Axolotls or the Mexican “walking fish” are opportunistic eaters that will eat any living creature that fits into their mouths.
In the wild, axolotls will eat any small insects from larvae to worms, fishes, crustaceans, and mollusks. They will eat anything that they can find and are smaller than their mouths. In captivity, they can eat nightcrawlers, blackworms, daphnia, raw meat, beef liver, brine shrimp, or salmon pellets.
My research also found out that nightcrawlers are best for their nutrients while the majority of axolotl owners actually feed frozen bloodworms instead. But bloodworms are argued to lack the nutrients for both adult and juvenile axolotls.
Axolotls can also be fed with delicacies such as crickets and live bottom feeders such as mini shrimps, guppies, etc. But watch out for parasites. Raw prawns are also a great alternative.
Baby axolotls, on the other hand, are born with the natural instinct of that snapping motion to get live food. Hence, they should only be fed tiny live foods such as live daphnia or mini brine shrimp.
With that in mind, let’s zoom into greater detail on what are some suitable diet can be fed to your axolotl safely.
Contents
We can classify axolotl food into 3 main categories: Frozen or Raw food, Live food, Pellets
Live Food Types
Nightcrawlers
This is by far one of the most nutritious delicacies and a staple for your pet axolotl. These worms are also among their top favorite food.
Common nightcrawler for axolotls:
- Lumbricus terrestris aka Canadian Nightcrawler
- Eisenia hortensis aka European Nightcrawler
- Eisenia foetida aka Red Wiggler or trout worm
The Canadian or European nightcrawler are the most popular while red wiggler is a common staple for axolotls. The red wiggler, however, tends to give off a foul smell or taste that some axolotls hate.
Price of nightcrawlers:
The Canadian nightcrawler can be quite expensive followed by the European nightcrawler while red wigglers are very cheap and can be easily bought online from shops like Amazon.
Pros of nightcrawlers
- Highly nutritious
- Best for adult axolotls
- Easy to buy from aquariums, fishing shops, and even Amazon online.
- Cheap
- Can be cultured on your own
Downside to nightcrawlers
- Requires thorough washing to get rid of soil and dirt before feeding them to your axolotls
- Might be too big for your axies so the best advice is to cut them up into smaller pieces before feeding.
If you like to cultivate your own nightcrawlers, you will need to get the right ones. Now head over here to see a list of suitable nightcrawlers.
Black or white worms
Black worms and white worms are alternatives to nightcrawler as a food choice for axolotls in general. They are easily accessible and are a very healthy alternative to nightcrawlers. But they can really get messy in your tank. And leftovers will screw up your tank chemistry if they are not cleaned fast.
Pros of Black / White Worms
- Highly nutritious for both adult and juvenile axolotls
- Easy to buy from aquariums, fishing shops, and even Amazon online.
- Cheap food source
- Can be cultured on your own
Cons of Black / White Worms
- But feeding them may create a mess in your tank
- Frequent cleaning is required
Live daphnia
The next best staple in terms of nutrients are the daphnias. These tiny beings are also the best food option for baby or juvenile axolotls.
Pros of Live daphnia
- Highly nutritious
- Easily accessible from aquarium shops.
- Cheap food source
- Can be cultured on your own
- Helps to eat some unwanted bacteria in your tank
- Baby daphnia are an excellent food source for baby axolotls
- Even adult axolotls love them.
Cons of Live daphnia
- Not the best option for adult axolotl but they still love them
- Wild caught daphnia might carry diseases that will pass onto your axolotls
- Not as easy to culture as it may seem
Live brine shrimp
Live brine shrimps are a great staple that can be considered second to daphnia. They are mainly a cheap food source for baby axolotls rather than adults. They are also easily cultured on your own. The only downside is that more water changes or cleaning are required as they get really messy.
Pros of Live brine shrimp
- Highly nutritious
- Easily to buy from aquarium shops.
- Very cheap food source especially if you culture your own brine shrimp
- Can be easily cultured on your own
- Baby brine shrimp are a great food source for baby axolotls too
Cons of Live brine shrimp
- Brine shrimp die in freshwater quickly so they tend to pollute water when they die.
