I am new here, so don't know you but enjoyed your pics and video! Which poly is your favorite based on personality?
Can you tell me more about the axolotl? I just had my curiosity piqued about them the other day.
So as far as the polys go, that's a tough question. Their personalities change a lot as they grow, one day your poly might be timid and hide in the corner all day, then the next day they wake up and decide "I'm the captain now" and start bossing your other polys around. Overall the upper jaws (the palmas polli and albino especially) are the closest thing to "social", they swim around a lot and cause trouble. The weeksii is a total introvert, hides in the corner constantly, always waits until food is uncontested to eat, even if I try to target feed him... guess some fish are way more subservient than others, but for all I know one day I'll wake up to him shaking the big endli in his jaws
The LJs are impressive, heavy bodied, pretty much ignore everything unless disturbed, but very imposing and cool to look at, especially at feeding time- whenever the big endli wants to go somewhere he basically moves everything in his path to get there. I do have to say though, in terms of a typical "pet" these guys won't be super social or scratch that companionship itch... it's more like having a wildlife documentary going on in your bedroom that you can tune into and interact with whenever you want.
Axolotls... first and foremost, the salamanders themselves are quite cost effective. Their accommodations? Much less so. They prefer their water above 60 degrees but under 70 (70 is really pushing it), so unless you live in a place that's constantly in the 60s and you never run the heat you'll probably need a chiller (or if you're close, run some fans on the water 24/7 and deal with the evaporation), I've also heard of people freezing bottles of water or bags of Ice to keep the water temperature down, but that sounds exhausting. I've got a 1/4HP chiller on a heavily planted 40G breeder tank for the axies and keep their temp set to around 63 degrees and they're happy as clams. For filtration I've got a Fluval 306 with a homemade spray bar covered in intake sponges to dampen the return because these guys DO NOT like flowing water, they're basically like fat little tumbleweeds if the current is too high. When they were little I fed them blackworms and bloodworms, now I alternate between like 7 cubes of bloodworms and hikari carnivore pellets for them every day, although I'm pretty close to putting a day in between since they're starting to get pretty big. They're not ridiculously active, but they're adorable, fat, smiley salamanders and the women in my house adore them, especially since they're basically always "smiling". I enjoy feeding them and watching them wander around... I guess if I had to compare them to anything I'd say they're like underwater cows, constantly grazing the bottom of the tank because their appetite is INEXHAUSTIBLE.
