Forced hatching?

Hello!

I bought 25 eggs from a breeder because I wanted to have a go at raising Axolotls from the egg before my 9 adults started breeding. Of course they decided to lay eggs 2 days after they arrived so I know have about 600 ...

Anyway, the eggs I bought were laid on 20th December and so far only 2 out of 25 has hatched and we're going onto day 21 so getting a bit worried. The 2 that hatched only seemed to come out when I was nudging them around a bit with a syringe. That was 3 days ago...

The larvae in the rest of the eggs are still flipping around occasionally and some of the embryos look like they're open. I read on another site that they should all have hatched within a 3 day period and I should help the unhatched ones along by cutting the eggs open with a pair of scissors.

Is that a good idea or would I do more harm than good? Is there anything I'm doing wrong or any tips you can give me to help things along.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I would say its your call but I wouldn't worry either way. I have forced hatching before without any harm. Another day won't hurt them. Or you can hatch them all.

I personally would leave them be, if they are wriggling then they will still hatch when they are ready.

I got a batch of 17 eggs, the first one hatched on a tuesday, the last one didnt hatch untill the following thursday, thats like 10 days difference, they all came out fine with no help needed, just some took longer.

Id leave them be and let nature take its course. :wacko:

The reason your first two hatched is because you disturbed their eggs. That's not a natural hatching anyway, so you can't use that as the basis for your time line.

Just leave them. Like Julia said, they'll hatch when they're ready.

I only nudged them a bit to clear up some debris from behind them without sucking them into the syringe.
It's day 21 now how long is hatching normally?

What temperature is their water? The cooler the water the longer it takes.

I just hatched out some eggs that I picked up 3 weeks ago, and they were laid almost 2 weeks before that. I've been keeping them around 12c.