Not a fish, and Critically Endangered where it comes from
Axolotl care is the most searched subject left on our list, and the animal is not a fish. API Fishcare puts it in one sentence: axolotls are sometimes called the Mexican walking fish but are actually a type of aquatic salamander. It sits in this silo because that is where people look for it, and every figure on this page is a figure a fishkeeper has to hit. It is also the first amphibian on this site, which matters for one reason above the rest: amphibians breathe and absorb through their skin, so what goes in the water reaches the animal directly.
Wikipedia gives the trait it is famous for: it is neotenic, reaching sexual maturity without undergoing metamorphosis, and the adults remain fully aquatic with obvious external gills. Unlike most salamander species, axolotls retain their external gills when they mature into adulthood. Over evolutionary time it has lost the ability to naturally undergo metamorphosis, and it keeps the capacity to do so only if given hormones artificially, which Wikipedia says hobbyists are generally discouraged from attempting because it can often result in death.
The part no care sheet on this record mentions at all is the conservation status. Wikipedia lists Ambystoma mexicanum as Critically Endangered, with a population of around 50 to 1,000 adult individuals in the freshwater lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco in the Valley of Mexico, and it gives the trend from three surveys: 1998, 2003 and 2008 found 6,000, 1,000 and 100 axolotls per square kilometer respectively.
None of our five care sources raises that, and one of them is a breeder. We are not going to resolve where a shop animal came from, and it belongs at the top of the record rather than in a footnote, because this is the only animal on this site whose wild population is smaller than the number of them in tanks.
Why this record was written now
- The gap
- The largest keyword cluster left in our map, 44,500 searches a month across 19 terms, and nothing on this site to answer any of it.
- What it changes
- At 61 to 64 °F it has the lowest temperature ceiling here by ten degrees, and it is the first record whose sources disagree about the tank by a factor of four. It is also the third record with a growth rate row that is not blank.
- What it does not
- One tank size. Our five sources give 10, 15 to 20, 20, 20 for two, and 40 gallons for the same animal, and not one explains its own figure.
Axolotl temperature: 61 to 64 °F, and the ceilings disagree
Five sources publish a band, all five are different, and 61 to 64 °F is the only span every one of them contains. The interesting disagreement is not the band, it is the number each source says will kill the animal.
| Source | Band | The warning | pH |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 61 to 64 °F | Above 75 °F, stress and eventually death | not stated |
| Tree of Life, veterinary | 60 to 68 °F | Above 72 °F, illness or death | 6.5 to 8.0 |
| API Fishcare | 60 to 65 °F | Stressed above 70 °F | 7.2 to 7.6 |
| Tropical Fish Hobbyist | 60 to 65 °F | No more than 72 °F | not stated |
| Awesome Axolotls | 60 to 64 °F | Never exceed 75 °F | 7.40 to 7.60 |
Three different ceilings, five degrees apart, and none of the five explains its own. API Fishcare says stressed above 70. Two sources say 72, one of them a veterinary clinic that attaches illness or death to it. Two say 75. A keeper reading one page gets a two degree margin over a summer room and a keeper reading another gets seven.
Wikipedia gives the wild figure the whole row descends from: the water temperature in Xochimilco rarely rises above 20 C, 68 °F, and may fall to 6 to 7 C, 43 to 45 °F, or lower in the winter. An animal from water that cold does not need a heater. It needs the opposite, which station 09 is about.
Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and two different ceilings
Two of our sources publish the nitrogen figures and they agree on the first two and not on the third. Tree of Life, the veterinary clinic: ammonia and nitrite at 0 ppm, toxic even in small amounts, and nitrate under 40 ppm. API Fishcare: ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, and keep nitrate below 20 ppm.
API Fishcare also gives the only maintenance routine anybody publishes for these water conditions, which is to perform your weekly or biweekly water exchanges to keep the resulting nitrate low, and it is the one source here that tells you to test rather than to assume. Its full set is the only complete one on this record: temperature, pH, general hardness, carbonate hardness, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, where every other source gives a temperature and a shrug.
The 40 against 20 gap matters more here than on a fish record, because this is an animal our sources describe as sensitive and because the same page that gives the higher figure is the one written by a veterinary practice. We print both and take neither, and the lower number is the one that costs you nothing to hit. Our water and health page carries the site’s nitrate context, and it notes that no species care source we compile from states an ammonia figure for a species. This record is the exception: two of them do.
