#axolotls are sensitive to bright light!

[ask-the-lotl-sisters-again]

Thanks for offering, but I don't think that would work.

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?

[the-universal-sun]

Do you have any Bill agere hcs?:3

Yes!

For me, I like to think Bill wouldn’t really let himself feel anything but amusement and anger until after he’s forced into the Theraprism and forced to confront his feelings. I mentioned in an earlier ask that the first time he’d sorta-regress would be in session with the Axlotl, who would deem this therapeutic and effective for Bill’s recovery.

-Little Bill cries a lot, he doesn’t really have the comforts of his home or family, so for a long time, when regressed, he feels unsafe by these non 2D creatures

-The Axolotl is his caregiver. And the only one who will ever see Bill regressed (may change later). They usually get Bill to regress in less of a natural way (think Stan and Ford) and more in a therapy way, to address the root causes of Bill’s problems.

-After long enough, Bill does begin regressing without prompting, mostly when his thoughts get too dark or he feels too much. Because of this, the Axolotl has been keeping Bill much closer to them, so they may catch on if Bill regresses. They end up basically putting a room for Bill up next to their office

-Bill is very embarrassed of his regressing, bringing it up will make him huffy and angry. As time goes on, he gets more pouty and less pissed about it

-Little Bill loves blocks (he cannot put the right shapes in the right holes) and those glow in the dark stars you put on your ceiling. His depth perception is off with the one eye, but he does try his best to draw pictures. The lines don’t always connect, but Bill’s still proud of them nonetheless

-Sometimes he does cry about missing his best friend, IQ, but the Axolotl soothes him quickly with a stuffy of a Plaidypus

-Little Bill sleeps with an eye mask on because he has a sensitive eye, and waking up with bright lights hurts it and he’ll be fussy and tearing up the rest of the day

-At first, the Axolotl saw Bill’s regression as more of a way to fix him and eventually release him, but with more exposure to Bill, both big and little, they truly grew to care for him

[putmetobed]

With the new release of minecraft axolotls for the next update, I would like to talk about axolotls and axolotl care

Axolotls are baby... Literally. They are salamanders, stuck in the developing stage where they are still waterbound.

Axolotls were from only 2 lakes, but one has been gotten rid of leaving it to only 1, lake Xochimilco in Mexico City. Sadly, even that lake had been built on top of and had been narrowed out, driving axolotls to be an endangered species.

Some fun facts about these adorable amphibians:

- They can regenerate limbs perfectly

- Babies are cannibalistic and can nibble the toes and limbs of tank mates

- Can regenerate a limb from another axolotl if swapped.

- Resistant to cancer

- Have lungs and gills

- Some have GFP (green fluorescent protein) which makes them glow in the dark!

Axolotl care

Axolotls can grow from around 10-12 inches in size in captivity

Tank requirements

They live in cold waters, the temperatures must be around 60° to 65°

vegasaxolotls.com

Axolotls tanks must be up to 20 gallons, adding 10 for each tank mate you add

There is controversy when it comes to tank substrate. Do you use gravel, sand, or bare bottom? A lot of people say to stay away from gravel because of the axolotls eating it and swallowing it. Some say to use a little bit of gravel because axolotls eat gravel to help with boyancy. Sand is also argued. I would recommend going mostly bare bottom.

Axolotls are sensitive to light and should not have too bright of a light if any. If lighting is needed, use LED instead of florescent lighting to prevent the light heating the water

Tanks also don't require lids and it's mostly recommended to not use lids

Axolotls require hides and places to rest

Water

The pH of the water must be around 6.5 to 7.5

Axolotls don't like heavy flowing water, a sponge filter is best

The water also must be slighty hard from 7 to 8 dKH

The water must be dechlorinated! And many people recommend cycling

Cycling: The process of adding good bacteria into a body of water to help with chemicals from excrements like ammonia.

