Axies laid eggs when least expected it!

I've been away from the forums for awhile due to busy life plus work but I'm back with good news from my 15 axolotls lol. I was helping my partner clean his cichlade (think that's how you spell them) tank & I noticed in one of my axolotl tanks there were all these eggs attached to a plastic plant I have in there.

I have about 80-90 eggs I'd say. I am going to try & hatch them all which will probably be a big task so if I can't keep up I will advertise, so if anyone in Brisbane, Australia interested sent me a message. I figured if I removed the plant & placed them in another tank seperate might not be wise as the chiller I have running on the tank is probably best for them. What I have done is placed the plant with the eggs on it in a large breeder/baby fish net attached to the side of the tank by suckion caps. I don't know if this will be sufficent enough for when they hatch but I have 1 more breeder net to possibly transfer half & half when hatch if they're overcrowded.

Another issue was the mother (which I don't know which axie cause they're all fat) laid some eggs straight on the sand substrate. So when I had to scoop them out and try to divide the sand from the jelly goo this proved quite difficult & as a result I have some granules of sand mixed with the eggs in the net which I hope will not cause problems for when they try to hatch.

Now food also proved to be difficult to get. I rang every aquarium and pet-store almost in Brisbane asking about daphnia but no one seems to sell it. The serviceman at the aquarium I went to sold me frozen baby brine shrimp & told me to disolve it in warm water then tip them in when feeding them. He suggested if I swirl the water or make it appear like they're moving there's a good chance they will eat it. Whats your thoughts on this? Failing that if you don't think it will work I will have to try and get live brineshrimp which I have no clue about them.

Any feedback on this be appreciated. As I want to be a proud momma I'm so stoked though, for ages my axolotls did nothing but wait on their precious food now they're getting into romancing hehe.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

lol, sounds interesting but i'm in melbourne tho.... what color is the parents? or those u have.... by any chance is there a wild type? or something other than albino and mango?

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

I got 7 axies in the tank in total where they were spawned. 3 are blacks, 2 are a wildtype sandtone colour which different pigments (1 female 1 male), 1s a white axie with blue eyes (female), & 1's mango colour (male). I'm hoping they're wild type as well, I'm more stressing about the food if will be ok if anything.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

I grew my larvae on freshly hatched brineshrimp, I don't know if you can get that in Australia but I just bought some brineshrimp eggs and a hatchery from my local petsmart and my axies seemed happy with that. I also know you can order brineshrimp eggs online but again I'm not sure being you're in autralia if you can get them.
Here is an article that might help with other food options http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml

Hopefully someone living closer to you can point you in the right direction to find what you will need. Good luck

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Cheers madeve. Yes I can get brineshrimp eggs here but do I have to hatch them or can I just chuck them in there when its feeding time & they will eat the eggs? A guy at the aquarium told me if I feed them live brineshrimp that their shells might hurt the axies, is this true?

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

You will need to hatch the brineshrimp to feed your larvae because they will only really eat live food, the need to see it move. Have a look at that article I posted a link to, it tells you all about how to feed the brineshrimp. It really helped me when I started out and plus brineshrimp is really good for your larvae.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

I would love to come see your Axolotls. I am having trouble finding a wildtype.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

I can point you in the right direction with a few aquariums Steph, or you can just come over & have a look at my collection of axies if you want to just message me .

I did read all those food ideas in the website you posted madeve was good the only thing I'm daunted by is the coke bottles and air pump and siphoning them out, just seems like a whole lot of mucking around. I've been doing research this afternoon on different peoples methods I just don't understand the harvesting bit when it comes to siphoning the babies out and discarding the eggs. I'll have to annoy my local aquarium again or try & track down a videoclip so can see it in action.

Another method which I found absolutely fascinating was making infusorians. If you cut a bit of potato off boil it for 2 minutes leave in in a container with water, after a week cloudy water will form in the water which is the infusorians & be able to be eaten by fry (he didn't say axolotl fry but hopefully them as well). The issue is would probably cloud the water (which prolly the brineshrimp would too) & the breeder net the eggs are in the mesh which goes around it has very fine holes in the weave to naturally share the same tank water as what the axies are in at the moment. The gap of the holes is also 1mm same size as bbs when newly hatched. So they would probably swim out of the mesh.