What this does to every other record on the site
A ceiling of 64 °F is the lowest on this site by ten degrees. The next coldest is the goldfish at 68 to 74, and the two do not meet: the coldest fish we hold is four degrees too warm for this animal. At the other end our discus record starts at 85, so the site now spans 61 to 86 °F and the two ends are twenty one degrees apart with nothing in between them able to share a tank.
The water and health page carries the chart, and this record is the bar at the far left of it. It also means the answer to can an axolotl go in a community tank is arithmetic before it is behavioral, and station 06 gets to the behavior.
Axolotl tank size: 10, 15, 20, or 40 gallons
This is the first figure anybody looks up in axolotl care, and our sources differ by a factor of four for the same animal.
- Awesome Axolotls, a breeder. Each axolotl needs at least 10 gallons of water in its habitat, but bigger is always better. It scales it as 20 for two, 30 gallons for three, and so on.
- API Fishcare. It is recommended to have at least 15 to 20 gallons per axolotl, and a 20 gallon Long or 40-gallon Breeder size aquarium make great options.
- Tree of Life Exotic Pet Medical Center, a veterinary clinic. A 20-gallon long aquarium minimum, and add at least 10 gallons per additional axolotl.
- Tropical Fish Hobbyist. A standard 20-gallon, 78-liter, aquarium with a footprint of 24 by 12 inches is adequate to house a couple of them, which is the same volume the veterinary source gives to one.
- Wikipedia. A single axolotl typically requires a 40 US gallon tank, which it gives as 150 liters.
The record prints 20 gallons, because three of the five support it and because the veterinary source states it as a minimum rather than as a suggestion. Three of the five also agree on the shape rather than the volume: a 20 gallon long, whose footprint is 24 by 12 inches, which is the same base our bristlenose pleco record arrived at from two different sources. For an animal that lives on the floor, the floor is the measurement.
There is one argument for the larger end that none of our sources makes, and this record will. The reason to buy the bigger tank is thermal rather than spatial. This is the coldest record on the site, three sources warn about a ceiling in the seventies, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist's advice for a keeper who cannot afford a chiller is to put the tank in a cool part of the home such as a basement. A larger body of water in a room that swings holds a number more easily than a small one, and every other figure on this record depends on holding that number.
Our stocking calculator reads the 20 gallon figure and the single-animal group size, so an axolotl and anything else will come back as a refusal rather than a suggestion. That is correct: see station 06.
The full record
| Field | Recorded | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum tank | 20 gal | Five figures for one animal and the largest is four times the smallest. Awesome Axolotls, a breeder: each axolotl needs at least 10 gallons of water in its habitat, but bigger is always better, and it scales that as 20 for two, 30 gallons for three, and so on. API Fishcare: it is recommended to have at least 15 to 20 gallons per axolotl, and a 20 gallon Long or 40-gallon Breeder size aquarium make great options. Tree of Life Exotic Pet Medical Center, a veterinary clinic: a 20-gallon long aquarium minimum, and add at least 10 gallons per additional axolotl. Tropical Fish Hobbyist puts two animals in that volume: a standard 20-gallon, 78-liter, aquarium with a footprint of 24 by 12 inches is adequate to house a couple of them. Wikipedia is the outlier at the top: a single axolotl typically requires a 40 US gallon tank, which it gives as 150 liters. The row prints 20 gallons because three of the five support it and because it is the figure the veterinary source states as a minimum, and station 03 prints all five. |
| Temperature | 61 to 64 °F | Five sources publish a band, they are all different, and 61 to 64 °F is the only span every one of them contains. Wikipedia: temperatures at approximately 16 C, 61 °F, to 18 C, 64 °F, are suggested for captive axolotls to ensure sufficient food intake, and temperatures higher than 24 C, 75 °F, may lead to metabolic rate increase, also causing stress and eventually death. Tree of Life: 60 to 68 °F, a cool water species, avoid temps above 72 °F, and temperatures above 72 °F can lead to illness or death. API Fishcare: 60 to 65 °F, and it says they can become stressed in warmer water temperatures above 70 °F. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: their water should be kept at no more than 72 °F, and lower temperatures are preferred, about 60 to 65 °F is even better. Awesome Axolotls: the ideal range is 60 to 64 °F, and the water temperature should never exceed 75 °F. The ceilings our sources warn about differ by five degrees, 70, 72 and 75, and none of them explains its own. Wikipedia gives the wild figure the whole row descends from: the water temperature in Xochimilco rarely rises above 20 C, 68 °F, and may fall to 6 to 7 C, 43 to 45 °F, or lower in the winter. |