Food and health

Axolotls are carnivores and can eat

Blood worms

Brine shrimp

Black worms

Earth worms

Carnivore pellets

As mentioned before, axolotls are resistant to cancer, but can contract many other diseases

Such as

New tank syndrome

Old tank syndrome

Hyoerthemia

Gastric foreign body

Parasites

Saprolegnia

Neoplasia

Toxicisis

Physical damage

And so on

-You have to make sure you clean the water when needed

-Don't overcrowd the tank or have aggressive tank mates

-Make sure you cycle to prevent ammonia poisoning

-Keep the temperature between 60° to 65°

Live plants and tank mates

Axolotls aren't recommend to live with fish because of the chance of them eating the fish or can be nipped at by fish

Potentially suitable tank mates are

Other axolotls

Small shrimp

Minnows

Guppies

Mini snails

Live plants hold many benefits and boost beneficial bacteria and eat nitrates

These are the ones that can be used

Anubias

Java fern

Java moss

Frog bite

Duckweed

Moss balls

Water cooling techniques

The best technique for keeping the water cool is by using a chiller, but they get extremely expensive.

A cheaper method is wrapping your tank in insulation and using fans to cool the water

Shopping list

20 g aquarium (add 10 for every other axolotl)

Optionally fine sand

Hides

Decor like live plants, drift wood, etc.

Feeding tongs

Sponge filter

Blood worms, pellets, brine shrimp, etc.

Food bowls

Digital thermometer

Water testing kits

Dechlorinator

Recourses

vegasaxolotls.com

Girl Talks Fish on youtube

The Turtle Girl on youtube

wooftapetshop.com

aquariumsource.com

theculturetrip.com

[beardycarrot]

Hello, I've noticed you own an axolotl and would like to ask for some advice to taking care of it?

Sure, did you have any specific questions?

The important points are that they need cold, clean water, have a tank with a large footprint all to themselves (or another axolotl of the same size), and that you shouldn't put anything smaller than their head in the aquarium unless you're okay with them swallowing it.

So, let's go over what those things actually mean.

Axolotls are native to lakes in Mexico, which they prefer to live at the bottoms of. Because of this, they're adapted to cold water without much light... so you'll need a special setup for them. You can buy an aquarium cooling system, but it's a lot easier to just set up a small fan and point it at the surface of the water. This causes the water to evaporate, cooling it. You'll need to add new water more often than you would with other aquariums, but it's by far the simplest solution. When I decided to move my axolotl tank last week, I bought an old desk to serve as an aquarium stand, because it had a convenient place for attaching the fan.

Being bottom-dwellers is also why you want a tank with a large footprint. While fish swim around a lot, axolotls spend most of their time lounging on the bottom, so don't get much use out of vertical space. A ten gallon aquarium is okay for a baby, but once they're bigger, a twenty gallon long is ideal. If you've got a forty or fifty-five, even better.

Axolotls are pretty sensitive to water quality, and poop A LOT, so you'll need to clean up after them in a way that's not really necessary with most aquatic pets. You will, of course, need to nitrogen cycle their tank before putting them in... but the problem with that is aquarium plants, which I'll get to in a minute. Once your tank is set up with the proper bacteria (which you can buy in bottles, actually), the best way to maintain it is to actually remove the axolotl poop as soon as you see it. Just keep an eye out for what looks like a brown Tic Tac, and suck it out with a turkey baster. If the water gets too dirty, either from poop being left in for too long or the nitrogen cycle not functioning as intended, axolotls can suffer ammonia burns to their skin and gills. They'll recover from it (that's kinda what axolotls do), but I mean... don't mistreat your pets, kids.

Planting an axolotl tank can be tricky, because being bottom-dwelling amphibians, they're not particularly bright or good at identifying things by sight. If they encounter something that can fit in their mouth, there's a good chance it WILL end up in their mouth, on the off-chance that it's edible. This is a problem because most aquarium plants are sold with the expectation that you'll root them in gravel, and an axolotl eating gravel is... well, it's not ideal. You really need those plants as part of the nitrogen cycle though, so you gotta put them in somehow.

