Eggs, mother too young/small?

Today I took a good look at my axies, and concluded that I have a male and a female. I was happy, because now I can have eggs and experience the greatness of young axies.
Upon closer inspection of the tank, I saw that the axies knew what I was thinking and I saw a couple of eggs stuck to plants. I'm 99.9% sure they are eggs, but the quantity is a little off..

Since this is the first time for me, I'm not too sure how to act. I don't see 100+ eggs, only a handful. I'll try to remove the eggs today and put them in a different tank. I only have a small tank left, about 20cm*10cm*15cm. I think it's a little small, but will it do for now? I have no idea when the eggs were laid, but I see only dots (in some of them it looks like 2 close together?) and no real forms yet, so the eggs couldn't be that old.

I have 2 concerns:
The most important one is that Wooper (the female) isn't a year old yet. She's only about 15cm long. I bought her in december last year, but I have no idea how old they are. What I do know is that according to axolotl.org you shouldn't breed axies that aren't full grown yet b/c of the strain you put on the bodies.
Since it's obviously too late now, I'm wondering what I can do to help her through this process, because I really don't want her to die. If I'd known of their gender earlier, I would've seperated them.

My second concern/question:
I only have 1 cooler for my aquarium, so the eggs, when separated are not in a cooled tank. Since it's summer, keeping the temperature under 20 degries celcius will be to my knowing, really hard.
Is it bad for the eggs that the temperature is too high? How do I control the temp a bit?

i would not worry about the temp with your eggs, warmer temp is actually better for young axies as they need to feed more than adults so need to be active,the colder the water the less active the axie.
it is only as they become older you have to ensure cooler temps as this can lead to stress and lowered immune system.
the eggs also develop quicker in warmer water so as long as you are set up to feed you should be ok.
hope this has helped a bit.
and good luck.

Thanks for the reply. Now that I know that the temp. is no problem for now.
At what age does the temp. matter?
I'm currently thinking of separating the tank ik 3 parts. 1 for Duo, 1 for Wooper and 1 for the little ones when they're old enough. I'm not sure how I'll do this, since the water needs to flow through all 3 part to clean it, but I'll think of something.

I just harvested the eggs (very annoying when you use 1 hand.. they jsut won't lay still ).
I took a bit of water from the main tank, so that should be allright.
ATM they are in a very small tank (the one in my prev. post), but as long as they're eggs it shouldn't matter.
I've taken all teh eggs I could find, about 20-40. Is this a doable amount for a newby at this?
The other eggs.. can I jsut leave them for the parents to eat or something? It sounds a bit cruel, but raising too many will kill most of them too.

I'll go buy a bigger tank today (about 40*20*30 or something) to start cycling. Hopefully it'll be done in time, but I doubt it.
any tips for how to handle this?

Clone the tank put filter material in the new tank from the old one and u are good to go staright away as long as u have somthing livng in there to keep it sustained

So as long as there are no larvae yet I shouldn't fill the new tank?
I have an external filter.. should I just put some of those block-thingies in my new tank?
Cycling can work even without inhabitants, right?

Another question:
is it ok to put sand on the bottom? The aquarium I bought has a black bottom, and my kiddo's will most likely be wildtype.. so it'll be a pain to find them

Is it possible for 2 wildtypes to produce other color variations?

firstly sand is fine thats what i hatched mine on but i would limit yourself to 20 they are very expensive to feed when young as you will find you need a constant food supply to make sure all get fed well.
i hatched mine in a cycled tank which was water taken from the parents tank with some of their plants and a couple of their large pebbles. anything taken from the parents tank will contain good bacteria and help maintain correct balance.if you intend to have them without filtration it is easier to have themin individual containers as you will have to do daily water changes with dechlorinated water as they will foul the water really fast.the down side with the filter is making sure it is not to powerful.
i hatched mine into a tank already stocked with daphnia and just kept on topping it up with more until they were ready for blood worm.
im sure others will give more advice on how they did things but that is the way i had more success.
colour variations depend on the parents of your parents some times there can be throw backs from generations i think.but wild axies have differant colour variations of their own ranging from olive green to almost black.

Warmer water isn't better for larvae. It will lead to higher rates of fungal infections and starvation.

Eggs and larvae up to 2 or 3 inches should be kept on bare bottom tanks. This eases cleaning, waste food rotting in the substrate, babies being lost in the substrate, etc.

Larval tanks shouldn't be cycled, regardless. The best way to raise larvae is to separate them into groups of 2 or 3 in bowls (any food-storage type will work). This allows you to monitor feeding, and eases water changes (which are 100% daily).