| pH | 7.4 to 7.6 | Three sources publish a band and the row prints the span all three contain. API Fishcare: 7.2 to 7.6. Awesome Axolotls: aim for a pH of 7.40 to 7.60 to keep them healthy. Tree of Life is much wider at 6.5 to 8.0. Two of the three want water on the alkaline side of neutral, which puts this record beside the amano shrimp at 7.2 to 7.5 and the nerite snail at 7.5 to 8.5. Five of our records have a pH floor at or above 7.0 and this is the narrowest of them. API Fishcare is also the only source here that publishes a full set of water figures rather than a temperature and a shrug. |
| Hardness | 125 to 250 ppm | One source publishes a hardness figure. API Fishcare: general hardness 7 to 14 dGH, which it converts itself to 125 to 250 ppm, and carbonate hardness of at least 3 dKH, 50 or more ppm. It is the only source on this record that separates the two kinds of hardness, and the only one that states a floor rather than a ceiling for either. Two sources also publish the nitrogen figures, agreeing on two of the three: Tree of Life gives ammonia and nitrite at 0 ppm, toxic even in small amounts, with nitrate under 40 ppm, and API Fishcare gives ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate below 20 ppm. API Fishcare is the only source on this record that publishes a full set of water conditions rather than a temperature alone. |
| Adult size | 9 to 12 in | Five figures, and the practical band is narrower than the widest of them. Wikipedia: a sexually mature adult axolotl, at age 18 to 27 months, ranges in length from 15 to 45 cm, 6 to 18 in, a size close to 23 cm, 9 in, is most common, and any greater than 30 cm, 12 in, is rare. Tree of Life gives 9 to 12 inches, which is exactly Wikipedia's common-to-rare span. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: most adults tend to reach about 8 to 10 inches, about 20 to 25 cm, in captivity. API Fishcare: they can reach up to 10 inches in size. Awesome Axolotls is the highest at up to 18 inches, which is Wikipedia's maximum rather than its typical figure. |
| Diet | Carnivore, and earthworms are the staple | Every source names worms first. Awesome Axolotls: organic nightcrawlers, large earthworms, are the most nutritious food source for axolotls, and adult axolotls typically consume about two earthworms every 2 to 3 days. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: they'll eat any large, meat-based food, earthworms and redworms are among their favorites, and sinking pellets specifically designed for axolotls are abundant on the market and should make up the bulk of their diet. Tree of Life: high-quality sinking axolotl pellets as a staple, with nightcrawlers or earthworms and bloodworms or blackworms for variety, feeding juveniles daily and adults every 2 to 3 days. API Fishcare: protein rich food like earth worms, adult brine shrimp, insect larvae like bloodworms, small live or frozen freshwater shrimp, and sinking pellets, with growing babies fed once or twice a day and a fully grown adult only needing feeding once every 2 to 3 days. Wikipedia lists trout and salmon pellets, frozen or live bloodworms, earthworms and waxworms for captives, and for the wild: the axolotl is carnivorous, and in the wild it consumes small prey such as mollusks, worms, aquatic insects, other arthropods such as crayfish, and small fish, as well as other salamanders. |
| Water column | Bottom | Every source describes an animal that sits on the floor of the tank and is fed sinking food there, and two of them turn that into an equipment requirement rather than a description. Tree of Life: use a low-flow filter, sponge or canister, to avoid strong currents. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: sponge filters or other gentle filtration is suggested, and their flow should be indirect and weak. API Fishcare: axolotls need a lot of filtration and clean water but prefer an overall low water flow. It is the fourth record here filed at the bottom, after the corydoras, the kuhli loach and the bristlenose pleco. |
| Lifespan | 10 to 20 years | Four sources, three answers, and a doubling between the lowest and the highest. API Fishcare: with proper care and room to grow, these critters can live for more than 10 years. Tree of Life: 10 to 15 plus years in captivity with proper care. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: this adorable little dragon can live for 20 years or more. Wikipedia gives the wild figure rather than the captive one, that the life expectancy of a wild axolotl is between 10 and 15 years, which is the only place on this record where the wild animal and the pet are given the same number. |
| Growth rate | Legs by 2 to 3 in, mature at 18 to 27 months | This is the third record on this site whose growth rate row is not blank, and the only one where the figures are developmental stages rather than a rate. Awesome Axolotls, which breeds them: once the axolotls reach 2 to 3 inches in length, their front and hind legs should be fully developed, and babies should be kept in small containers such as Tupperware until they grow to about 4 to 5 inches long. Wikipedia gives the endpoint: a sexually mature adult axolotl, at age 18 to 27 months. Nobody publishes inches per month, and the stages are more useful than a rate would be, because it is the stage rather than the age that decides when a baby has to be moved to its own container. |
The same nine fields for every animal on this site are in the A to Z index.
