Separating Fry

Hi everyone,
Just wondering when people felt the best time to begin separating fry was? Some of my 30 odd fry are beginning to develop front limb buds, and i am tossing up as to begin separating them out.

Also, is there any rule as to the ratio of fry to water? Any suggestions as to how many liters of water per fry?

This is my first time rearing fry and i want to get it right!! Currently they are housed in a small glass tank with approximately 10L, of which about 80% of the water is changed daily (I'm feeding bbs). Due to the frequency of the water changes the water is not particularly stable, although ph is maintained at around 7.2 and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are tested daily with no considerable readings (im assuming this is because the water is not cycling). Any other suggestions? The only losses i have had were 3 'mutant' fry, which had considerable kinks in their spines.

Sorry about the length of this post, and thank you for your time!!

Again thanks,

Stephi

Hiya
I start separating mine when they are looking different in size. Not sure of how may fry per amount of water i just see what looks ok to be honest. Not too overcrowded all similar sizes.

Sorry i'm not much help but i'm sure someone with more experience will be on to give you more help.

Mel

As Melfly said above, I just use common sense! Sorry, I hope that doesn't sound rude!

When the larvae are really small you don't need to worry too much about how many are together (as long as it's not TOO overcrowded).

I agree with Melfly, once there are noticable size differences you need to start separating them. I tended to use small (1 litre?) ice cream tubs with just 2 or 3 axolotl larvae to each tub. But if you are raising a lot of larvae, that's a lot of tubs! Bear in mind that the larvae need to be literally swimming in food when they're small, so smaller containers will mean a higher concentration of food. What are you feeding yours?

Fellow axolotl owner Philbaker76 rears larvae a lot, so he might be able to give you more advice. I've only had experience with one batch, so I'm no expert!

Good luck with it all and I can't wait to see pictures!

Thanks for your help guys, its really appreciated!!
They are getting fed baby brine shrimp twice a day, and they are absolute lil porkers!!! They are all still very similar in size, so i think they should be ok for a little longer (unless I'm told otherwise!!).
I was just checking to make sure there wasn't some golden unspoken rule to larvae rearing (see I'm learning!!) that i had missed!

I will defiantly keep you guys posted as to their development, at present colors appear to be wild type and white with black eyes, which is confusing as both parents were white with black eyes, but i only have very basic genetics knowledge.

Although i would have thought that if one or both of the parents were heterozygous for both (white with black eyes and wildtype) that wild type would have been the dominant gene and therefore expressed?? I will most definitely have to read up!!

Again thank you for all your help, and hopefully i will get pic's up shortly,
Stephi

...and fry are fish babies...


I generally do not worry to much about sizing larvae until the back leg stage hits, then I generally only move out the largest.

Now, with large population densities, I do separate them out sooner, but not until I notice nibbling from conspecifics. With Ambystomidae like axolotls, this usually does not take long, and cannibalism is common. This is actually a good thing as the runts get weeded out pretty quick. Runts rarely do well and consume resources better directed to their normal, healthy brethren.
With Cynops species, I did not do any separating until well into the four legged stage. As I was new to the species, I kept them sorted by size merely to get maximum yield.

I use a brine shrimp net and lots of patience to move them.

On the genetics side if both parents are white with black eyes all the offspring should be leucistic (ultimately white with black eyes). You are correct that wild type is expressed if present.

It is my guess the ones you think are wild type are leucistic, they can be quite pigmented on their upper surface when small. The ones which are white with black eyes could be either leucistic and melanoid or leucistic and axanthic. Are the paler ones 50% or 25% of the batch? Have a really close look with a hand lens at the larvae for shiny eyes, iridescent spots on the gills and yellow patches as well as black on the skin. It is not always possible to sort out what is going on genetically but it is interesting to try to guess the genetic make up of your pets!