I don't know what the ideal solution is, but here are mine: I happened to have a couple small plant pots (two to three inches tall), so just made some miniature potted plants. These are some kind of anubias (anubias nana, I think?), which I chose because they don't need much light, planted in gravel within the pots. I also have another plant in an aquarium log, which you can find at most pet stores, though I'd advise putting it in its own tank for a week or so before introducing it to an aquarium: even if the store claims the logs don't have any snail eggs in them, they probably have snail eggs in them. Finally, on the right of the photo above, you can see my third type of plant, a marimo. These moss balls just kinda roll around underwater, so don't actually need to be planted in anything.

Tank mates of other species don't really work for axolotls. If it's a fish too big for an axolotl to eat, it'll try to eat the axolotl's external gills. If it's anything else, the axolotl will try to eat it. Axolotls will even eat the gills and limbs of smaller axolotls, so if you don't want your axolotl to be lonely, get another axolotl of about the same size. Axolotl axolotl axolotl axolotl.

Those were the main points I wanted to touch on. What else... well, substrate is important. You can't use gravel, and being bottom dwellers, axolotls like to crawl around just as much as swim, so will get kinda stressed out if the bottom of their habitat is smooth glass. Most people use sand, since if the axolotl swallows it, it should come out the other end no issue... just make sure that you get natural quartz sand and clean it well. If you want to get colored sand, do your research: a lot of black sand sold for aquariums is coated with plastic to give it that color, and you don't want your axolotl eating that.

You could also do what I did, and just buy a big piece of natural, untreated slate. It looks really cool, and gives your axolotl plenty of traction for crawling. I bought mine from BlankSlateCrafts on Etsy, who if asked nicely might even be willing to custom cut you a piece to fit the inner dimensions of your tank.

Hmm... I guess the last thing I should touch on is feeding. My axolotl, Woop, eats earthworms almost exclusively. Specifically, red wigglers and other small European nightcrawlers, which I feed her every other day. Ideally you'd have a composting setup that just continually breeds worms for you, but you can get them anywhere that sells bait. Just make sure to read the label: some, like the ones dyed weird colors to attract fish, will specifically say they're not intended as pet food. I also give her bloodworms, which you can find frozen into ice cubes at pet stores, though these aren't the kind of thing you should feed them every day. Think of them like french fries. I feed Woop earthworms with a pair of long aquarium tweezers, and have a dish in her aquarium for the bloodworms. It might be worth making a post going over all the equipment I use...

Alright, that's about it! If you (or anyone else) have any other questions about axolotl care, feel free to ask!

[marypsue]

Wrote a ficlet for the Symbiote Ford AU that I proposed a little while ago because I have no self-control. Warning for body horror and parasitism (well, mutualism, technically, but that’s not the term people usually block).

...

At first, Ford doesn't recognise the room he wakes up in. 

He flares his fronds, testing the space around him without having to get out of the very soft and comfortable bed he's found himself in, but there's nothing but the low-level chatter of small minds. Insects, or maybe rodents, busy in the walls and the corners. No other sapient thoughts. He's alone.

Wait. Fronds? He doesn't have - 

A throb of pain pulses through Ford's head, starting at the base of his skull, and his memories fracture. He remembers the oracle, Jheselbraum, remembers her taking him in.

He remembers the vat.

...

“You - you can really make it so that Bill can’t access my mind anymore?”

The seven-eyed oracle smiles, enigmatically. “I can’t. But I can introduce you to someone who can.”

He follows her down a twisting corridor, out into a smaller chamber that contains a large, soft, comfortable-looking bed, a desk covered in weird detritus that makes his heart clench with nostalgia, and, stretching from the floor almost to the ceiling, a clear glass vat.

Inside the vat, suspended, floats a pale, pink, eyeless, wormlike thing. It’s about as long as his torso and as thick around as his wrist. Its long, segmented tail is lined on either side with evenly-spaced spines, and at the very top of its tail, protruding from the rough oblong of featureless flesh that might, in another creature, have been a head, is a vicious-looking spike nearly three inches long. On either side of the oblong, three pale pink fronds wave gently in whatever viscous liquid the creature hangs suspended in.

As he steps up to the vat, the fronds flick towards him.

There’s a new mind in front of him, whirling, tangled, practically spitting sparks. The tenor of it tastes a little like the last mind he bonded with. Perhaps younger, less experienced, but simmering with the same determination and boiling with intellect. They will make a good match, and he projects as much in the mind’s direction.

