Axolotl in garden pond

zoe 3619

So I hope I'm putting this in the right forum and hoping someone can satisfy my curiosity.

A family member bought a house around 12 years ago with a smallish pond in the garden.There were maybe 3 koy carp in it which I think were left by the previous owners.2 of them have died since then ( with a little help from a heron) and recently the pond looked particularly clear so he went looking to see to see if the third was still in residence.

Instead he found what he swears (after some goggling and research) is an axolotl. It's apparently about 14 inches long so I guess fully grown?

Could it have travelled from somewhere or has it been lurking there all this time?Also wondering how well it would have coped with the cold winters-he's in the west midlands in england.

10-10-20

Hmm, interesting. Here are a few questions that i would ask... Is the pond low-lying or raised, ie could the fella have migrated in there 'naturally'? Are there water sources nearby? Any chance that it was added by the previous owner given that they had an interest in aquatics?

zoe 3619

The pond is at ground level-actually a very small pond which runs into a slightly larger one below it and the nearest water source would be some sort of commercial fish farm which is maybe half a mile away.

Do they migrate 'naturally'?I wasn't sure how well they coped/travelled on land.

I guess the previous owner is the probable answer but rather surprised it could have survived some rather hard winters and remained unnoticed for so long.

HorseSea

Previous owner wanted rid I guess. They are interesting creatures, but very dirty in a tank and not everyone's idea of nice to look at, especially the albino ones. The conditions and temps would not be ideal, but it looks like he survived. I have heard of terrapins surviving over winter in Irish ponds under ice.

I bred Axolotls many years ago and sold them to Jebi's Aquatics, so who knows that one may be a distant relative of one of mine.

Introducing such creatures to a ponds is not good for a million reasons.

Jim_Hodge

I thought they couldn't cope with a water temperature below 15degrees and surely the pond gets considerably belie that.

zoe 3619

It certainly would have done.

Also my bit of random googling tells me their lifespan is about 10 years and they shouldn't really be kept with fish.It seems to have lasted very well though and grown to a fair size living on whatever pond life is in there and maybe the flakes thrown in for the koi.

Bit late now ask,but anything special it should be getting?And are they purely aquatic or do they come out of water sometimes?

Jim_Hodge

I'm not fully convinced it's an axolotl TBH

zoe 3619

Anything else it could be?

Guy who's pond it's in has a keen interest and has kept indoor aquariums for 30 years so he may well be wrong but unlikely to have seen a floating twig/fish and jumped to conclusions.

About 14 inches long,yellow and seemed to be hanging around towards the bottom.Seems he got a good view.I'll see if he got any photos.

HorseSea

Hard to confuse an Axolotl with anything else, the 100% proof would be sight of the external gills around the head.

However unsuitable the pond is for them this one seems to have survived ok, don't think you need worry about feeding it anything specific. Koi pellets and other wildlife in the pond would be fine.

They are fascinating creatures and there's lot of interesting articles about them for your family to google including their amazing regenerative powers - the ability to regrow a missing limb!

I should know but from memory I don't think they can survive outside water for long, so I doubt it would leave the pond at all. They do have the ability to gulp air from the surface to supplement their gills in low oxygen situations.

Would love to see a photo - there's a tricky project :-)

zoe 3619

Project completed!

Have a photo and his stumpy legs and frilly gills are very visible.

Trickier project seems to be uploading said photo here..

Apparently he's rather large but 'peaceful'.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122421538#Comment_122421538

Just hit the Image icon in the bottom of the comment box, and upload the image from your phone or computer. The icon is the same and on the same place on the Desktop and Mobile versions of the site. You need to have a minimum of four characters of text in your post with the image ("...." will do if you don't have any comment to add).

zoe 3619

''''

10-10-20

Well that's mad altogether! Well done photographing it.

HorseSea

Congrats on getting that photo, nearly as great an achievement as that poor lad surviving while freezing his bits off in there! Definitely an Axolotl without a doubt, an albino one. They will take small fish, but if the koi are large they should be ok. The external gills should be red, it's a sign of a problem of poor water when they get pale, hard to see in the photo, but they look very pale to me.