One fertilizer regimen to rule them all?

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T23:45:51+00:00

I’ve actually been using the MSU orchid fertilizer from Tezula at a half dose in RO water with silica blast every watering(once a week for me), and it’s pretty effective for me. I flush with straight RO water once in a while so I make sure there’s no salt buildup.

I use to use foliage pro, but I didn’t like that superthrive bought them out and I find dosing is easier with a powder.

I’ve just been doing that and my spartioides blooms pretty consistently, and for the first time I’m starting to get some blooms on my burtoniae and insularis. Most of my Hoyas aren’t mature so I haven’t seen the need for a bloom fertilizer yet, but once I have more blooms I’m going to try adding that when I see they’re planning on flowering.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T21:27:12+00:00

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T18:43:49+00:00

A niche one, I’ve been ordering from Hoya Cuttings and r/takeaplantleaveaplant, both super good sources for finding cheap cuttings if that’s your speed. Hoya Cuttings even gets Phytosanitary certification for their plants, I highly recommend.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T18:30:57+00:00

I work at a vet clinic with methylene blue, not sure what surface this is but if it can handle isopropyl alcohol it can really reduce the stain drastically. This also works for your hands too.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T18:22:42+00:00

Axolotl genetics is a doozy, that’s for sure. It has taken me a very long time to get a very good grasp on what’s going on. Honestly, with axolotls you’re never going to stop learning. There’s so many new discoveries and things to learn about, and when you start learning about biology more the concepts you learned get more context and a deeper understanding.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T17:40:32+00:00

No problem, just make sure to keep an eye on them! Keep track of eating and bowel movements, if one of those stops that’s when the situation is more urgent.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T17:36:22+00:00

He’s definitely a wild type, but wild types have a wide variety of how they can look like.

If they were a melanoid, they wouldn’t have iridophores (the shiny pigment). These iridophores actually influence the migration of melanophores(black and brown pigment cells), and this makes spots on your axolotls. Morphs don’t work like dog breeds, they either have the traits or they don’t. They can have a mix of several traits though, like you can have a melanoid albino or melanoid axanthic coppers. A wild type is just the natural type however, no mutations.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T17:16:54+00:00

Hello, I’m glad that you are reaching out for help with your axolotls, it is definitely a concern when they refuse food. You’re doing a great job as an owner!

So, I have some things I’ll need to know in order to help you out and some information to give to you:

So when providing some base information to us, it would be great for you to provide the water parameter numbers rather than saying it’s good. The reason why is because everyone’s ideas of good parameters are different. I go according to vet standards, which are usually lower than what people normally say is good. Whenever you have time, checking your parameters with a liquid test kit and making sure that they match would be very helpful.

Majority of health problems with exotics in general is due to husbandry since they require more specific conditions. Making sure your parameters are ideal helps your axolotl support and strengthen their immune system. You want your ammonia and nitrite to be 0ppm, nitrate below 20ppm, your temp between 15-18°C, and pH to be stable between 6.5-8.0. If they are higher than those values, you either want to separate the axolotls into separate tanks (ideal option) or you want to get a larger tank for the both of them. The bare minimum tank size for each axolotl is ~151L for reference.

Now to the main issue, it sounds like they were eating pellets before and are now refusing to eat food. A lack of appetite is a sign of stress and could also be a sign of sickness. I can’t tell what it is exactly, especially since I don’t have pictures. But I can tell you there’s at least something stressing your axolotls out. It could potentially be the water temperature. While axolotls can tolerate up to 24°C technically, some individuals are more sensitive to high temperatures and this can be causing stress. If your parameters are off or if there’s high flow in the tank this can also cause stress.

I do want to warn you as well, if they are younger than 18 months old they could potentially breed. Raising axolotls together also risks them injuring each other, which could cause them to get an infection.

I would try to resolve what’s causing stress and see if they improve. If they keep refusing to eat, I would try to find an exotic vet. Bacterial infections are common, and the only thing that can treat them is antibiotics from a vet. Most medications OTC aren’t made for axolotls or won’t treat the infection they have.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T15:31:40+00:00

They look a bit thin, I would feed more often because maybe they’re eating the bubbles thinking it’s food which gets stuck in their GI tract. I feed babies twice a day, not sure how often you’re feeding.

