Question: This is my planned course of action. What do I need to do differently?

So I should have some axolotl eggs arriving this week sometime. I have never done this before, but I have spent much of my time reading and researching. I hope all goes well and I have a general outline of my plan in my head, I figured it couldn't hurt to put it down and see what everyone else thought. Any comments will be appreciated. :lick:

1. once I receive the eggs I will place them in a 10 gallon aquarium with an airs stone located at one end.

2. When hatched I will start feeding them live brine shrimp and I will transfer them to separate tupperware containers. At this point I will be doing 100% water changes each day.

3. Once the axolotls start developing their front legs I will start to introduce Microworms into their diet.

4. Here's a question: When will axolotls not require a 100% water change every day? Because, at this point I am planning on dividing off the tank and moving them back into it.

5. This is all that I have really figured out, other than the last step of selling them once they're old enough!


Thanks in advance, please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong or if something else needs to be done.

Btw, I'm only caring for a dozen eggs.

Good plan, basically. Skip the microworms, they are smaller than brine shrimp (and I'm assuming when you say live brine shrimp, you mean newly-hatch ones?). Instead, wean them onto chopped blackworms. In addition to the 100% water changes, transfer them to clean containers at the same time.

While the larvae are living in single containers, you could get a 10-gallon tank set up and ready to move them back into. With only a dozen or so, you won't have a lot of problems with cannibalism unless there are huge size differences. (In other words, you might not need to worry about dividers.)

To prepare the 10gal tank, leave it set up from when you had the eggs in it. Add live plants. Throw in a snail or two, and maybe a tiny flake of fish food occasionally, and just let the tank age like that.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice and support! ...and yes by live brine shrimp I mean freshly hatched. I am expecting eggs to arrive sometime this week also. As far as black worms go, where can I get my hands on some of them?

Live blackworms are "commonly" available in the US. But they aren't sold by the big chain stores, so the availability really varies on a local level. Your best bet is to get on the phone and call every non-chain pet shop within driving distance and ask. Note that a lot of stores sell them under the name "live bloodworms" (a misnomer), so you might want to ask for both names in case the person who answers the phone is a dummy. If local sources come up blank, there's always mail order, but that is costly due to requiring overnight shipping. If stored properly, one batch of live blackworms should be good for at least a month.

Why bother with the 10 gallon tank? Separate the eggs into the containers when you get them. Aren't you just getting a few (12)? One container gets one egg. Keep them below 70 F (closer to 65 is better) and wait. Once all of them have hatched set up your brine shrimp. By the time the first batch of shrimps are hatched the axies should be ready to eat them since they don't really need to eat for about 48 hours after hatching while they absorb their yolk sack. Black worms sounded interesting to me but I never got any before my axies started eating larger food. They seem like a bit of a hassle but I would try them the next go round if they're available.

I would plan for a set amount you are willing to care for. Do a quik egg count, flush the unwanted/or give away the amount not needed.I would rather suceed in a few than watch a lot die. Kudos to the mating and raising the up coming batch. Gavin

Yes, I am only raising 12. So, maybe I will just skip the 10 gallon and separate them into the containers right from the start.

I have another question: The water that I use in the containers to start with and when I do the daily water changes, should this be cycled water from an aquarium or can this be water straight from the tap? (I have well water so no worries about chlorine)


Thanks! They should be arriving any day!

You can use "fresh" water without a problem but I kept a 30 gallon tub of water ready at all times so I could change a little or a lot without worrying about it. As they get larger and as you change the type of food they eat you may find that you need to do more frequent water changes. I used a couple of types of food that the critters loved but that fouled the water very quickly (Instant Ocean Brine Shrimp and frozen mysis shrimp) so I would have to change the water nearly once a day til I finally moved them into their current homes (a 55 gallon tank and a 30 gallon tank). I will move them one more time (some to new homes) once I am able to determine their sex.

I'm in the same sort of position myself!
I'm just wondering t what stage it will be safe to move them to the large cycled tank?
I'll only have about four or five eggs so only a small batch.
How big do they have to be to move in to my big filtered tank?

Thaaanks!

(and soz for hijacking the thread!)

We moved our babies over to a filtered tank when they could eat a few blackworms at a once or 1/2 inch peices of red wigglers (they are smaller than regular earthworms). I'm not sure of their length at that time but if I had to guess I'd say they were probably 2 inches maybe 2.5 inches. We still wrapped some net around the tip of the filter intake area just to be safe.