Question: Is this size difference normal?

I have about 90 month old larvae. The biggest of them, the wild types, are an inch long and just getting their hind legs. I have a heap ranging in size down from there to 19-20mm all with front legs and most with the very beginnings of back legs, my problem is this. I have 2 wild types that are barely 12mm long and only just getting their front legs.
Is it normal for there to be such a size range. These 2 little guys have never been big eaters, they have never gorged themselves like their siblings do. I know they are eating as their bellies do plump out a little at feed time they just aren't growing.

They have all been on the same diet of BBS since the day they hatched and when I first noticed they were falling behind I made sure I gave them extra thinking maybe they just weren't getting enough BBS go past them but it made no difference.

They look perfectly healthy and if you didn't know they were just over a month old then you wouldn't question it.

Should I be worried about them or do you think they will keep growing perfectly healthy, just slower? It just seems odd that they would be growing that much slower although expected I guess since they don't eat as much.

Right now I'm pretty sure the biggest of my babies who can now eat blood worms could eat these 2 little fellas so clearly they will NOT be going anywhere within eating distance for quite some time.

I have seen quite the size variation in axie larvae, and many types of other larvae, so I would consider this to be quite the norm. I've even noticed with my batches of axolotls that it seems that some types grow faster (i.e. wildtypes) than others. With that being said, if I do get a few that are noticeably off beat in terms of growth rate then I simply cull them by feeding them to their larger siblings...........survival of the fittest.

The Wilds have definitely grown the fastest followed closely by the melanoids then the Golden albinos and then the melanoid albinos but these tiny guys are wild types so who knows. I'll see how they go, for now anyway they look to be healthy and I guess ultimately mother nature will have the final say in it.

Curious though why would you cull a perfectly healthy looking axie simply because it's small? Are the late bloomers know to have issues or is it that you simply don't want the extra hassle of keeping them separated?

MereB said:

Curious though why would you cull a perfectly healthy looking axie simply because it's small? Are the late bloomers know to have issues or is it that you simply don't want the extra hassle of keeping them separated?

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They aren't "perfectly healthy" if they are growing a lot slower than their sibblings. The ones that don't grow as fast as their sibblings are much more likely to have health issues later down the line. In the wild they would end up being food for the larger axolotls anyways. They will not make good breeding stock and can be problematic pets.