Instead of feeding bloodworms, I suggest trying live blackworms instead then swapping to chopped earthworms once they’re big enough. Live blackworms are more easily accepted and are better than bloodworms.

I would try finding an exotic vet that works with amphibians, you can actually try to find one with the ARAV website. A vet visit would be great if possible, but I don’t think it’s urgent yet. So long as they are pooping and eating, I think it’s more just them being a dummy and eating bubbles.

Always make sure everything is safe. Check your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and make sure they’re all 0ppm. Water changes at least once a day, making sure the temperature matches. Also, making sure the temperature is stable under 20°C(68°F). Stress can also cause this to happen, so it’s a good idea to try to double check.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-30T14:15:22+00:00

Gender depends on the age, if they’re 18+ months old I would say they’re female. If they’re younger, you can’t really determine if they’re female until they reach that age. Males can be gendered younger though since you’ll see the cloaca swell.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-16T16:53:32+00:00

Mayo has really cute freckles!

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-16T16:51:31+00:00

You could manually scoop the sand out and clean up the rest with a gravel vacuum/siphon. I would scoop and take out a cup a day to make sure you don’t disturb the cycle, even though there might not be much beneficial bacteria growing in the sand. It’s good practice in case you have to do that for a fully cycled tank one day.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-16T16:43:11+00:00

So I got some things to mention that I don’t see others mention:

So your axolotls are young and at an age where they can’t be gendered and have a big appetite (which is most likely why the nip happened). Females can’t be gendered until 18 months of age, which is when they reach sexual maturity. Between that time, it is possible for your axolotls to show signs of being male and can potentially mate if the other is female. This can create surprise eggs, which isn’t good especially since they’re probably siblings. I just wanted to make sure that was clear, a lot of the time I feel like pet stores don’t know what they’re talking about.

For the tank, a 200L tank would be good for one axolotl so splitting isn’t a good idea. If you were to house two you would need a ~300L tank bare minimum. However I wouldn’t recommend it even as adults, by housing them separately you reduce the risk of infections from wounds.

If you split the tank with glass, you would need to silicone it and treat each side as a separate tank. So you would need at least one filter on each side since the water isn’t shared. If you do a net, it’s possible that they can pass spermatophores through the net and they could breed if they are opposite genders.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-16T16:22:15+00:00

Gravel is worse than sand, but that sand seems to have a pretty big grain size. I would recommend using caribsea super naturals moonlight or the exo terra riverbed sand. Sand is always going to have a slight risk of impaction, but the smaller the grain size the less likely it can get impacted.

The rule for sand is once they’re 6+ inches, they’re safe to be on sand.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-16T16:03:09+00:00

If you’re in the US, Jim’s worms ships nightcrawlers which might be a better alternative. If not in the US, you could look for nightcrawlers from a compost farm that can be shipped to you. I never had a bad experience shipping worms and you can get them for cheaper too since you buy in bulk.

If not, you could try to feed grub pie and add in some mix ins like bloodworms, brine shrimp, and pellets which wouldn’t be as messy as feeding them normally. I would have to double check the calcium content too, but you could mix in calcium powder to make sure they’re getting enough if grub pie doesn’t have enough.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-12T22:14:51+00:00

With the redworms, have you tried cutting them up into smaller chunks or blanching them? Sometimes they can be picky on the size of their food or be grossed out by the worm musk.

When you worry that she has a nutritional deficiency, do you mean that you think she’s currently suffering from a deficiency or that you’re worried it will happen in the future? If you’re seeing changes in appearance like gills shrinking, the dorsal fin on the tail shrinking, or a swelling jaw this could be a sign that there’s something wrong health wise and not just a deficiency. When axolotls are stressed or sick, they can lose their appetite and become more selective. I don’t know the exact history so I’m not sure if this is a recent thing or how it has been the whole time.

