Friday 27 January 2012

Cruel, But Delicious! (Blog #8)

Cruel, but delicious!

This is my blog post from Feb 21, 2011.
It was discussing live food, in which i bought a container filled with a sawdust like subtance and 20 "Superworms" - A type of ground worm with legs. After the axolotls died, i became lazy and the worms just say there and there little box. Sometimes at night time i could hear them moving around in the saw dust. 11 and a half months later the worms were still sitting there, most of them had either been eaten or just simply died, because i saw a vast amount of wormshell inside the container. My only question is how did they survive that long without food? Maybe they ate that saw-dust type thing. Anywho, I open the container up 1 week ago and their are 2 left. The container smelt HORRIBLE, there was dead insects inide it for about a year. Anyway, i fed one of them to my Brothers "oscar" fish and threw the container out. Maybe that worm i threw out is now in the dump living the high life aftering being imprisoned for a year. I miss feeding the live worms to my axolotls. Sometimes i would have to hold the worm under water for them to eat it. Other times i just placed the worm at the top and it would slowly sink down, and, depressingly, convluse with muscle spasms as it gasped for air. The axoltols would soon eat it though, after it stopped moving. There was a funny time i remember when the worm was fighting to wriggle out while the axolotl struggled to keep it in his mouth, because, as you know, they must swollow it whole.
Sorry for that wall of text. When the memories flow you find it hard to stop writing. See you next Tomorrow




When someone asks me about my fish, the person standing next to them will go "What?" I'll say "We're talking about my Axolotls" which is usually followed my an even louder "What?!"
Today i'll be giving you an in-depth look of what is meant by the term "Axolotl"

If someone asks you what an Axolotl is. The normal response would be "A fish with Legs" This is far from the truth of what an actual axolotl is. Axolotl is the term given by the Aztecs to this mysterious creature. The axolotl is a wild water salamander or water dragon found in the wild rivers of mexico. They have become endangered in the wild but are healthy and in supply at the local aquarium as long as your not in the middle of the summer months. Axolotls require a long widthy tank with a graveled bottom and filter. The tank needs to be kept cold with no fluctuation temperatures. Frozen ice bottles in the tank can be a cheaper alternative then the $1k chillers they sell. The require temperatures between 16-20 degrees Celsius, higher degrees then that causes stressful and lazy behavior leading to disease and sometimes death. The best thing about axolotls are they are not the sort of fish that just die on you. You start to see symptoms of unhealthy behavior and death soon comes within a week, don't expect to wake up one mourning to see a dead axolotl floating at the top of your tank ( unless of course you don't something crazy like feed them chocolate ect.) Apart from being sturdy fish that most find appealing because of there lovable appearance, Axolotls are the few fish that you can handle and hand feed. This very feature was the reason i got so into fish. Mexican walking fish are carnivorous and there diet is formed with some of the foods listed below. If you ever chose to get an axolotl, check out my previous blog posts to see some tips and tricks.
**Update** Day 8:
I rock up at the aquarium and i ask them for their life food section.
They got everything my little fella could ever need: Earthworms, Blackworms meal worms and "Super Worms"
Intrigued by super worms i ask and sure enough there are 2 dozen little Caterpillar things in a Tupperware container filled with sawdust. They are running around like crazy in there. The guy at the counter says they are a better feed and are more nutritious for them. I buy the box for $16.
I go home eager to feed them both, i pluck out a worm and drop it in the tank. Thing drowns in close to 20 second and then goes straight and stiff. I put it in the mouth of Aristotle and it takes him about 4 minutes for him to gobble it down. I try it different for  Sagee, i quickly take one out and put it in the mouth of Sagee, he Snaps it out and the worms thrashes about and tries to break lose. they fight for a while but the worm surcame to the water and goes stiff and it takes sagee about 7 minutes to gobble it down. Some people would consider this cruel to feed to them but its better give them a varied diet. And i don't want to hinder them by just eating frozen after frozen food. When i go to pick up my next axolotl (At the end of march) i will pick up some mealworms to feed them. Oh well they seem to like it and ive got enough worms here to feed for the next 2 weeks. Im a whole lotl axolotl

-Josh

4 comments:

  1. Really interesting. Didn't know there was ANY type of fish you could handle!

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  2. Whoa, i'm learning things and still interested. Very nice.

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  3. I usually answer they're dragons without wings, it does the trick too!

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