The East Coast Colony- Year One
Greetings Everybody!
So, this first year on the east coast has been a roller-coaster ride for me as a hobbyist. Last I wrote, I had just picked up a 6 month old juvenile Dirty Leucistic Axolotl to start up my "East Coast" Colony and named her Glam. I think it might be time to fill you in!
Well, Glam turned out to be a big gorgeous boy and was renamed Lucius (bottom photo). Lucius is tank mates with Tormund the wild-type (top photo).
I was at a standstill between March-November, my chiller and cannister filters had broken in the move and I didn't have the big money it would take to replace them. I managed to fix my Eheim 2213 by ordering replacement parts from the manufacturer, but the 10 gallon tank Lucius was living in was all I had running. When we got our new house I sent him to live with my close friend, cousin and fellow Axie enthusiast Katlyn. She bought Tormund from a local pet owner and he was in some rough shape upon arrival. Once Tormund's fungus had been treated, and some of his gills and filaments had started to regrow he was introduced to the main tank with Lucius and the boys have done well ever since with minimal incidents.
While Kate had the Axolotl she did some tracking of temperature trends throughout the summer on the smaller tanks and the 55 gallon tank. She had a spare room with an air conditioner and she determined that so long as the room temperature stayed below a certain point and water changes were performed at certain temps etc the big tank could be maintained at a safe level without the chiller.
BEST. NEWS. EVER.
I bought a in house air conditioner unit that can turn my living room inot a fridge and could be moved around the room and voila! The house is safe for the boys, So back they come to live with me. I refinished the big tank stand and canopy, planted and aquascaped the tank and have compiled some additional blog drafts on those topics to post later on. Thank you everyone for your e-mails, your messages and support while I put the hobby on hold.
Website progress is scheduled to start December 3rd, 2017 but as always that is fluid.
Looking forward to talking to you all next Tuesday!
Take care,
-Amy B