03/29/2025
Time for a 💖 “Rescue Reflection” 💖
*Trigger Warning - dying/mistreated lotls*
✨Just wanted to share the amazing story of these poor, sweet babies. This is a warning to people thinking breeding animals for money is ok… Care should come first always! Please do your research for at least a year before adopting/buying these sensitive creatures and know breeding should be avoided at all costs.✨
🥺 Back in November, I came across a Facebook Marketplace post selling fish tanks with a picture showing a small metal tub (seen in the picture) that looked to be in his garage, FILLED with baby axolotls. November is still hot here and it had been BLISTERING HOT that week I found them (87 degrees or so) and the water was not chilled at all. I could see it was yellow/brown dirty water and some were floating… so I messaged him and asked if he had sick ones (which I knew he had to have sick ones with that environment). He said he had lost 20 something the past week and more before that. He said they “just kept floating then dying but I change the water every week and there’s two sponge filters in there! The only food they had at the store was pellets! 🤷🏼♀️” (side note, we have about 7 different pet stores around with great worm selections, he was just careless and wouldnt research correct care, even after I told him where and what to feed, he didn’t change.)
😖 I went to pick up the “four worst ones” cause he still wanted to try selling the other “healthy ones” but when I showed up about 5 had passed and about 9 more floating. I took them home, tubbed them, ice bottles in to keep the water around 58, added IAL liquid for antibacterial and anti fungal properties, and gave them quiet darkness for a few weeks. They were massively bloated, floating upside down on the surface of the water, fighting bacterial infections, and stopped up with the axolotl pellets (ONLY FEED WORMS PLEASE) and had all been picked at by the others so no gills or legs (some open infected wounds and dangling limbs). I sadly lost a few after a few days, but I knew they were already too far gone when I got home and had at least been able to die in peace without being eaten alive.. 😭😭
🥰Now, after many months of daily water changes and moving them up from tiny worms to larger worms, they have grown a full 4.5 inches more and are nicely plumped with beautiful floofers and almost all limbs grown back. They are so inquisitive now, compared to how unresponsive they were when I first got them, all floating sideways on the surface.
Be ready and open to learn and give the best care for these little babies.. it’s heartbreaking to rescue but here’s some hope for y’all! 💖💖