Two wildtypes which are recessive for other genes have the potential for producing the most color variations, including albinos of both sorts, as well as leucistics.

As for dividing the tank, they make flow-through tank dividers. Or you can use pieces of plexi-glass with holes drilled into it.

Thanks for all the advice.
The only daphnia I can get around here are the big ones (magna?) Are they good to eat for them, or are they too big?

I can order bags of brine shrimp eggs online, but I still have to figure out how to hatch them. I can't find a shop in the netherlands that sells them, so i'll have to import. I hope it can get here on time.
How much of those eggs (weight) do I need for about 20 babies? You can buy bags of 10g of eggs but also bags of 500g... so I'm a bit lost here
I've read about home-made hatcheries for brine shrimp and I'll give that a try. I have bought a splitter for my airpump that also provides my cherry shrimp with air, so now the hatchery can by supplied by air.

And by 'expensive'... how much do you mean?

I'll keep the new aquarium for when they're bigger.. I'll try to find some smaller things.
How much space do 2-5 axies need?

20 is a good number to start with. But you should know that they'll be hard to re-home.

I prefer daphnia over brine shrimp. They live in the water a lot longer than brine shrimp, and continuously reproduce. I used Magna myself. If you get the magna culture started, they'll start having babies, which are small enough for hatchlings.

I've tried to breed daphnia magna before, but they all died eventually.. I have no idea why, though.
But I think getting a bunch of those is my best shot. Can they eat the bigger ones, or is that impossible?

I have to import brine shrimp eggs, I think and I have no idea how much I'll need. They come in grams or in ml.. and I have no idea what online shops I should choose, and what price is acceptable.

im sorry kaysie i thought idea of these things was to give advice on our experience there is no black and white as far as i know with raising anything from birth.
i have from my experience had more loses from young larvae in colder water as they stopped feeding so prolifically.once i placed them in a fully cycled tank with sand on the base, rocks and plants,also water heated to 20 degrees, and filter with reduced flow i had no more loses, therefore the next lot of eggs i put in the fully cycled tank immediately. they were kept at approx 20 deg on sand which i personally found easier to clean than the bare bottom as the waste does not move around so freely.
the tank was stocked with daphnia and i lost two compared to well over half of my previous lot, and have had continued success since.
therefore im afraid i stand by what i said as that is my experience

i am keeping mine at the moment on bare floor, and as it is cold here in nz i have a heater keeping them at 20-21 degrees they are all doing well, and are fed on brine shrimp that i hatch daily.

If you can get a bag of 6g-10g brineshrimp eggs that should be enough. Check out the following link: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml it shows how to make a brineshrimp hatchery.

Is it best to have 2 hatcheries, for constant supply, or will 1 hatchery suffice?

yes always keep at least two on the go so there is food on demand as such and incase a batch doesnt hatch.

just got my eggs today from bellabelloo so will be busy my self.

good luck.

I was only able to buy a mixture of salt+eggs where I live, so I'll use that. I have a question with it though; what would be the dosage? The lid says 16g/500ml. Will this be enough, or should I give it a try first to see how much I can harvest?

I really don't know how much brine shrimp I need to feed the upcoming eating machines.. And naturally I don't know how many will hatch.

Hi fellow egg buddies!!

I'm still awaiting my brine shrimp bits and bobs.I ordered some ( hopefully) live shrimp and daphnia to tide me over till the hatchery gets started...but they have not arrived yet, hopefully have a few days yet befor they are needed..if not I'll be off to the fish centre!!. All the best with your eggs, I'm sure we'll be linking up again.

Bella - if your stuck try the jap koi center in Henlow Bedfordshire - they have supplys of daphnia, bbs, bloodworm all in live form! basically everything you need for young axys there phone number is 01462 850822 its about 20 mins up the A1 from you

Danny, I only ever bought the 6-10g of bbs eggs (without salt) but followed Jennifer Macke's instructions which were 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of bs eggs per 2 cups of water (500ml).

We also staggered our hatcheries, started one a day or so apart from the next, so we had a constant supply, and in case the former batch failed.

Now, I have made my first hatchery.. and I hope things will work out. I put 1 teaspoon of 'stuff' in the bottle of water. Since it's salt and eggs, I think this should be enough. There are a LOT of eggs in 1 teaspoon..
I've put an air supply in there, but it looks like some eggs still manage to settle below.. even though the air hose is in the bottle cap..
Is this inevitable?