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Urgent help needed- i have eggs!

Velaria

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Please help!!

I just discovered about 30-40 axie eggs in my tank! They were all attached to the plants/rocks/etc. in the tank, and I removed them from the tank and put them in a tupperware container.

I looked on the internet for info about raising the eggs, and I found some contrasting opinions, so if the experts here would help me, I'd really appreciate it!

1) Do I keep the eggs in some water from the adults' tank, or do I give them a fresh, dechlorinated tap water change every day?

2) Does methylene blue help to guard against fungus?

3) I should heep them in a smaller tank with an air stone, correct? I can put a flow regulator on the air stone so that it's not too strong.

4) I have a couple of eggs that may be fungus-y, but I'm not sure. For now, I've separated them from the rest of the bunch. Here's the first pic: Fungus, or not??

eggs1.jpg

Here's a close-up of the same egg:

eggs2.jpg


Here's another egg... is this one just a lighter-colored baby, or does it have fungus:

eggs3.jpg


And finally, here's my fourth pic, which I'm showing to you because I'm concerned about the fact that it looks "broken open". The gooey egg sack was really stuck to the rocks, so when I detached it, I broke the egg sack open accidentally. Should I be concerned?

eggs4.jpg


5) What's all that greenish debris stuck to the eggs? Should I be worried about it?

6) The BLUE debris that you see is blue sand from my tank, so no need to be concerned about that.

7) Should I assume that these are wildtype or melanoid eggs, or is it too soon to know? My tank has adults of all different colors, so I have no way of knowing who the parents are.

8) Should I assume that the rest of the eggs have been eaten by the adults, or should I be on the lookout for more egg laying from the female? I'm confused as to why I found so few eggs. I didn't notice them last night when I fed the axies, but it was dark, so they may already have been laid.

Thanks in advance for any answers you can give me, and please reply soon- I'm not sure what to do, especially as far as the water goes.
 

Shizeric

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You sure the granulated stuff surrounding the eggs isn't just sand? Is that your substrate?

Just use dechlorinated water, and change 100% every few days.

No air stone will be necessary, there will be plenty of oxygen from the water changes.
 

Velaria

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You sure the granulated stuff surrounding the eggs isn't just sand? Is that your substrate?

Just use dechlorinated water, and change 100% every few days.

No air stone will be necessary, there will be plenty of oxygen from the water changes.

Thanks for your reply! The BLUE granulated stuff is the sand substrate, but I have no idea what the olive green granulated stuff is. Dirt from the tank?? My tank isn't pristinely clean, but it is relatively clean. I definitely wouldn't call it dirty.

OK, so dechlorinated water. But is it BETTER to do a water change every day? And is it BETTER to use an air stone? Maybe at 30% of the full air pressure?

What about those eggs? Are they fungus-y or not?
 

Jennewt

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1. Either way.

2. Yes, but I'm 99% sure you don't need it.

3. Yes, but no airstone is needed, as long as the top of the container is open (no lid) and the water is shallow. If you use an airstone, it should just be a trickle of air, maybe 5% of the normal air flow.

4. Yes, probably a dud.

4.5 I don't see anything broken open.

5. The greenish stuff is just tank debris, aka mulm. Harmless. The eggs are sticky so it sticks to them.

6. OK

7. Too soon to tell. When mom is dark colored, the eggs get melanin from mom, and that lasts them until after hatching, so you can't tell if they are white until a couple of weeks post-hatch.

8. They can sometimes lay small batches. Or they ate them. And there may be more coming. Or not.
 

Velaria

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Oh, THANK YOU, Jennewt! That was wonderful!!

I have cats, so I think it's best to keep the eggs in a covered container. It's one of those cheapo plastic aquariums that you can get at Petco, and it does have a grid-like cover to allow air to pass, but I think I'll use the airstone at 5% flow anyway, just to make sure they have enough air.

In my 4th pic, you don't see anything broken open? The left side of the egg sac is pretty much missing. I don't know if the term "egg sac" is being used correctly, so let me explain: 1) there's the little brown embryo. I'll call this embryo the "yolk". 2) Encasing the little brown embryo is a clear, spherical sac. I'll call this the "egg white". 3) Encasing the egg white is a round glob of goo. It sticks to rocks/plants inside the tank, yet it somehow retains its spherical shape. It's this glob of goo that has been broken open on the left side. Do you see what I'm talking about now? Normally, it would look clear, but since I've got all of that debris stuck to my eggs, you are able to make out the shape of this goolike substance a lot better.

The "probably a dud" egg- I put it in a separate container with methylene blue. Do you think it can be saved? If not, will it become cloudier and more fungus-y within the next few days?

I have some eggs that do not look as bad as the fungus-y egg in question, but the "egg white" part of these eggs looks slightly more opaque than the majority of the eggs. Is this the beginning of a fungus, or might these eggs still be ok? The reason why I'm so concerned is because I don't want the good eggs to become contaminated by the bad eggs.

I've been looking for pics of fungus-y eggs, but I can't find any. Can anyone tell me where I can see pics?

Thanks so much!!
 

Kiwi303

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Hi there, the goo you describe as being broken, is just the protective jelly, the little dot is the yolk/embryo, the first sphere is the albumen, just like the chickens egg has a clear white and the bag of goo is the equivalent to a chickens shell. If the albumen sac is undamaged, the egg should manage fine with the jelly casing ruptured so long as you don't subject it to rough handling.

Since the eggs are aquatic, aphib eggs are not usually hard shelled, the jelly does fine by cushioning the interior against shocks, Crocodile and turtle eggs, which start out soft shelled but which harden closer to hatching, are an in-between stage between aquatic eggs and terrestrial eggs.

Depending on your religious/scientific beliefs, either the sign of the beauty of intelligent design, or the wonders of evolution adapting eggs from water to dry land.

As to fungus, I can't seak from experience with axolotls, as my first set of eggs since I got my pair arrived yesterday. but I would suspect that rather than fungus this soo, the cloudiness is simply infertility. I'd just separate them and dispose of them, there will be more than enough left anyway :D do you really want all of those eggs to turn into Axolotls?
 

Velaria

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Thanks, Kiwi!

No, I don't really *want* all of those eggs to turn into axolotls, but I don't have the heart NOT to try to save every one of them :) They're just so cute!!!

I have a couple of eggs that aren't fungus-y at all, but the embryo doesn't seem to be developing. You know, on the first day, the embryos look like little round spheres, but by the second day, they look bean-shaped. Well, most of them look bean-shaped today, but a couple of them still look like completely round spheres. They don't seem to be developing, but if that's the case, couldn't I expect them to spoil/disintegrate at some point? I mean, they LOOK healthy, it's just that they look the same as they did yesterday. ???

Is it true that leucistic embryos look half brown and half white? That's what I read on the internet. Do wildtype and melanoid eggs look really dark? What do golden embryos look like?

Thanks!!
 

shoegal

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Some of your eggs will never start to develop, and the embryo will remain a perfect circle. It is a completely natural occurrence.
 

melfly

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You wont beable to tell colours till after hatching.
I've had golden, wild and leucistic from brown eggs.
And gold and white albino from white eggs.

Mel
 
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