My babies at 10 days

axowattyl · Aug 12, 2014

I've been nursing these guys for the last 10 days, and haven't got around to taking any pics.

The parents were both white leucistics, unrelated.

I'm guessing I've got about 300 in total in 3 different flavors, approximately 100 of each.

1. White Leucistics.

2. Wildtypes or darker Leucistics(?)

3. White/gold Albinos.

All are feeding well on BBS.

I've lost/culled about 20-30 so far, but I'm being pretty strict on knocking out defects and runts.

They're around the 1.5-2 cm mark now, might try some finely chopped bloodworms today and see how it goes.

Flee · Aug 13, 2014

guessing 300?? you have to count them all 1 by 1 ha ha.
They are all very cute :happy:
Thank you for the photo's looking forward to the updates over the weeks.

auntiejude · Aug 13, 2014

If you cross 2 leucistics you can't get wildtype babies, since the parents only have d/d genes to pass on and wildtypes are D/-. So your 2nd pic must be leucistics of some kind.

What's the distribution of types? I'm guessing you have 1/4 albinos (they must be white albinos), and 1/2 normal leucistics, and 1/4 of the 2nd type of leucys - am I right?!

axowattyl · Aug 13, 2014

auntiejude said:
If you cross 2 leucistics you can't get wildtype babies, since the parents only have d/d genes to pass on and wildtypes are D/-. So your 2nd pic must be leucistics of some kind.

What's the distribution of types? I'm guessing you have 1/4 albinos (they must be white albinos), and 1/2 normal leucistics, and 1/4 of the 2nd type of leucys - am I right?!

Close thereabouts.

I'd have a guess and say 40% normal leucistics, and 30% each of the others.

I'm not counting every one of the bloody things...it's too much, I'll wait till they've made it out of the fry stage.

Rick Douglass · Aug 18, 2014

Hi Neil
Rick here from Moonee Beach, I bought the young wild type males off you. Congratulations on the progress.
No luck here, the males are very frisky/keen and drop jellys at least once a week but the female won't have a bar of that! I have moved up to a larger 4 foot tank (the 3 foot was too small) and I guess they have been together for approx 10 weeks now. Just playing the waiting game. (Good thing I didn't buy that old wild type male of you now if it now looks to be a female).

Cheers
Rick

axowattyl · Aug 18, 2014

Seems odd Rick.

Generally it seems that if you get spermophores, you get eggs 2 days later.

Maybe you need a more promiscuous female...

auntiejude · Aug 18, 2014

Some females need to be in the right mood, and 'conditioned' for breeding. Conditioning can include a change in temperature to trigger egg production along with extra food. More common to do this with other caudates though.

But yeah, usually it's male + female = eggs!

axowattyl · Aug 18, 2014

auntiejude said:
Some females need to be in the right mood, and 'conditioned' for breeding. Conditioning can include a change in temperature to trigger egg production along with extra food. More common to do this with other caudates though.

But yeah, usually it's male + female = eggs!

Females and their moods, "conditioning"...sigh, the things us guys have to endure to further our species.

Back on topic, my babies are growing nicely and munching heavily on blackworms.

Pics soon.

Rick Douglass · Aug 18, 2014

Often I think it would be easier to replace than condition. (With both species)

Seriously though, I might try to pickup another female (axi). Just to increase my chances. Real shame if the girl isn't keen as she is a huge albino, nearly 30cm and fat as. I did reduce the water temp down to 15dec c for a few days but no luck. I might try to feed her up a bit more as she never refused food. I have fed her as many as 5 good sized worms in one sitting and she would take more I reckon.
Fingers crossed hey?

axowattyl · Aug 25, 2014

Rick Douglass said:
Often I think it would be easier to replace than condition. (With both species)

Seriously though, I might try to pickup another female (axi). Just to increase my chances. Real shame if the girl isn't keen as she is a huge albino, nearly 30cm and fat as. I did reduce the water temp down to 15dec c for a few days but no luck. I might try to feed her up a bit more as she never refused food. I have fed her as many as 5 good sized worms in one sitting and she would take more I reckon.
Fingers crossed hey?

Just last night my wife (who denies any interest in axolotls) came in and said that they're all acting "weired".

Sure enough, all the females were either sitting on top of the plastic plants or swimming/floating near the surface, and the male was scurrying around everywhere.

The water has been between 15-17 for a few weeks, so I set the chiller to 12 last night before I went to bed.

Got up this morning and spermophores everywhere...

Ibkikn · Aug 25, 2014

=)

got another small batch today, myself.

Think my 1st clutch are about to hatch, this week.
Can't wait to see the colouring develop. =)

axowattyl · Aug 25, 2014

Here they are at a bit over 3 weeks old.

In the pics they look almost the same, but are now around 2.5cm long with front legs starting to grow.

They're eating good amounts of chopped live blackworms, and I just tried some 1mm carnivore pellets this morning with limited success.

I'm about to move the lot into a 4 footer in the next few days.

Rick Douglass · Aug 26, 2014

Yeah that cold water does seem to get the males going.
Babies looking good.
My Mrs also denies any interest but she is always on Gumtree looking for more axi's. Come to think of it she probably would have been on Gumtree shopping either way.

axowattyl · Aug 27, 2014

Put them all in a 4 footer today, they're dirtying the plastic tubs too quick now.

They're got little arms now, and some are showing rear leg stumps as well.

No more BBS, it's all black and blood worms from now on.

Not having much luck with pellets yet.

Flee · Aug 29, 2014

They are all so very cute :happy: so have you counted they 1 by 1 yet

usafaux2004 · Aug 29, 2014

No need. Take 1 picture. Open paint/Photoshop and click off dots.

axowattyl · Aug 31, 2014

usafaux2004 said:
No need. Take 1 picture. Open paint/Photoshop and click off dots.

Hmm...sounds technical.

Eating frozen bloodworms heartily now, it's getting easier.

axowattyl · Sep 3, 2014

About 4 weeks old now, and they're mostly around 3-4cm's and more like miniature adults than juveniles.

Haven't lost one for a couple of weeks now, but will cull just a few more that aren't doing well or have deformities.

Eating very well, both frozen blood worm and 1mm pellets, both of which they actively search for on the ground.

They've also discovered recreational swimming, so the tank looks like a cloud of little axolotls until you put food in, then they all dive for the floor.

Still waiting for back legs to grow.

Flee · Sep 3, 2014

Thanks for the update pics :happy: they are so cute and doing so well.

axowattyl · Sep 4, 2014

Flee said:
Thanks for the update pics :happy: they are so cute and doing so well.

Thank you!

My babies at 10 days

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