Egg Development

well my eggs are exactly two weeks old today and i dont think i have long until they hatch. they are sooo cute. i can see all of their little eyes. i am lucky because i think only about 25 babies are going hatch which is a controlable number. i have noticed that three of my larvae have see through, reflective eyes which i assume means that they are albino, they are also alot lighter that the rest of the larvae. unfortunatly i cant take any photos because my camera is dumb and wont take any clear photos of them i have masted the brine shrimp hatching and i got heaps of live and swimming ones the other day when i tried. when the babies hatch i will try to get some photos of them.

awww, how lucky! more luck to you! baby axies are so cute

wow. its so kool isnt it. mine must have layed aroun the same time as yours did. mine still have another couple of days to go though i think the water has been pretty cold. i havent been able to get any brine shrimp to hatch! what am i doing wrong? ill have lots of hungry little axies.

you can fully see the gils developed on mine. but no eyes so far.

=) good luck with your hatchlings. i hope it all goes well for you ^_^

thanks shane and rheann, on friday two axie larvae hatched, and now today there are ten! there are still some that havent hatched and im not sure if i need to help them, im also not sure how you tell when they are ready to feed. does any one know? with my brine shrimp i use a heater, before all my brine shrimp were dying because i had it too hot but now i have adjusted the heater so the temp stays around 25-26 degrees at this temp they hatch in about 20 hours i get heaps which i pour into a shallow container and collect them with a pipette and strain them through a coffee plunger. i have managed to get some photos of the eggs and larvae which are that good but here they are. in the one with the hatched larvae you can see two albinoish looking ones.

Umm, Vanessa - on the 17th July you posted that Oliver was laying spermatophores. So hasn't it only been just over a week now?

Anne-Marie the eggs in the photo and the larvae are the eggs i got off halszka .lol. Oliver only ended up laying one spermetaphore and my females just werent interested in him, i think they hate him because they run away from him alot and bite him too.lol. so i dont have any eggs from my own axies. phew!

Aha! Knew there was a catch in there somewhere . So you have some larvae that hatched Friday and some that hatched up to today. I would feed now a little and those who were early hatchers will eat. If they don't all hatch by tomorrow and you can see them moving inside the sac, I would be inclined to hatch the moving ones out manually. I used to use something sharp to pierce thru the sac - it's a very delicate operation tho.

Wheeeeeeee!!! Awww look at the cute lil wee buggers! You'll have to post lots of pics as they grow older I'm glad some of them hatched, I was wondering how many there would be. Congrats Vanessa!

thanks halszka, all of the eggs have hatched now, i have 31.lol.

31 - that's a very manageable number.
Let the games begin!

congrats on the babies and good luck

ah im so happy that i dont have hundreds of axie larvae because that would just seem too hard and thirty one isnt to much or to little.

That is fantastic Guess what I found wriggling around my axolotl tank today... *drumroll*

One lonely little insy-winsy axolotl larvae!!

I've no idea where its egg was hiding, I don't have any more bushy plants... go figure! Hatching some brine shrimp as we speak but it's gonna go hungry till tomorrow arvo. How long can they go without eating?

that would be so easy and fun to raise just one axie larvae. i dont know how long they can go without food as i just fed mine the day after they hatched, so if it only hatched today or yesterday (like its brothers and sisters) then i think it should be fine. what colouration does it have? five of the ones i own have clear eyes (albino or melanoid i think) and then there are these weird greyish ones with dark black eyes, white with black eyes and greenish ones that are wildtypes i think. i thought that i would have mostly wildtypes but surprisingly i have mostly really light coloured ones with white heads and black eyes which i thought were leucistic. i hope the little larvae you found survives.

Mulac is a 'blond' wildtype, just like your boy I think? and Chac is my melanoid, the one you saw in the photo with the eggs. Should be an interesting lot! I have't had a good look at my larvae yet, if it survives till tomorrow arvo when the brine shrimp hatch I'll post some pics *fingers crossed*

Halszka in the meantime if you can get to Vebas and see if they've got any microworms these are good too - or blackworms but they might be a bit big, even chopped.

i like the expression "blond wildtype".lol. it is so unfair that you guys can drive and therefore go anywhere you want when you want, otherwise i would probably be at vebas once a week. i got my brineshrimp eggs from vebas and they are great.

Can you actually see the larvae eating brine shrimp? Do they chase em? I had my little guy, Munchkin, swimming in loads of the newly hatched stuff (strained, rinsed and put into a little plastic container with him) but he didn't seem to be eating. It looked like the bbs where trying to get INTO his mouth, and all over him but he wasn't chasing any. He's still alive tho so... I dunno.

I hate to sound harsh but if he doesn't eat the baby brine shrimp then as much as I like Munchkin, I don't think I'm prepared to spend any more money looking after just one larvae.

If you see him jumping up in the water, he's trying to eat. Make sure the water level is low. Perhaps put just a few brine shrimp in and monitor how many are left after a few hours?

I feed him in a little plastic tray but haven't really seen him move. Might try with just a few (counted) bbs and see how he does a few hours later like you suggested.