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| Name: |
Gustav, Gretchen
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Age: |
Two years old
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| Gender: |
Male, Female
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Kind: |
Axolotl
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| Home: |
Sunderland, England, UK
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Say hello to Gustav and Gretchen. They are two gorgeous Axolotls and don't they just know it! I had been wanting an axolotl for over a year but didn't know where to find one. Until two were brought into college. You might be wondering why they were brought into a college, but I did a National Diploma in animal care and they keep lots of animals to work with. Anyway, I asked my course lecturer if I'd be able to rehome the two axies that had been brought in and he checked with everyone up at the animal unit to make sure no one had already asked to rehome them. So I waited patiently for him to get back to me about them.
One or two days later he said I could take them home. I was so happy. I got my buckets ready to transport them to my boyfriends house and that eveing we picked them up and took them home. We put them in their new tank and they settled in well.
Now I had to think of names for them. I didn't know whether they were male or female yet. I decided on Marilyn for the pink/white one after Marilyn after Marilyn Manson and the other was to be Manson; the other half of Marilyn Manson's name. The names were perfect for their colors. But later on I realised that the black one was actually female and the white one was a male. So the names i chose were changed to two of the characters of Recess, Gustav and Gretchen.
These names seemed to fit their characters perfectly as Gustav was feeble and weak and Gretchen was very intelligent.
Axolotls are a type of amphibian but they spend their whole life in water. It is very rare that these animals will morph on to land but it does happen. They are fascinating animals and I spend a lot of my time just watching them do silly things and I like to take pictures of them posing for the camera.
Gus and Gretchen have very different personalities in some ways and are very similar in other ways. Gretchen always swims around the top of the tank in search of food (i feed them on a diet of mainly earthworms and they get prawns every month or two). Gus likes to hang around behind the ceramic pot which is in the tank. When i first got them both Gus was very camera shy and Gretchen was at the front of the tank showing off her pretty face at every opportunity. They both get sudden urges to bolt around the tank swimming as fast as they can, bumping into the glass of the tank. Gretchen used to bully Gus and once she bit the end of his tail off, but this has re-grown back to its normal shape. Now they have been put in the larger tank, where they have a LOT more space to swim around, Gretchen has never bothered Gus anymore. But now there are two more additions to the tank; Solaman and Boj, which are the children of Gus and Gretchen, Gretchen has had a taste of her own medicine and has a little chunk of her tail bitten off. But this will grow back in no time at all.
Axolotls originate from Mexico and are an endangered species in the wild. They only live in one lake in Mexico and if they are spotted in the wild this is a very rare sight nowadays.
Axolotls don't have ears but many owners are sure their axolotls can hear them when they walk in the room. Whenever i walk in front of the tank they swim to the front as fast as they can. Gus and Gretchen are very special to me and i hope they live long and happy lives with me as their owner.
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Talk about Gustav and Gretchen the Axolotls in Pet Talk!
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