Question: Axolotl Twins?

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Steve Marsh

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I have week old Axolotl eggs. When first laid, I noticed one egg with two yolks. The "double yolk" eggs now has two embryos developing inside. Does anybody know if they would be maternal or faternal twins? Does this happen often?
 
I would assume it happens pretty often from the amount I have seen.

SANY1866.jpg
 
I have also had it happen before. They were very cute as they developed, once they started turning they laid opposite each other.
I don't know what you mean by maternal/fraternal?? It is probably most likely that they are identical twins (from one fertilization event).

DSCN2618.jpg
 
I'm sure I read about twins (when I had some + triplets) earlier this year, & it wasn't likely to be identicals, but rather an internal mistake of egg wrapping - I'm sure it was written more scientifically when I read it last!

Heather & Sparkle
 
Steve Marsh said:
Does this happen often?
Click to expand...

Sure does! I've found twins, triplets and a few sets of quadruplets in clutches of axolotl eggs. In fact, I think it's safe to say that it's more abnormal for mine to lay a clutch without at least one set of "twins".
 
Just did the count on my lot...638 eggs. Some got eaten, some got damaged, a few into the filter, so figure maybe 660 total eggs. ONE set of a double.
 
I have a batch of eggs from two golden albino parents. Probably about 300 eggs. What's interesting is that I found 10 sets of twins in this batch. There might be more, but I got tired of looking.
 

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I have never seen this before. Are they both the same type?
 
Twins? Yes, and triplets, quadruplets....etc. My record is 10 embryos in one egg! I get more multiples from my albino than singles.

They do appear to be 'fraternal' i.e. separate embryos in one egg 'wrapper', but there must be some identical twins out there because I have seen conjoined twins.

In the photo below you can see lots of multiples, the largest being a line of 7.
 

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