It’s the amphibian that’s taken aquarium keepers by storm. But just how do we care for these curious, frilly salamanders?
NEALE MONKS A formal postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum, and an aquatics author.
THANKS TO MINECRAFT, the popularity of axolotls as pets has increased dramatically. Does that necessarily make them easy to keep though? As someone who has kept and bred the beasts for many years, my feelings on this are mixed.
Compared with, say, terrapins or bearded dragons, axolotls are significantly easier to keep. They are smaller, easier to feed, and don’t (usually) require any expensive equipment to do well. But at the same time, like so many exotic animals, when it comes to healthcare, prevention is better than cure.
Their demands, though modest, are not up for debate, and if you can’t provide the conditions they need, these aren’t the pets for you.
So, let’s take a deep dive into the real world of the axolotls outside their video game appearances!
Life outside the mines
Axolotls are completely aquatic animals that never come onto the land, and this makes housing relatively straightforward. A 90-litre tank should be considered the absolute minimum for an adult, and while youngsters might be reared for a while in a smaller system, I’d always advise people on a budget to get the tank needed for the adult, rather than wasting money on a smaller enclosure that’ll be outgrown in a year or so.
Besides the tank, you’ll need a secure lid. While axolotls aren’t especially jumpy, they won’t last long out of the water if they do somehow manage to escape.
The lid needn’t be anything fancy: a piece of plate glass cut to size and with the sharp edges ground off will do the job.
If you prefer, you can use a standard issue aquarium hood, but axolotls aren’t fussed about light—indeed, they prefer their tank to be dark.
Some people like to turn the lights on for a few hours so they can watch their pets, and that’s fine provided the axolotls have some hollow ornaments or thickets of plants where they can hide if they feel like it. If you want lights on your tank, use LEDs that don’t produce much heat and won’t warm the water too much.
Axolotl furniture
When it comes to décor, keep things simple. To start with, you can skip the addition of substrate entirely if you want. While there’s some debate about whether a few millim
