My second attempt (Pics)

So this is day 21, here are the most recent pics. They had a rough begining, temperatures weren't the best and inadequate amounts of food, so I'm sure they aren't growing at the rate they should be. But they are still alive, and still growing, nonethless. I just wanted to share.

http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/368850.html

Right now they are being kept in my mini fridge that has been turned down/up so that the water is 60 deg F. My apartment is wickedly hot right now, about 80 most of the time, hopefully once I move I won't have to keep them in the fridge anymore... They are being fed daphnia, and a few of them are begining to have front limb buds.

Around when do they begin taking non-live foods? I can't really go by days or weeks, because they don't seem to be at the same stage as I've read they should be at by this amount of time. Like, maybe after they have all their legs? A certain length?

Also, any guesses to what they might be? Wild type? Albinos? Goldens? Some of them have a yellowish tint, and some of the whites are completely white. So I probably have a mix I think.

When their back legs start to appear they may start taking dead food/bloodworm. Two of my sisters babies readily took to frozen bloodworm once their 4 legs were in but other 3 took a month or so longer before accepting frozen bloodworm and pellets.

I also have 20 axolotl larvae - mine are a few months old starting to develop back legs - still eating only livefood

Sarah, on quick glance, you have some wildtypes and some albinos. You probably won't be able to tell if they're golden albinos or white albinos until they get a little bigger.

Thanks for the input guys! It's a good thing my daphnia seems to finally be going well, it sounds like I got a while before they are eating non-live foods. Cross your fingers!

More pics guys!! I think I have them correctly counted, this time... 18. Hopefully. Haha.. Hope you enjoy!!

http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/369777.html

It may be worth it to purchase an ounce or two of brine shrimp eggs (with shells). I have always raised mine on daphnia in the summer, but sometimes the cultures will all crash unexpectedly and I run out for a few days. Baby brine shrimp make an excellent back-up food, just in case.

good luck with the little ones.

Oye, I have responded with this to brine shrimp when anyone has suggested them: They killed my first attempt, I'm steering WAY clear of bbs this time around. I'm assuming they fouled the water and killed them. I'm not risking that again. I still have the eggs, though. I resorted to pond water this time when I didn't have daphnia in the begining. Damn brine shrimp and their non-freshwater loving ways....

Another update: Day 28 =)
http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/379009.html

Hope you like the pics!!

The larva in the "12 & 13" swallowed that air bubble because it is starving.

If you over feed the larvae on bbs, then yes, they will kill them after the water is fouled.

Bbs are a very good food if you don't overfeed. They are a convenient way to get the babies over the small vulnerable stage.

Jake- I was about the feed them and one jumped up and swallowed air. I saw it happen. This is the second time I've seen it happen. I assure you, I'm not trying to starve them, lol. The first time it happened, I freaked out, and thought it was gonna die. But it ended up being ok the next day. Thanks for taking a look =)

I've seen larvae come to the surface and gulp air intentionally. I think they do it to regulate their own buoyancy - it allows them to hang mid-water, which is an advantage if they are eating mid-water food (as opposed to sinking food). I have no idea if this air gulping is related to the abnormal air bubbles that they sometimes get in their abdomen; I suspect it has a different cause.

I didn't mean to make it seem like I was accusing you of starving them to death. You are doing a good job of raising them. The baby in the photo just looked thin, and mine normally get air bubbles in their belly when they get hungry.

I meant that too many bbs dead in the water will easily kill the baby axolotls. I know this, because I had numerous babies die from that fouled water when I first attemted to feed mine brine shrimp (I was used to only feeding them Daphnia which don't die in fresh water.)

I find that when they get bubbles like that, placing them in shallow water with a lot of food will usually solve the problem within a half hour.

Sorry about the confusion.

Good luck with the babies.

Nah, I didn't REALLY think you were accusing me, I just wanted to clear that up, lol. Yeah, he was fine the next day. I think I should be feeding them more, but they aren't starving, they end up with very full bellys when they eat. I think if I was able to feed them more per day, they would grow faster. How much do you feed yours? I've kinda been feeding as much as my daphnia population permits... I know bbs are a better food, but I'd rather them grow slower and safer than faster with some risk of fouling. In addition, I am a college student, and I spend about and hour and a half to two hours as it is feeding them. If I fed them bbs safely, I'd have to feed them, watch for them to stop feeding, then change the water (or put them back into a container that had no bbs in it) so of course that would me more work, and more time consuming. I think I'm just going to stick to what has been working so far. The biggest have front feet now, and I'm pretty excited about that. The smallest have front leg buds. They are a month old, and I know they should be further along now, but I think it's ok since this is my first time.

And I don't think he was regulating bouyancy, as he was on his side, but he did eventually "control" his bouyancy and flipped right side up, though he was still floating on the top of the water. So I think maybe he just got a bit over excited and was hungry, like Jake said. I'm like, come onnnn, I'm JUST about to feed you!!!

Here are two more links to to posts, the first has a few underside leg shots, and the second has the darkest baby compared with a light baby the same size.
http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/380128.html
http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/380537.html

They all have their own snack containers now, so there are 18 little snack containers in my mini fridge, lol. (It has been adjusted so that it stays 60deg in there all the time, cause my appt is 80 most of the time =/ )

New pics- day 45!

http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/393498.html

Looking good Sarah,

I am not sure if it is just the pic but that small one looks to have some interesting colour. I like the fridge idea too, we don't have to go to that level of effort here in NZ - actually makes me laugh but I understand the reason behind it.

Great job

Great pictures!

I like your pictures! They look great. Cute babies.

nzaxie, you mentioned the coloring of the small one, I took these new pics to show the different colors and patterns I've got here.

http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/395786.html

More pics, they have back legs now!

http://chaosrah.livejournal.com/403168.html#cutid2

YAY, lookin good

I'm glad to see they are doing so good! Good luck in the long run!

They all look very well, good job is your fridge still full? lol we don't have that problem here in the UK, its just raining, flooding etc... go figure...