He steps back, reeling. “Did that thing just -”

Jheselbraum is beaming. “Oh, good! If he reached out to you, that’s an excellent sign.”

He steps up to the vat again, reaching out to press a six-fingered hand against the glass. The worm-creature’s fronds flick towards him again, and again, his brain is bathed in that feeling of - warmth. Trust. “What is...he?”

“A Solovmachian. They’re symbiotic lifeforms that feed on brainwaves.” Jheselbraum clasps her hands in front of her, watching him carefully. “They need a host to be able to live outside of this kind of suspension. But as a result of how they process their diet, most compatible hosts become very strongly psychic.”

He presses his other hand against the glass as well. “And you think I should become his...host.”

“The psychic abilities you’d gain would be enough to keep Bill at bay. And this Solovmachian was previously bonded to a freedom fighter who dedicated his life to destroying Bill Cipher. The knowledge you could share -”

He doesn’t wait for the oracle to finish speaking. “I’ll do it.”

...

Ford pushes himself up to sit on the bed, running a hand through his hair. There’s a dull ache running all the way up his spine, and a muffled throb at the base of his skull, but he feels well-rested and -fed in a way he hasn’t in - years. Probably since before he fell through the portal. He owes Jheselbraum a debt of gratitude.

He gives his fronds another, experimental flick, scanning the room around him one more time even though he can see now that there’s no one else there. It’s strange, mostly because it isn’t strange - he has six brand new, inhuman appendages, attached to an equally brand new sixth sense, and yet, they feel as easy and natural to use as the fingers on his hands. He couldn’t begin to explain to anyone else how they work. They simply do.

Ford pushes himself to his feet, and then has to sit back down again immediately, head spinning. His balance is shot, and he hopes it’s not permanent. His head feels muffled, fuzzy, as though the inside of his skull has been lined in felt. Even remembering how quickly the bond had resolved and the host body had recovered its equilibrium last time isn’t particularly reassuring when the room won’t stop whirling around him.

“Shared memories,” Ford says, aloud, and tries not to be startled at the sound of his own voice. “Right.”

He shuts his eyes and rests his head in his hands until the spinning slows.

...

He’s lying facedown on something like a narrow, padded table, naked from the waist up, his face pressed into the cushioned ring affixed to one end of the table and his arms dangling over the sides. Trying to breathe normally. Trying not to think too hard about what he’s about to do.

“Just hold still,” Jheselbraum says, from somewhere behind him. “And try to relax. It’ll hurt less.”

He takes a deep breath in, and lets it out slowly, relaxing his shoulders. A wave of calm washes over him, and he recognises it as the same kind of feeling the - symbiote - had projected at him earlier. He tries to relax, to let it calm him, but the knot of dread at the pit of his stomach still winds and unwinds.

In that warm, reassuring voice, Jheselbraum says, “Now, this might pinch a bit,” and he shuts his eyes. 

The symbiote is cold as Jheselbraum drapes it along his spine, cold and a little slick with whatever the vat had been filled with. He can’t help the shiver, or the ones that follow as the symbiote’s spines skitter over his bare back, sliding its wormlike body upwards towards his skull. Seeking a place to - attach.

Another wave of calm, of reassurance, bathes his brain, and he settles into it, focusing on the rhythm of his breathing. There’s a sharp pinch at the small of his back, which quickly resolves into an ache, and he struggles to keep breathing deeply and evenly. Not to think about the thing’s spines sinking into his flesh, digging into his vertebrae, working themselves into the delicate and irreplaceable bundle of nerves that controls all of his motor functions - 

There’s another pinch, and another ache, a little higher up his spine, and then another, a little higher yet. He tries to keep focused on his breathing, not to worry about whether the numbness crawling up his back is a sign that he’s going to be paralysed. Not to think about the three-inch spike lying, waiting, pressed against the nape of his neck. It’s too late to turn back now.