Where our sources disagree
Every record here names a disagreement. On this one it is the first figure anybody looks up, and the largest answer is four times the smallest.
Wikipedia
A single axolotl typically requires a 150-litre (40-US-gallon) tank.
Awesome Axolotls
Each axolotl needs at least 10 gallons of water in its habitat, but bigger is always better!
What we record: we print 20 gallons, because three of the five sources support it and because the one written by a veterinary clinic states it as a minimum rather than as a suggestion. What none of the five does is explain its own figure, and the difference is not academic: a 10 gallon and a 40 gallon are different animals to own.
There is one argument the sources do not make and this record will: the reason to choose the larger end is thermal rather than spatial. This is the coldest record on the site at 61 to 64 °F, three of our sources warn about a ceiling in the seventies, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist's advice for a keeper who cannot afford a chiller is to put the tank in a cool part of the home such as a basement.
A larger body of water in a room that swings is easier to hold at a number than a small one, and every figure on this record is downstream of holding that number.
Baby axolotls: the window where they eat each other
One of our sources breeds them, and its account of the first few inches is the most specific care instruction on this record.
The stages, in inches rather than weeks
Awesome Axolotls: baby axolotls should be kept in small containers, such as Tupperware, until they grow to about 4 to 5 inches long. Once the axolotls reach 2 to 3 inches in length, their front and hind legs should be fully developed.
The middle of that is the dangerous part. During the period of limb development they may exhibit cannibalistic behavior, biting off their own gills and developing limbs or their siblings'. The instruction that follows is exact: it is best to move each axolotl into its own container as soon as they grow their front feet.
So the trigger is a body part rather than a date. A keeper watching a calendar will be late; a keeper watching for front feet will not.
What a baby eats, and how often
Awesome Axolotls: feed juveniles twice daily, and perform a full water change on each container every day. At the stage where the legs are developed you can begin feeding thawed frozen bloodworm.
API Fishcare puts the same schedule against the adult one and the gap is the point: growing babies should be fed once or twice a day, while a fully grown adult only needs feeding once every 2 to 3 days. Tree of Life says the same, feed juveniles daily and adults every 2 to 3 days.
A daily full water change on a tub is the part people do not expect. It is also why the babies are in tubs rather than in the tank: you cannot change all the water in a 20 gallon every day, and a container you can pour out is a filter you do not have to cycle.
Wikipedia gives the far end of the timeline, that a sexually mature adult is 18 to 27 months old, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist gives the number that explains why breeders have tubs at all: your axolotl can lay up to a thousand eggs, and they hatch in about two weeks, give or take a day.
Can axolotls live together? The answer is an age, not a yes
Our sources look like they disagree and they do not. Read them by the age of the animal and they line up.
- Babies, and it is unanimous. Awesome Axolotls: cannibalistic behavior during limb development, biting off gills and limbs, separate as soon as the front feet appear.
- Adults, and it is nearly unanimous the other way. Awesome Axolotls: fully grown adult axolotls can usually live together safely and rarely attack one another. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: they don't generally harm each other, though they sometimes accidentally bite one another when feeding, and once in a rare while, one will manage to bite the leg off one of the others.
- Same size, every time. Tree of Life: best kept alone or with other similarly sized axolotls.
- The dissenting voice is about eating, not aggression. API Fishcare: it is recommended to keep them solitarily, especially in smaller aquariums, because they are very clumsy eaters and will accidentally nip each other or fish when they are crowded together during feeding.