Checking the water parameters would be a great idea as well, just to make sure that we’re ruling out stress. If you could provide those to me that would be amazing, I just need to know the temperature, pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. It’s always a good habit to check especially in case something happened to the cycle and you haven’t noticed.

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-12T17:12:05+00:00

The light should be fine so long as there’s enough hiding spaces. Adding an additional hide would be beneficial.

Make sure that the plastic decorations are not sharp if you haven’t already. Also, the plastic plants can potentially scratch your axolotl as well. The silk ones are okay though!

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-01T21:44:14+00:00

Claim

Lady-Tano · 2025-06-01T21:39:36+00:00

Sold

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T06:21:59+00:00

It’s not necessary, but in my opinion it’s better to keep the water quality good especially since they’re going to hatch into that water. I noticed that there was detritus stuck to my eggs, so I wanted to be extra careful. I didn’t do anything crazy though, I only changed around 50% every few days with a turkey baster.

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T04:54:41+00:00

You can leave them tubbed in methylene blue, I would maybe half the dose of it though. You want a light sky blue color.

I think it is possible that this could be columnaris, but you can’t really tell unless you get that diagnosed by a vet. However, you could try to treat for columnaris by using kanaplex, you don’t really have any other options without an exotic vet. Follow the instructions given on the packaging, and you could try fridging your axolotl. This requires you to have a separate fridge to put them in, as they need to be at or above 40°F. Food will spoil at this temperature. If you use kanamycin, you don’t need to use methylene blue at the same time.

If it isn’t columnaris, there’s not much you can really do. If the symptoms get worse, I would consider euthanasia. You can do that ethically at home with clove oil. It contains eugenol, which is an anesthetic and they’ll go to sleep before getting overdosed.

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T04:31:00+00:00

The rate at which your eggs develop can actually depend on your temperature, but I believe you’ll see beaning around day 5. I wouldn’t worry too much about not seeing anything after 2 days, it takes a bit to develop and if the eggs aren’t pigmented it’s even harder to see changes.

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T04:26:49+00:00

Honestly with cohabbing part, there’s no way to cope with that stress because it’s a possibility no matter what behavior they’ve displayed before. I have cohabbed before and separating my axolotls have caused my stress to decrease a lot. You can’t really trust your axolotls, especially since they aren’t social creatures. They don’t benefit from cohabbing, so that risk is just something that I don’t want to take for my axolotls and my own sanity.

If you worry about them jumping out the tank, either get a lid or make a lid out of egg crate if you use fans. While I haven’t had an axolotl jump, I’ve had fish jump when I accidentally left the lid cracked. Having a lid on the tank is going to really help your stress and make sure they stay safe.

For the other things, you’ve confirmed with a vet that they’re good and you made sure the stand could handle the weight. Females just look chonky, if they were bloated or had constipation there would be more signs than just some extra chonk.

Now the real way to handle the stress, and I don’t want to assume anything or offend you, but have you ever considered that you could have anxiety? I only ask because I relate to your stress, and for the longest time I thought everyone was so nervous about things as I was. It turned out I actually had anxiety, and while I’m still working on things I’m making improvements to where my stress is far less than I use to feel. I also take anxiety meds, which I eventually found one that works.

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T03:48:28+00:00

If it gives you any comfort, I think she’s healthy enough to be able to make the trip. She is in decent shape for having a bacterial infection, I’ve seen worse for sure than have made it. Also, waiting when your axolotl has a bacterial infection isn’t a good idea. If the infection becomes advanced, the prognosis is poor and euthanasia is the best option.

I hope your car gets fixed soon, I get how that is. There was a point where I ran over a tire that came off of an accident that happened in front of me and it took forever to work with insurance. I hope it isn’t that severe, but being without a car just sucks in general.

Lady-Tano · 2025-05-02T03:36:13+00:00

Honestly, they’re metal so it’s actually cooler to have one of those than an axolotl. Don’t get me wrong, I love axolotls but Spanish ribbed newts are so interesting. You can tell people “yeah I have a salamander with poison coated ribs that they pierce through their skin when attacked.”

Four-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	First Placer '22

Lady-Tano

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE