Question: Baby axolotl's hatched today!!!

Dax

Dax

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Hi,
We received 26 eggs:p and today, so far 17 have hatched!!!!!
I understand they don't eat right away, I have a few (15 - 20 ish) daphnia in their "nursery".

My question, how old should they be before I be concerned about them eating?
This is our 1st time at this :)
 
Daphnia will be too big for newly hatched larvae. They need something smaller for the first few weeks.
Baby brineshrimp are the best food for new babies, they'll need them from about 24 hours.
 
thank you auntie jude!!
I have some bbs as well. Should I wait for 24 hours so I don't
foul the water? How many bbs to feed 17 hatchlings? Thanks Again!!
 
Hey Dax,
Congratulations on your new babies!
I'd wait on the BBS, until your babies are ready to take their first meal. BBS can only survive in your freshwater for a few hours. After that, they can fould the water pretty quickly.
It's kind of hard to say an amount of BBS, since it's so small, but I'd probably hatch about a teaspoon or two of eggs and judge if they're getting enough.
What I do is I lower my water to about an inch, to give my babies easier access to the BBS.
Good luck!
 
Thanks hzlotl - We are so proud :). They are in a plastic container 6x12 with 1" of water. I will take your advice about the bbs & feed about 1 tsp. tomorrow. Do they lunge toward the food at this age? Any other advice PLEASE feel free. I am going to post pix now. We are new here so I will see how that goes.
 
You can see the babies twitch as they snap at the BBS, then you see orange in their bellies.
 
I hatched about 1tsp the first day and about 1/2tsp or the remaining days of bbs once my hatchery started going well( i dont clean the water out but once a week or so, and never seemed to have an issue, i harvest all hatched bbs every 24hours and then replenish salt/water mixture and add a bit more bbs and start it up again. I had an over abundance of food for my guys up until i got them on frozen foods and had 17 hatchlings.

I start feeding them bbs within 24-36hours.. But they can take up to 72hours before they will start feeding. I have some hatchlings that are 3days old and I dont think they are eating still.. Though i think they may have hatched early because they were not as fully developed as I am use to when i found them(they hatched in my 50gallon adult tank) jrjsjanejejc my hatchlings are all hatching like 4-7days apart.. I dont know why. But they were all hatchlings/eggs I found in the tank after it was to late to freeze the eggs.. So I figured i get to raise more(agaiin!)


good luck!
 
Alkylhalide thank you so much for the help! I was worried they weren't eating soon enough. And good luck to you and your surprise additions. How long before frozen food should be introduced?
 
I introduce frozen foods when their backs legs are coming in so they are normally around 4weeks old
 
thank you very much!! We
are sooo.... excited, and nervous
LOL
any other advise from experienced "mommies n daddies" is much appreciated!!
 
I've started my 5-6 week babies on frozen bloodworm this week. The largest (over 2") have back legs coming in. I can pack away the BBS hatchery now..... until next time :happy:

And mine had a 10-day spread on hatching too
 
thank you!
I tried to give them about 1/2 tsp. bbs before I went to bed last night, nobody was interested. In fact they darted away when a bbs came near them. After about an hour, I transferred from the 8x12 container where they were all together,(1- 1 1/2" of water) to small 3x5 containers, again with 1-2 inches of clean spring water and put 2-3 in each, trying to separate wild types, and sizes, as best I could. Can't tell exactly what they all are at this point. This morning, all are still ok, and the other eggs have hatched now and everyone is alive and doing fine. I will try to feed them again here soon. All of this sound ok so far?

Again I thank you all for your support!!!
 
Last edited:
Congrats! Mine didn't eat for about 72hours after hatching. They have enough food stashed away to get them by for a little while. In the meantime, they are extremely delicate so go gentle on the food and water changing. When they start moving more, you'll know that they'll need food. If they're growing, they're eating.:happy: Also, store the excess brine shrimp in a salty glass of water in the fridge. They will store fine for up to a few days, as the cold temperature of the fridge slows the growth of the bbs. 26 little lotl larvae is not very many, so you will most likely have excess bbs after feedings.It is better on you and them to have extra food in the fridge waiting, then have to scramble for anything that might work or hope that the bbs hatch in time! The bbs will snap out of their stupor when they're in the warmer water that the larvae will be in. Best Luck, lots of great advice here in the forums! :D
 
Thanks Mike!
And you are correct, LOTS of good info here - I LOVE it! (Including yours!! ) Thanks for the advice. So, if I suck the bbs out with a turkey baster after feeding is that ok instead of doing water changes? If so, how long should I go between water changes? There are 2-3 babies lotls in small (approximately pint size containers). How long should I leave the bbs in with them, 1 hour? 2?, until the bbs are dead? The fridge for the bbs is a good idea, thanks for everything. I see you are in Portland, We are in Gladstone, Small World :)
 
I had four of my eggs hatch overnight ... If they can take a 10 day stretch are you pulling them out and separating as they hatch? I only have 8 more eggs
 
For less than 30 new hatchlings 1\4 of a tea spoon of BBS eggs is required daily. Much of the nutritional content of BBS is their yolk sack, they use it up very fast, if you hold them for over a day you can feed them activated yeast, a couple of drops for a1.5 l hatchery, don't overfeed them it will foul the water and kill them.
BBS are a good food source but you have to stay on top of the water quality, one or two changes per day, make sure you wipe the bottom of their tank daily, if you don't a bacterial growth will develop which will kill the larvae within a couple of weeks. You won't get much warning of this, you will lose 50% of the batch in one go and most of the rest over a couple of days.
 
Thank You Nai Live :)
I will take your advice as well. To feed the bbs the yeast, Do you mix the yeast with water to dissolve it, or just drop in the yeast culture dry?
 
Hi Annalotl -
I started with 26 eggs that were given to us by their Mommy, Gilly" Do you know Gilly? 17 of mine hatched ,leaving 9 still yet to hatch. I removed the eggs from the newly hatched larvae. I also removed the egg sacks from the water because it was a fairly small container and the new hatchlings were getting stuck in the "jelly". I don't know if I am correct, but that's what I did.
 
Dax said:
Thank You Nai Live :)
I will take your advice as well. To feed the bbs the yeast, Do you mix the yeast with water to dissolve it, or just drop in the yeast culture dry?
Click to expand...

Add a small pinch of dried yeast and sugar to warm water, allow it to froth up and its good to use
 
Annalotl said:
I had four of my eggs hatch overnight ... If they can take a 10 day stretch are you pulling them out and separating as they hatch? I only have 8 more eggs
Click to expand...

Yes, move the hatchlings to a separate tub. Makes feeding them much easier.
 
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