Nobody says an axolotl is aggressive. Four of the five say it is clumsy, and the bites our sources describe all happen at feeding time. That is a different problem with a different fix, which is space at the front of the tank rather than a divider.
Fish are a separate question, and the answers are shorter
Tree of Life: avoid fish, they may nip gills. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: the best tankmates for your axolotl would be more axolotls. API Fishcare is the only source that leaves the door open, saying axolotls can live with other axolotls or fish with similar needs, and that qualification is worth taking literally. Exactly one fish record here has a band that reaches 64 °F, and it is the guppy at 63 to 82, which overlaps this record by two degrees at the very bottom of its range. Our guppy record also carries a source stating that the same fish lives two to three years at 76 to 78 °F and over three and a half years at 72, so keeping one at 63 is keeping it at the far edge of its own page. The goldfish, the other fish people assume is cold enough, starts at 68.
Three records without fins do reach it: the cherry shrimp at 59 to 86 and our hornwort and java moss records at the same band. The shrimp is the one to think about twice, because Wikipedia’s account of the wild diet names other arthropods such as crayfish, and a cherry shrimp is an arthropod that fits in an axolotl’s mouth. The water works and the diet does not, which is the distinction our tank mates page exists to make.
Those feathery external gills are the reason the warning keeps appearing. They are the animal's respiratory organ sitting outside its body at the exact height a curious fish investigates.
The best substrate for an axolotl is usually nothing
Four sources answer and they sound like three positions. They are two, and the apparent contradiction resolves into a rule about size.
Bare bottom or fine sand. Tree of Life: a bare-bottom tank, easy to clean, or fine sand, and avoid gravel or small pebbles, which can cause impaction if swallowed. API Fishcare: fine sand or leaving the aquarium floor bare is preferred. Awesome Axolotls: sand is the safest choice, and we keep our tanks bare-bottom for ease of maintenance.
Wikipedia adds the numbers. Gravel, common in aquarium use, should not be used, and it is recommended that any sand consists of smooth particles with a grain size of under 1 mm. It also cites a laboratory guide that approaches the same problem from the other end: bowel obstructions are a common cause of death, and it recommends that no items with a diameter below 3 cm, or approximately the size of the animal's head, should be available.
And that is where Tropical Fish Hobbyist stops being an outlier. It says the bottom of the tank should be kept bare or covered with very large gravel, because swallowed gravel or sand can affect them, often fatally. Read against the laboratory rule, the two are the same instruction: either under 1 mm so it passes, or over 3 cm so it cannot be swallowed at all. The danger is everything in between, which is exactly what an aquarium shop sells as gravel.
Wikipedia also records why the question is not fully settled: there is some evidence that axolotls might seek out appropriately-sized gravel for use as gastroliths, based on experiments at the University of Manitoba axolotl colony, and since there is no conclusive evidence pointing to gastrolith use, gravel should be avoided. That is a source declining to change its advice on inconclusive evidence, which is the same rule this site runs on.
Axolotl plants: what the temperature rules out
An axolotl planted tank is possible on the figures and none of our five sources will help you build one: not one of them names a plant species for an axolotl tank. What the temperature row does is rule most of ours out: our java fern record carries 72 to 82 °F and our java moss record 59 to 86, so of the three plants we hold, only java moss and hornwort have bands that reach down to 64, which they share with the cherry shrimp and, by two degrees, the guppy. Both of those are also plants that need no substrate at all, which suits a bare bottomed tank. That is our arithmetic rather than a source's recommendation, and it is offered as such.
The black axolotl is a melanoid, and the eye gives it away
Color is the second most searched thing about this animal after the babies, and the useful part of the answer is a way to check what you are buying.
| Form | Body | Eyes |
|---|---|---|
| Wild type | Brown or tan with gold speckles and an olive undertone | A shiny metallic ring around the pupil |
| Melanistic, sold as black | Black or dark blue with no gold speckling or olive tone | No metallic shine at all |
| Leucistic | Pale pink body | Black |
| Albinistic | Pale pink or white body | Red |
| Xanthic | Gray body | Black |
The check is the eye ring. Water Critters, writing about axolotl genetics, identifies an animal as melanoid because his eye ring lacks the metallic shine of wild-type axolotls. A dark wild type keeps that shine; a melanoid has none, because the mutation acts on iridophores and a melanoid has no iridophores at all, being unable to produce crystallized purines.
The same source gives the mechanism that makes them darker rather than merely duller: the lack of iridophores triggers the conversion of some xanthophores into melanophores. It calls melanism a recessive mutation similar to albinism, and describes the result, in its own spelling, as a “grey appearance, which can border on blueish under the right wavelengths”. It also distinguishes the form next door, that axanthic axolotls do have a certain amount of xanthophores but those xanthophores are unable to produce pteridines, giving axanthic a purple hue whereas melanoids are, in its words, “more of a blueish grey”.
One line in that source is care information rather than genetics, and it is the only place on this record where a color form comes with a consequence: due to the reduced number of pteridines, melanoid axolotl larvae have a slightly lower survival rate. Nothing we read says that about an adult.
Tropical Fish Hobbyist describes the same trade from the shop end, that while the wild form of the axolotl is a dark gray, they have been selectively bred into several different forms, most commonly albinos, though xanthic forms, black ones and many more are sometimes seen. Nothing on any of our sources says a color form needs different water, a different tank or different food.
How to cool an axolotl tank, on two budgets
What our sources actually say
API Fishcare: use of a chiller or other water-cooling method is needed to maintain cooler water temperatures. Tree of Life: use an aquarium chiller if needed.
Tropical Fish Hobbyist is the only source that prices it and offers the alternative: an aquarium chiller is recommended but expensive, so put your tank in a cool part of the home, such as a basement, and away from any sources of heat, including direct sunlight.
That is the whole published answer, and it is thinner than the question deserves. Nobody on this record gives a figure for how much a room can swing, how fast the water follows it, or what a fan does. We are not going to invent those, and the honest version of this section is that two sources say buy a chiller, one says find a cold room, and none of them measures anything.
Why cooling is the field that decides the animal
Everything else in axolotl care is a figure you can hit once. Read the three warnings together. Stressed above 70 °F, illness or death above 72, stress and eventually death above 75. The band the record carries is 61 to 64. The gap between the top of the recommended band and the first warning is six degrees, and a room in summer moves more than that.
Every other record on this site asks for a heater, which is a device that adds energy on demand and holds a number easily. This record asks for the reverse, and the reverse is harder, more expensive and less common in a fish shop. Our tank setup page is built around heaters because until now every record here needed one.
It is also why station 03 argues for the bigger tank on thermal grounds. Twenty gallons of water in a basement holds a temperature that ten gallons in a living room will not.
Axolotl fun facts and axolotl tips, from sources rather than from a listicle
The axolotl tips worth carrying are the ones with a source attached, so these are the statements our sources make that are not a number in the table above.
- It regrows limbs. Wikipedia: axolotls do not heal by scarring but are instead capable of tissue regeneration, and entire lost appendages, such as the limbs and tail, can regrow over a period of months. The ability declines with age but does not completely disappear. Tree of Life adds the clinical caveat: axolotls can regenerate limbs, but wounds should still be monitored for infection.
- It is a larva that grew up. Reaching sexual maturity without metamorphosis is called neoteny, and the external gills are part of it. The animal you buy is, developmentally, a baby that never stopped being one.
- It can be forced to metamorphose, and should not be. Wikipedia: the capacity remains if the necessary hormones are provided artificially, and among hobbyists the process can often result in death during or even following a successful attempt.
- Chlorine is the one water fact everybody agrees on. Wikipedia: chlorine, commonly added to tap water, is harmful to axolotls. API Fishcare names its own conditioner for removing chlorine or chloramines.
- It should not be picked up. Tree of Life: avoid handling axolotls, they have delicate skin and are easily stressed. Tropical Fish Hobbyist explains why in a way that matters for what you put in the water: their thin skin is permeable, and soaps, chemicals or oils may be absorbed by the animal and harm them. It adds that they may tolerate, and some do seem to enjoy, being petted while in the water, but they do not want to be handled, cuddled or otherwise bothered. API Fishcare: they should not be handled with hands or above the water.
- A pair can produce a thousand eggs. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: axolotls will breed throughout the year if they are kept in good condition, and your axolotl can lay up to a thousand eggs, hatching in about two weeks, give or take a day.