- More water changes are required.
- They contain salt which may change your water hardness levels
Get and raise your own live brine shrimp from Amazon here.
Ghost shrimp
A great choice of bottom feeders. These ghost shrimps help to clean your rank of any leftover foods as well as a good snack for your axolotls. They should not be the main food staple for your axolotls but just snacks.
Pros of Ghost Shrimp
- Easily accessible
- Help to clean leftover food
- Can be cultured to reduce cost
Cons of Ghost Shrimp
- Difficult to breed in freshwater
- Not a practical food source for the long term. Only use as snacks
These above are great live food types are safe for axolotls to consume on regular basis. Let’s look at other options for an adult axolotl
Frozen Food Types
Frozen bloodworms
Frozen bloodworms or non-biting midge larvae are one of the most common food that owners feed their axolotls with. They seemed tasty to axolotls as they often go crazy for bloodworms. Bloodworms are a very cheap food source but often argued to be lacking in nutrients for adults axolotls.
Pros of Frozen bloodworms
- Cheap food source
- Can be kept frozen for quite a while
- Axolotls go crazy for it
Cons of Frozen bloodworms
- Maybe lacking in nutrients for adult axolotls
- Gets very messy when feeding.
- Clean up is often required after eating
Find frozen bloodworms on Amazon.
Frozen brine shrimp
While baby axolotls eat live hatchlings from a brine shrimp egg, adults axolotls can be fed with frozen brine shrimp. They are another cheap alternative food for axolotls but can get really messy when feeding them.
Pros of Frozen brine shrimp
- Cheap food source
- Can be kept frozen for quite a while
- Axolotls go crazy for it
Cons of Frozen brine shrimp
- Gets messy during feeding
- Requires more cleaning.
- Contains salt
So if you are going to get brine shrimp, here are a list of frozen or freeze dried brine shrimp that you can choose from.
Pallet Food Types
Salmon Pallet
Pallet food or salmon pellets are common staples for aquatic creatures. And are often loved by axolotls. They are also cheap and easy to buy from aquarium shops or even Amazon – see a list of axolotl pallet food choices at Amazon.
But here’s the deal…
Pallet food is not 100% natural and could have chemicals within them. Most pellets also float on the surface so you have to get those that sink or soak them first before feeding to your axolotls.
Pros of pellet food
- Easily accessible
- Easy to store and can be kept for quite some time
- Very cheap food source
- Loved by axolotls
Cons of pellet food
- Unnatural food
- Most pellets float and harder to feed
- Leftover pellet in water require cleaning or may affect water chemistry
To solve floating pallet problem either feed them with dissolved pallet using a turkey baster or just buy sinking pallets that will sink to the bottom of the tank.
Here is a list of sinking pellet brands that will guarantee to sink and are loved by axolotls:
- Aquatic Foods soft moist sinking salmon pellets for axolotls
- Hikari sinking carnivore pellets
- Omega One sinking shrimp pellets
- Invert Aquatics soft pellets for axolotls
- Omega One sinking pellet for newt & salamander
How should you feed them?
Axolotls teeth are not sharp but rather quite shallow. So they are used for gripping on to their food rather than biting or tearing. As a result, they generally suck smaller creatures in one swoop and swallow them as a whole.
This is also the reason why if food is too huge to swallow, they tend to give up after a while or in worse cases, getting choked on the food as well.
With that in mind, we have to be careful when feeding them. Often, food too small may get stuck in their gills causing breathing difficulty. Food that is too big may cause impaction or indigestion and gas.
Having the right tools will always help. Here are some highly recommended tools that you should have and where you can find in Amazon:
Long aquarium plant tweezers
This is a “must have” for feeding as you can grab a bite of food to avoid creating a big mess. Make sure you get tweezers you see in the image with no sharp edges to avoid cutting your axolotl.
You will be surprised how useful this tool will be when it comes to feeding axolotls. This long plant tweezers here from Amazon is exactly the one I am using now and it saved me from so much hassle of clearing up.
