New eggs, have questions!

Somebody I know just has a bunch of eggs available, I've been wanting an axolotyl for a while so I would really like to take some of his eggs and raise them myself. I have done a bit of reading but I'm kind of stumped on a few specifics so maybe someone can help. Thanks for taking the time to read my questions

I only want to end up with 1 or 2 axolotyls (although I don't mind having to give some away if I end up with more) I just would like to know how many eggs should I ask for? I was leaning towards 30 or so that seemed like a good amount in case anything went wrong, some died etc. Is that a reasonable number or do I need more or less?

The eggs have been around for about 4 days now? How much time do I truly have to find some food? From what I have read it sounds like brine shrimp is not good because if they die from not being eaten fast enough they will taint the water and i dont want to deal with that... the small worms dont give enough nutrients which leaves me with the daphnia, do I have enough time to culture my own daphnia before the eggs hatch? Or is daphnia easily purchased at local pet store/specialty pet store?

Those are basically my 2 concerns, how many eggs should i take and i need some set specifics on the food (am i out of time to make daphnia, if so what do i do)

Thanks for your help!

If you only want a couple, I would suggest taking only 6-10 if you know you can find homes for any additional axolotls you end up with. 10 larvae will be a lot easier to look after than 30!

Depending on temp, you should have about 10 - 15 days before they hatch. Newly hatched baby brine shrimp are actually one of the easier ways to go as they are small enough for larvae to handle. As far as fouling the water, you don't want to leave any uneaten food in with your larvae for extended amounts of time. It is advisable to rinse your bbs before feeding them to your larvae. You can use a brine shrimp net, and squirt a few turkey basters of water through the net with bbs inside. If you want to do a daphnia culture, then yes, you have time to culture one. Keep in mind that axolotl larvae are tiny with tiny mouths so they need tiny prey like bbs or newly hatched daphnia. Do a search for brine shrimp hatchery and culture daphnia - there are many methods for both.

Thanks for the response! Great info! I am about to shower you with questions... =P

How long can the brine shrimp be in the water without being eaten?
Is it easy to get them all out if you need to take them out?
should I be seperating all of the larvae into seperate parts of the tank so its easier to feed them? if so how much food does each one get when it is feeding time? (2 times a day correct?) If they dont need to be seperated and they are all just hanging around how much food do i put in the entire tank? oh and are BBs just a short term for brine shrimp or what?

Daphnia would be perfect to use as long as I used them right after hatching though right? Whatever is easier to do is the method I will take lol.

Thanks again for your help! I'm sure Ill have a few more questions after you respond again =P

I think BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) need to be removed ASAP once the babies are done eating as they foul the water quite quickly.
I've found them quite easy to remove, either with a tea spoon or gently with a baster.
Depends what they are kept in I guess? I keep mine in a tupper ware tub together then once there are noticeable size differences I move them to their own containers until they are at roughly the same size again just to avoid missing bits.
I've used daphnia for all of mine, tried BBS but didn't get much response, the daphnia vanish quickly though. I put a few adult daphnia in with the eggs a couple of days before hatching so that there were baby daphnia for when they were hungry. I pretty much leave them to it now. I do a daily partial water change, taking out all the poo and dead daphnia and put in more daphnia if needed. I have no clue if there is a 'right' amount, I put a random amount in then if they went very quickly, put a few more in and went by how quickly they were eaten to determine a decent amount for my lot

Star said:

I think BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) need to be removed ASAP once the babies are done eating as they foul the water quite quickly.
I've found them quite easy to remove, either with a tea spoon or gently with a baster.
Depends what they are kept in I guess? I keep mine in a tupper ware tub together then once there are noticeable size differences I move them to their own containers until they are at roughly the same size again just to avoid missing bits.
I've used daphnia for all of mine, tried BBS but didn't get much response, the daphnia vanish quickly though. I put a few adult daphnia in with the eggs a couple of days before hatching so that there were baby daphnia for when they were hungry. I pretty much leave them to it now. I do a daily partial water change, taking out all the poo and dead daphnia and put in more daphnia if needed. I have no clue if there is a 'right' amount, I put a random amount in then if they went very quickly, put a few more in and went by how quickly they were eaten to determine a decent amount for my lot

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So just from putting a couple of adult daphnia in with the eggs it will hatch a bunch more? I guess i need to read up more on the daphnia haha so do all the larvae need to be seperated in the tank or is that not necessary?

