Axolotol - Taylor "Tater Tot" Hawkins

[Scrum Fish]

It's been a pretty good while since I posted here, but I'm still enjoying the hobby!

I have posted before about my 29 gallon and 45 gallon planted community tanks.  They're both going strong and healthy and I'll update those sometime soon.

However, I needed to make a thread about my newest adventure:  keeping an axolotl!  My wife became enamored with them after seeing them in our LFS and one day asked what I thought about keeping them.  Suffering from multi-tank syndrome, I obviously jumped at the chance haha.  So, we've set this fella up in a 20 gallon long.  My wife named him Taylor Hawkins, after the late Foo Fighters drummer.  My son and I gave him the nickname "Tater" because we're idiots.  His only tank mates are some ghost shrimp to control the algae (and for him to hunt if he decides to).  The first two pics below are from the day we brought him home on April 29th, then one from a little later, and the last pic and video are from last week.

 

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Scrum Fish

[Guppysnail]

😍😍😍 out of reactions. He has such a beautiful smile. He is lovely. 

That was a HUGE  mouthful 🤣

[Scrum Fish]

Yeah, he's a CHONK at dinner time.  He's actually large enough now that it's probably time to start cutting back on feedings.  I was originally feeding him morning and evening, same time as the fish tanks.  Lately been just one feeding a day.  But now he's starting to turn down food if he's eaten the day before.  He's still full and is growing steadily, but is about 7-8" now.  Running a chiller on it the tank and keeping it out of the sun, so his water is staying fairly cold, which is probably also keeping his metabolism in check.  

He's much better than some of my other pets at telling me he's full, haha.  Not a greedy eater, but a quick one.