Turkey Baster
This is also another “must have” for cleaning or picking up leftovers. It helps with feeding too.
There is nothing special about turkey baster. Just get a cheap one from Amazon or any online store. It will be useful for spot cleaning of your tank as well. Here is a link to a list of cheap turkey baster at Amazon. Do check it out.
Plastic cup or mini dish or something to substitute a plate.
Plastic cup or plate will be useful to place your food on to minimize the mess axolotls will make when eating
Similarly, there won’t be a need for any special bowl, just get a simple transparent plastic container or plate to hold the food. You can get cheap disposable plates and bowls directly from Amazon here.
For live food
For any worms related live food, it can get quite messy as they will be floating around. Especially black and white worms where they come in one bunch that will separate and moves around. The best way is to use tweezers
“The tweezers” method:
Step 1: Grab small “biteful” of worms gently with your tweezers. For nightcrawlers, it is advisable to cut them into 2 or 3 smaller bite-size lengths before going to next step.
Step 2: Lower them down into your tank close to where your axolotls are.
Step 3: Do small gentle shakes to get the attention of your axies.
Step 4: Wait for the axolotl to snap or suck at their food. Do not squeeze the food too tightly with your tweezers or they will have difficulty sucking their dinner off your tweezers.
Diseases and Parasites:
It is very important for any live food to be disease or parasite free before feeding them to your axolotl. So only purchase them from trusted shops or self-cultivate them.
Make sure live food like nightcrawlers is also washed thoroughly to avoid soil or dirt from tainting your tank.
For live foods like guppies or ghost shrimp that you buy from shops could carry parasites so always quarantine them for at least 30 days before putting them into your axolotl tank.
For frozen food
Frozen bloodworms or frozen brine shrimp are pretty straightforward. They just tend to get really messy when it comes to feeding. So what you can do is to use a plastic cup or plate with higher “walls” to prevent food from moving around too much.
“Serve on a plate” method:
Step 1: Take a bunch of bloodworms or brine shrimp and put them into a cup.
Step 2: Lower the cup down into the water or use the turkey baster to transfer food over to axolotl’s dish.
Step 3: Wait for axolotls to go into the cup to grab their food. Make sure cup or plate has a large enough circumference for the axolotl to easily swim in and out.
Step 4: Remove the cup and use a turkey baster to suck up any leftover food that is floating around.
This method won’t be 100% clean proof as your axolotl will still swim around your cup or plate causing food to fly around but it will keep the mess to the minimum.
For pellets
For pellets that sink, it will be easy. Just drop them in and clean up whatever leftovers with a turkey baster.
However, for pellets that do not sink, you can put a few pieces of the pellet into a small cup of water soaking them first.
Then use a turkey baster to suck up the soft pieces of the soaked pellet. Finally, submerge into your tank and squeeze out the food in your turkey baster somewhere close to your axolotl. Then watch as they nimble away the little pieces of the pellet.
How often should you feed them?
There is no hard and fast rule on the number of times to feed your axolotls. The rule of thumb is to feed them adequately and look at their stomachs. If their stomach is the similar size to their head then it’s enough. If it is larger, hold back on the feeding for the time being.
So here are some guidelines:
- For Juvenile axolotls – It will be best to feed them 1 to 2 nightcrawler/earthworm a day. Always remember to cut them up into few pieces. Or alternatively, if you are using pellets, 2 to 3 pellets twice a day will suffice.
- For adult axolotls – 1 to 2 nightcrawlers every 1.5 to 2 days is enough. Similarly for pellets, 2 to 3 pellets twice every 1.5 to 2 days.
These are just guidelines that I have observed for my own axolotls. My juvenile axolotl is about 3.5 inches while my adult axolotl is 9 inches long. Both are growing very well. My advice is you will have to do some trial and error before finding the best frequency for feeding your own axolotls.
Take a look at our axolotl cheat sheet to see if you missed out anything.
Now that you have seen some of the food that is great for your axolotls, what do you think is the best or most nutritious food for them? Let us know in the comments section below.