He barely feels the pinch between his shoulders, the ones that climb his neck, as anything other than pressure. The feeling of calm is all around him, now, an ocean of stillness and easy tranquility in which he finds himself drifting. Any pain he might have felt, any fear, seems insignificant next to its immensity. He wonders, briefly, if Jheselbraum has drugged him somehow. 

He’s expecting a sudden, sharp stab to the base of his skull. And there is one, only...not nearly as hard or as swift or as painful as he’d expected. Instead, there’s a quick piercing pain like a needle sinking into skin, and then that dull aching pressure that must be the spike working its way into his brain, into the one thing he has left, into the very heart of what makes him who he is...

For just an instant, he’s seized by an abrupt, frantic terror of what’s happening to him, of what he’s stupidly chosen to do, to trust, has he learned nothing, when this turns out to be another trick he will never be able to escape, this is the end - 

And then the symbiote’s fleshy body settles flush against the back of his neck, and the final two spines slip neatly under his skin, anchoring themselves in the vertebra at the base of his skull. 

He opens his eyes.

He can see, again. Can hear and smell and taste and Jheselbraum’s worry is fading into excitement and the world is loud and bright and overwhelming after so long in the dark and the silence of the vat and the walls around him are alight somehow with dull sparks of consciousness and he’s not dead even though he remembers dying remembers the last host dying under him remembers - 

It’s somewhere about here that his poor, abused mind, trying to protect itself from the deluge of information flooding it, shuts down.

...

When Ford opens his eyes again, the first thing they land on is a glass of water sitting on the cluttered desk across the room. He braves the few steps over to the desk, leans heavily against it as he grabs the glass. There are two purple pills sitting beside the glass, as well, and he swallows them both, chasing them with a long gulp of water. The throbbing at the base of his skull eases, just slightly. 

There’s nothing like a mirror in the room, but the glass wall and dim liquid of the now-empty vat gives it a passably reflective surface. Ford’s image is distorted by the curvature of the glass, of course, but he can make out his own face. On either side of it, three pale pink fronds flare, a little like the frills on each side of an axolotl’s head. The highest two are just about level with the base of his skull, peeking out from behind his ears; the lowest about level with his chin. 

Ford raises a hand, gingerly reaches up to touch one and immediately snatches his hand away. Apparently they’re still very sensitive to touch. Thankfully, that should fade before long.

He turns his head, watching parts of his face balloon and shrink in the funhouse mirror of the vat’s glass wall. His new appendages are still attached to the oblong lump of flesh that served the symbiote as a head, anchored at the back of his neck. The symbiote’s body is still visible, stretching down along his spine and disappearing into the light robe that Jheselbraum must have given him. The skin around where each of its spines went in looks puckered, like it’s already starting to heal.

The sight of something latched onto his spine like this should, Ford knows, be strange, horrifying, viscerally upsetting. Somehow it isn’t. 

No wonder it still aches, though.

He knows Jheselbraum’s coming before she reaches the door, hurries over and pulls it open for her before she can knock. She beams, and crosses the room to the desk. Ford follows, pushes aside a jar of what look like human ears and a sheaf of notes to clear a space for her to set down the tray she’s carrying. Whatever’s on it smells amazing, and suddenly Ford feels like he hasn’t eaten for a month. 

“You’re up and on your feet,” Jheselbraum says, impressed, and Ford knows she hadn’t expected him to be walking around for another day or two at least. "The bonding’s going well, then?”

“I’m still a little dizzy,” Ford admits.

“That’s only to be expected,” Jheselbraum reassures him, with an understanding smile. “Come, sit down and have something to eat. When you’re finished, I need to talk with you about Bill Cipher.”

[th3dryw4ll34t3rz]

”d4mn, w4nt z0m3 4dv1l”

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?

[ask-the-lotl-sisters-again]

(She rubbed her eyes)

Ugh... I still can hardly see...

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?

[ask-the-lotl-sisters-again]

Ugh... what was that all about?

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?

[the-carnaval-has-come]

[Patch trips Ansley up and runs away.]

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?

[ask-the-lotl-sisters-again]

Wha-

AH MY EYES-

hey, ansley! how do you feel about a new job? - ???

...What kind of job?