Smiggels said:

So just from putting a couple of adult daphnia in with the eggs it will hatch a bunch more? I guess i need to read up more on the daphnia haha so do all the larvae need to be seperated in the tank or is that not necessary?

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Twisted Fisher , on this forum, was awesome with all of my questions and he had the daphnia cultures. I purchased them from him. He also answered all of my questions. I have over 100 babies going strong. I would go with 10-15 eggs if I were you.

Rhandi

I put the largest looking ones in there and they popped have a look at the live food daphnia section see what you can find. They don't really need to be separated unless they are started to snap at each other from what I understand

Everywhere I am reading is talking about the culturing of daphnia to take a few weeks... I don't have a few weeks so what should I do?

Smiggels said:

Everywhere I am reading is talking about the culturing of daphnia to take a few weeks... I don't have a few weeks so what should I do?

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I didn't have time to wait either, but the cultures I received were already producing when he shipped them to me. I got them just days before my eggs started to hatch.

Rhandi Claxton said:

I didn't have time to wait either, but the cultures I received were already producing when he shipped them to me. I got them just days before my eggs started to hatch.

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Thanks for the tip! I'll search for him and see what I can get

Since you're interesting just two or three for your own stock, I would suggest about six eggs. Put these eggs together in a container that holds about 1 liter of water. As they hatch, remove each larva to its own separate container. They will begin to feed about 24-48 hours after they hatch.

I would suggest that you use baby brine shrimp. I have not had luck relying on daphnia to keep a breeding population going well enough to sustain newly hatched axolotl larvae. In my daphnia cultures they are certainly plenty of daphia small enough for my new born larvae but the problem is getting the daphnia close enough to the larvae that the larvae can gorge themselves. Brine shrimp, on the other hand, are easily cultured. I use a 1 liter soda bottle inverted with an airline tubing in it. I mix 1.25 tablespoons of rock salt with 1/8 tsp of baking soda in 1 liter of dechlorinated water. 1/8 tsp of eggs is alot and the newly hatched brine shrimp are really only nutritious for your axies for about 48 hours. Your brine shrimp eggs will hatch in about a day if their temp is above 80 F.

To collect the hatched shrimp separate from their eggs shells I turn off the pump and let the water settle. Newly hatched shrimp seem to congregate near the bottom and the eggs and shells float. After about 10 minutes I drain the shrimp water through a brine shrimp net. This way I can collect as many as I need and leave the other shrimp for later. I gently rinse the shrimp, net and all, by swishing it in a dish of fresh, dechlorinated, water. I use a pipette to drop small amounts of the brine shrimp right on top of the axolotl larvae. I have also simply allowed the water in the hatchery to settle, placed a light near one side of the bottle and either siphoned or pipetted the shrimp from the bottle as needed. The shrimp are positively phototropic so they will swim toward the light making them easy to collect. When the supply of newly hatched shrimp is exhausted I clean out the container and reset it.

The shrimp don't move very fast and tend to stay near the bottom of the container. This is where having each larva in a separate small container comes in real handy. 1. the shrimp are always nearby, 2. you can see that each of your animals is eating properly, 3. you can keep tabs on your water quality as needed.

I change the water in my axie tubs "as needed" which is about every 2 to 3 days at the beginning but becomes daily as the larvae grow. If I need to change water in the axie container I simply scoop the individual larva out with a teaspoon and put it into a freshly cleaned container, no sweat.

My first effort I ordered way more eggs than I needed "just in case" and found myself raising about 30 larvae because I didn't lose any. I'm still having difficulty finding qualified homes for my "extras" and they are now adults laying their own eggs!