What this record will not answer
One tank size
Ten, fifteen to twenty, twenty, twenty for two, and forty gallons, for one animal, from five sources, none of which explains its own figure. The record prints 20 because three support it and a veterinary clinic states it as a minimum, and station 03 prints all five so you can see what you are choosing between.
Where the animal in the shop came from
Wikipedia records the species as Critically Endangered with 50 to 1,000 adults left in the wild. Not one of our five care sources mentions the conservation status at all, and none of them says whether the animals they describe are captive bred. We are not going to fill that in.
How to hold 64 °F in a warm room
Two sources say use a chiller, one says use a basement, and none of them gives a figure for how much cooling any method delivers. Station 09 prints what they say and stops there.
Whether it can share a tank with a fish
Three of our sources say no and one allows fish with similar needs. The arithmetic narrows that to one record, the guppy at 63 to 82 °F, and narrows it again on that record’s own terms, because its source ties lifespan to temperature and 63 is the cold end of it. We are not going to turn a two degree overlap into a recommendation.
A pH for the wild animal
Three sources publish a captive pH and the row prints 7.4 to 7.6. Nothing we read gives the pH of Xochimilco, so the record cannot say whether the alkaline figure it carries resembles the water the species evolved in.
Axolotl questions, answered from the record
What tank size does an axolotl need?
The record prints 20 gallons and our sources range from 10 to 40 for one animal. A veterinary clinic gives a 20-gallon long minimum plus 10 gallons per additional axolotl, API Fishcare gives 15 to 20 per animal, a breeder gives 10 each, Tropical Fish Hobbyist puts two in a 20 gallon with a 24 by 12 inch footprint, and Wikipedia gives 40 for a single. Three of the five point at the same shape, a 20 long, and for an animal that lives on the floor the footprint is the figure that matters.
What is the right axolotl temperature?
61 to 64 °F, which is the only span all five published bands contain. The ceilings they warn about are the part that differs: stressed above 70 says API Fishcare, illness or death above 72 says the veterinary source, stress and eventually death above 75 says Wikipedia. Wikipedia also gives the wild figure, that Xochimilco rarely rises above 68 °F and can fall to 43 in winter.
How do you cool an axolotl tank?
There are two published answers to how to cool axolotl tank water, and they are a chiller or a cold room. API Fishcare says a chiller or other water-cooling method is needed. Tree of Life says use one if needed. Tropical Fish Hobbyist is the only source that admits the cost and offers the alternative: put the tank in a cool part of the home, such as a basement, and away from any sources of heat including direct sunlight. None of them publishes a figure for how much any method delivers.
Can axolotls live together?
Adults usually can, babies cannot. Awesome Axolotls says fully grown adults can usually live together safely and rarely attack one another, and that babies exhibit cannibalistic behavior during limb development, biting off gills and limbs, so each one moves to its own container as soon as the front feet appear. Tropical Fish Hobbyist adds that adults sometimes bite one another accidentally when feeding and once in a rare while one takes a leg. The veterinary source asks for similarly sized animals, and API Fishcare prefers them kept solitarily because they are clumsy eaters.
Can an axolotl live with fish?
Three of our sources say no. Tree of Life: avoid fish, they may nip gills. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: the best tankmates for your axolotl would be more axolotls. API Fishcare allows fish with similar needs, and on this site that means exactly one: our guppy record runs 63 to 82 °F and overlaps this one by two degrees. Nothing else with fins comes close and the goldfish starts at 68. Our cherry shrimp does share the water, and is also the kind of arthropod Wikipedia says this animal eats in the wild.
What is the best substrate for an axolotl?
The best substrate for axolotl tanks, on what our sources publish, is bare glass or sand under 1 mm. Three sources prefer bare or fine sand, and Wikipedia gives the grain figure and the reason gravel is out: it should not be used, and a laboratory guide it cites reports bowel obstructions as a common cause of death, recommending nothing below 3 cm be available. Tropical Fish Hobbyist's very large gravel is the same rule from the other side. What is dangerous is the middle, which is what shops sell as gravel.
How long do axolotls live?
The axolotl lifespan our sources publish runs from 10 to 20 years, depending on which one you read. API Fishcare says more than 10 years, the veterinary source says 10 to 15 plus, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist says 20 years or more. Wikipedia gives the wild figure at 10 to 15 years, which is the one place on this record where the wild animal and the pet get the same number.
