avoiding buying one at all cost because I don't want to pay
200 or more dollars
To cool my water now to help with keeping the water cold what I do is I have a fan on top
It's not on right now [on] this moment because when I'm making this video
I don't want that on because it's very loud
So I would definitely say that no matter where you live unless it's like
Antarctica or something you're Gonna want to have a fan first thing
I would invest in with an axolotl is a fan and of course you're going to need a tank
For one axolotl it can live in a 10 gallon tank minimum. I recommend a little bigger than that
I think a 20 long is a perfect sized tank for one adult
axolotl and if you ever want to get a second can fit it in a twenty long as well
You don't want to get a 20 gallon tall tank because axolotls really like a lot of floor space rather than height. Second thing is
axolotls don't really like light right now
I have the slide on just so y'all could see the tank in the video
But normally it is always off. Next thing we need to talk about is filtration
filtration is super super important for an axolotl tank because axolotl tanks are basically waste machines
they go to the restroom a lot. The hard part about this is
axolotls like very still water when the water starts flowing too much they get stressed and they won't live very long because when they're stressed
they get diseases and they aren't healthy
ETc Etc. So basically you want a filter that is going to clean very well
but also not make the water move too much because filters tend to when they circulate the water move the water
I've actually had a lot of success with ??? filters
Now uh, I'll show ya'll real fast I'm going to switch to my phone real fast
This will just give you an idea of what you should look for in a filter basically in a filter
You're going to want something that had has an adjustable flow level right here
you just can turn it and it will increase and decrease the flow once a month you will need to replace all the
Packets in there after a month they don't work as well. So you have to replace them once a month and here
I have my fan there we go. That's working and as you can see it is very loud is just the price. I pay for
a happy axolotl. There are a few more things you need to take into consideration for an axolotl.
One of them is the gravel or substrate on the ground.
This is a very very important part of axolotl keeping because if you were to go to the store and get regular
aquarium sand or aquarium gravel. It is actually very dangerous for axolotls
they have a tendency to nip at the ground when they're trying to eat, and they will often accidentally eat the sand and gravel.
I'm using very very very fine sand and now this is a very perfectly safe
alternative a lot of people will leave their tanks bare bottom which means nothing at all on the bottom.
This is both good and bad.
It is good because you can see exactly where the mess is clean it up and keep the tank very clean and not risk the
axolotl eating any kind of gravel or substrate
but it's also bad because the axolotl sometimes will become stressed that it cannot rip onto anything on the ground because it is just
glass. So I found a good alternative
which is very very very fine sands this kind of sand will safely pass through the digestive tract and not hurt the axolotl it's this. It's
Super natural it's by currency, and this color is like -Tahitian black, and I don't know if they make many colors
But it is black, so that is what I recommend for gravel.
When it comes to feeding
axolotls you will learn very quickly
That you cannot own an axolotl if you are squeamish. Don't really fish food or anything like that
the absolute best food and Staple diet for a
axolotl is earthworms
specifically nightcrawlers
they are very big Canadian worm so if you are not okay with chopping up a live worm and putting it in the water
don't own an axolotl because
earthworms are the absolute best food for them they can eat it every single day all their life and live super happy and good.
So I'm now going to film how to feed an axolotl.
If you don't want to see an earthworm get chopped up you can go ahead and skip.
Just you know skip over it shouldn't take longer than a minute
So if you skip a minute of this or 30 seconds of it and the feeding should be over. Basically what you're gonna do is
you're gonna first get a cup and put some water in it. Doesn't have to be that much just enough for the earthworm to go.
Earthworms are very large
it's kind of startling to people who don't like worms, but obviously I don't mind them. What you going to do is get a worm and
Put it in your oh, I dropped the worm he is free you're going to put the worm if I can pick him up
Don't want to use my hands oh, man,
I'm gonna have to use my hands.
You're gonna get the worm you're gonna put him in the cup if I could ever get him in the cup there we go.
He's in the cup.
If you just made a mess like I did you're going to clean it up if you don't want your room to have worm poop
and worms dirt all over it.
You're gonna get your worm, and you're gonna cut the worm and you just kind of. Worms can't feel pain
So he's okay. Google it like I did. I googled it like 80 times. Make sure it was true, worms can't feel pain
He's okay. It's just you know in like ten pieces now
So that is how you feed an axolotl I do that every single night. Now another question people ask me sometimes is what fish can
I keep with my axolotl? The answer is very very simple the answer is nothing. He will eat shrimp
he will eat snails and
any fish that he can fit in his mouth will become dinner and
Any fish he can't keep in his mouth is likely to pick on his gills
Pick on him, or just stress him out because it is in his territory, so yeah
I would have to insist on never getting fish for your axolotl tank. When it comes to cleaning and maintenance
I spot clean his cage anytime I see poop but once a week
I do a big clean and about once a week
I take out about 15% of the water I
clean out the bottom make sure there's no poop then I will dump out the water fill it up with cold water and get a
Water conditioner condition the water put it in there add some ice to keep it cold
And then I'm clean that's done that stuff
And that's just the basics for axolotl keeping. When it comes to what to do when your axolotl gets sick if it's not
Eating all that fun stuff. I'm going to make another video about axolotl care and what to do with a sick axolotl/
I'm not exactly positive what my next video will be I know that. I want to make a video about Betta fish care
I believe Betta fish care is very overlooked and people don't realize how much they can really do for their betta
That would benefit it, so I will make a video about that, and I'm not sure if that's my next video or not
But look out for it, so thank you for watching bye
You want to show the world what you did? Show them your butt, show them your butt, show them.
This is Phoenix um while I was sleeping one night he decided to
make a huge noise. Wake me up and when I checked his cage
he threw his tail unlike other kinds of geckos crested geckos will never grow their tail back
So he will have a nubby butt for a life. Did you know I love you?
Do you care, at all?
Okay, bye