White Axolotl Closeup
|Range||Lake Xochimilco, Mexico|
The Axolotl is a specie from the Ambystoma genus. The species originates from Lake Xochimilco underlying Mexico City.
Axolotls have feather-like external gills, and lidless eyes. They are closely related to Tiger salamanders, and many mistaken axolotls for Tiger Salamander larva
Axolotls of various colours occur in captivity, including grey, shades of brown, leucistic (white with black eyes), golden albino, white albino, as well as other varieties, such as the melanoid (a near-black animal). The normally coloured axolotl, the "wild type", can be near-black, or even creamy in colour, and anywhere in between. There are even "piebald" axolotls in various colours, and a variety that is piebald in more than one colour, known as the "harlequin".
Axolotls are more active at night than during the day. In bright light, they tend to rest under cover of vegetation or under overhangs. Axolotls are cannibalistic when different size ranges are kept together or if they are underfed.
Earthworms, insects, small crustaceans; narrow strips of raw lean beef, fish or chicken, fed by hand and wiggled; many will learn to take pellet food for carnivorous fish, e.g. salmon pellets with a preference for softer pellets. Hatchlings take brine shrimp, tubifex worms, water fleas and small insects.
Feed adults three times a week, with as much as they will consume within about one hour. Feed juveniles more often. Remove uneaten food and excreta promptly.
Essential dietary needsEdit
Axolotls require a variety of food items, as monotonous diets may cause nutritional deficiencies.
Lifespan: Needs InformationEdit
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A wild axolotl lives up to 12–15 years.
- Axolotls can regrow lost body parts.
- Axolotls have external gills.
- Scientists do not know the population of axolotls, but know they are still decreasing.
- Axolotls used to live in two lakes in Mexico until one of them was drained to prevent flooding.
- Axolotls and Tiger Salamander Larvae are closely alike, and many mistaken axolotls for Tiger Salamander Larvae.
- Axolotls are amphibians (salamanders) and are also known as the Mexican Walking Fish.
- Axolotls remain in their larval state as an adult and can't live on land.
- Axolotls are carnivorous and have small stump like teeth.
- Axolotls can be grey,white,gold,and brown.
- Axolotls are related to Tiger Salamanders and lay eggs.
- Axolotls are native to Mexico.
- Axolotl comes from the Aztec language (Nahuatal) and names are close to Xolotl their god of death and deformations and the translation is (water dog.)