How big do axolotls get?
9 to 12 inches. Wikipedia gives the full range as 6 to 18 inches, says a size close to 9 inches is most common and that anything over 12 is rare, which is exactly the band the veterinary source publishes. Tropical Fish Hobbyist gives 8 to 10 in captivity and API Fishcare up to 10. A breeder says up to 18, which is Wikipedia's maximum rather than its typical figure.
How do I care for a baby axolotl?
In a tub, alone, with the water changed every day. Awesome Axolotls: keep babies in small containers such as Tupperware until they reach about 4 to 5 inches, feed juveniles twice daily, and perform a full water change on each container every day. Front and hind legs are fully developed at 2 to 3 inches, and each animal moves to its own container as soon as the front feet grow, because during limb development they bite off their own gills and limbs or their siblings'.
What is a black axolotl?
A melanoid. Wikipedia describes the melanistic form as a black or dark blue body with no gold speckling or olive tone. The way to tell one from a dark wild type is the eye: Water Critters identifies a melanoid because his eye ring lacks the metallic shine of wild-type axolotls, since the mutation acts on iridophores and a melanoid has none. It also notes that melanoid larvae have a slightly lower survival rate due to the reduced number of pteridines.
What do axolotls eat?
Worms, first and foremost. A breeder calls organic nightcrawlers the most nutritious food source and says an adult takes about two earthworms every 2 to 3 days. Tropical Fish Hobbyist says earthworms and redworms are among their favorites and that sinking pellets designed for axolotls should make up the bulk of the diet. The veterinary source and API Fishcare both name pellets, earthworms and bloodworms, and both feed juveniles daily and adults every 2 to 3 days.
Can you put plants in an axolotl tank?
None of our five sources names a plant for an axolotl tank, so this is our arithmetic rather than their advice. Of the three plants we hold records for, only java moss and hornwort have temperature bands that reach down to 64 °F, and both of them need no substrate, which suits a bare bottomed tank. Java fern stops at 72.
Can you hold an axolotl?
No, and one source explains why it matters beyond the stress. Tropical Fish Hobbyist: their thin skin is permeable, and soaps, chemicals or oils may be absorbed by the animal and harm them. The veterinary source says to avoid handling because they have delicate skin and are easily stressed, and API Fishcare says they should not be handled with hands or above the water. Tropical Fish Hobbyist adds that some do seem to enjoy being petted while in the water.
Are axolotls endangered?
Critically Endangered, according to Wikipedia, with a population of around 50 to 1,000 adult individuals in the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco. It gives the trend from three surveys: 1998, 2003 and 2008 found 6,000, 1,000 and 100 axolotls per square kilometer respectively. Not one of our five care sources mentions this, and this record does not know where any particular shop animal came from.
Is an axolotl a fish?
No. API Fishcare: axolotls are sometimes called the Mexican walking fish but are actually a type of aquatic salamander. Wikipedia files it as Ambystoma mexicanum in the family Ambystomatidae, and the reason it looks permanently juvenile is neoteny: it reaches sexual maturity without undergoing metamorphosis and keeps its external gills as an adult. It is in our fish silo because that is where people look for it, not because our sources are confused.
What an axolotl needs that a fish does not
Three things our sources ask for, and the first one is a way to make water colder.
- A chiller, a basement, or bothone source calls a chiller needed, another calls it expensive
- A sponge filter, or a canister turned away from the animalthree sources ask for low flow
- Fine sand, or nothing at allgravel is named as fatal by three of them
Every item our records ask for is gathered on the tank setup topic.
Nothing here is a paid link. It is the shortfall between what this record asks for and what a boxed kit contains.
How this record was compiled
- By
- Verified
- Sources
Wikipedia, Axolotl, Tree of Life Exotic Pet Medical Center, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Joshua Wiegert, API Fishcare, Awesome Axolotls and Water Critters, axolotl genetics
- Conflicts
Printed above: five tank size figures for one animal, from 10 gallons to 40, and three different temperature ceilings
- Not recorded
A single tank size, because our sources differ by a factor of four and none of them explains its own figure; and whether the animal in a shop tank is related to the wild population, because Wikipedia records the species as Critically Endangered with 50 to 1,000 adults left and none of our care sources raises the subject at all