The axolotl, or Mexican walking fish, belongs to the class of amphibians. A lake near Mexico City called Lake Xochimilco is said to be the living nest of axolotls in the wild.
Despite being amphibious, axolotls cannot live on land as they are aquatic animals. In fact, an axolotl has gills and normally lives on water for the rest of its life like a fish.
Moral of the story and lesson learned
These images and pictures are used for educational purposes and I hope ALL other axolotl keepers take the necessary steps to make sure your axolotls don’t get a chance to wriggle or shoot out of the tank. Whenever they are startled or in danger, it is their natural instinct to snap out or shoot to “run away” from any harm they sense.
If you don’t have a tank cover, I highly recommend egg crates or aquarium dividers as there are holes to still allow for proper ventilation and for axolotls to get some air. Buy the correct size or even get a bigger one and you can use something to act as a weight on these covers to compress the impact of the jump so the cover doesn’t fall off.
Pumping mouth
Description:
The axolotl’s mouth opens and closes forcefully, sometimes violently.
Other possible reasons
It may be that you have an exemplary tank with exemplary water and your axie still can’t stay in her tank. The reason? You may have a very active and very curious axolotl.
Another reason I keep hearing that axolotls are detaching from their tanks is that they are probably undergoing a metamorphosis.
Feeding
Feeding these creatures is a rather easy task, but still something you should do carefully. Like most amphibians, feed your axolotl common reptile foods such as nightcrawlers (giant earthworms), frozen bloodworms, or high-quality pellet fish foods. As with any pet, treat the axolotl minimally. Treats for them include frozen pinkie mice and supermarket shrimp, but be sure to cook the shrimp first because axolotls are vulnerable to many diseases and parasites that exist in live fish and shrimp. As is the case with most salamanders, there is no need to worry about vitamin and mineral supplementation with axolotls, especially if they are fed nightcrawlers, who provide them with all their necessary supplement needs.
If you’ve ever owned a fish, treat the water quality of an axolotl as such. Tap water is fine, but be sure to treat it with an aquarium water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramines. Before placing an axolotl in its new tank/aquarium, allow the filter to run for several weeks to allow the water to settle and the filter bacteria to develop. And finally, always make sure you test your aquarium water with a water test kit.