I don't know if it would work if I cut up live bloodworms into very small pieces for when they hatch, that's another possibility. I'm probably heading more towards the brine shrimp eggs seems more logical just the breeder net is a worry now for me. If I take them out & put them in their own little small tank they won't get the cooler temp at 17 degrees from the chiller. Maybe if I took the whole net out whilst they're in it and place the net in a icecream bucket for feeding would be alright? Or maybe when they hatch in general take them out of the net and in their own little buckets with an air stone :/

Sorry I'm probably giving you all a headache but my heads done nothing but think about these issues all day.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Most people seem to use brine shrimp or daphnia and say you will struggle without live food. You can buy a bit of time by cooling (some or all) of the eggs in the fridge after the first day or two. I understand it is important not to chill eggs until they have begun to divide: newly laid chilled eggs do not undergo the division of oocyte to egg which occurs shortly after laying and the resulting axolotls are often triploid and have a rather sickly constitution.

Good luck!

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Well I decided to set up a small 40L tank today with just a small corner sponge filter in it. Will transfer the eggs on the plant out of the breeder net when the tankwater is ready.

For food I most probably will get the brine shrimp eggs I'm just procrastinating about it cause it seems like a lot of hassle to do. I would rather go into a pet store & buy a bag already hatched & all then hatching them and siphoning them away from the eggs etc. Worse case scenario I cut up live bloodworms to a few millimetres for them or with the frozen baby brine shrimp appear to make them alive. Going back a few peoples posts in this section & looking that has worked for some.

In any case the tank they're in at the moment is sitting at 17 degrees so I'm, checking everyday now on their progress. Thanks for all your guys help & I'll keep you posted with how I go .

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

I used brine shrimp for my larvae and ended up with 2 on the go, approx 24 hours apart. It was a bit of a hassle to start with but I did get used to it all in the end :bowl: . I did find it all gets a little easier once they are big enough to dine on the slightly larger water insects though. It all seemed so quiet when the hatchery was no longer needed...missed the gentle back ground glug of the aerator!!

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Hi, good luck with the brineshrimp, it's a pity you cannot get daphnia as they are also quite easy to breed.

MistressOfAxies said:

. The serviceman at the aquarium I went to sold me frozen baby brine shrimp & told me to disolve it in warm water then tip them in when feeding them. He suggested if I swirl the water or make it appear like they're moving there's a good chance they will eat it. Whats your thoughts on this? .

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I must say, this is really bad advice (but to be expected from a shop!!) like adult axies, water movement can really affect them, they dart about when feeding, which may not be too easy if your swirling the water about. try to keep the water as calm as possible

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Axolotls without fully grown front legs will not eat dead food. Frozen brine shrimp is also one of the easiest ways of killing larvae because they cause the water to go bad in not much more than minutes.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Ok I bit the bullet & got brine shrimp eggs today called San Francisco Bay brand. I've made my 2 shrimp hatchery's from 2L coke bottles now, I just have to get my partner to do the tubing.

I have questions as always hehe. One is how soon should I set it up if I don't know when the eggs will hatch? I found the eggs on Sunday. Two I'm following the guidelines of this set-up http://ng.netgate.net/~jlatham/Hatch.html (hope don't mind me pasting someones website here.) One thing I'm confused about is how do you drain it. Do you siponing it out through the airline tubing when detach the air-pump or do you rip out the air tubing from the cap and drain it from the hole.

The good thing with the eggs I bought is a hatch mix so I don't need to add any extras to the tap water. What I'm wondering is how many should I use per 2L bottle & when I'm harvesting do I drain the whole bottle into the brineshrimp net? How much eggs shall I use? All tips & advice be appreciated.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

Don;t worry about the siphoning annoyed my aquarium with that question but pls still need the other advice guys? Should I set up the hatchery after day 14 or should I look at what I think what stage the eggs are at & compare to the Embryo photo log on axolotl.org. Issue is of course you litterally have to feed the baby brine shrimp as soon as hatch cause after that they're not as nutritonous.

Re: Axies laid eggs when least expect it!

If I remember correctly you get a day or two from the axolotls hatching until you need to feed them because they have nutrients left from their egg sack - this gives you a bit of time to get the brine shrimp hatched. the shrimp should only take 2 days to hatch. I raised 7 babies (out of about 90) and was heartily sick of breeding the shrimp by the time it was over - and blew all the power in the house trying to get the brine shrimp to a reasonable temperature with a heat lamp - big mistake - but shouldn't be a problem in Brisbane. I would also recommend you start breeding some alternate live food - just put some containers of water outside if you have a back yard or a pond, and little water bugs and other creatures will come. A spare tank or a big tub you can put some plants in to attract insects should work. My last baby I just put in a tank in the back yard and he found plenty of food for himself - much easier that trying to feed him, but maybe I was just lucky. Good luck with all your offspring.