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Axolotls dummy... i have eggs, now what?

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nicole

Guest
i just got eggs this morning. ive heard they are usually white but these are black in the jelly... i have three adults in a 55 gallon tank ( half full) so i have no clue as to which parents did what ha ha. Should i take out the adults? will the eat the eggs? I am totally clueless the guy i baught them from is currently unreachable so i am in total darkness as to what to do with them. a full step by step would be greatly appreciated
 
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lee

Guest
my axolotls gave birth a month ago. all the eggs was on the plants so i got a realy big tub and transfered the babies out of the tank into the tub but be carfull the eggs can drop off what ever there sticking to.put OLD water from your adult axolotls tank in the tub tho as tap water will kill the little eggs. put an air stone in the tub with the eggs but dont have the oxygen to strong cause it will shake the eggs about. and the coulour depends on what coulour your adult axolotls are mine were brownie black from a white mum and brown dad
 
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nicole

Guest
the possible parents are a wild one, a yellow one and a white one. Im thinking either the yellow or white one laid the eggs as i have not seen the black one in the area of the tank where the eggs are. I'll put the best picture i have of the eggs and setup that i have
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<font size="-2">re-postitioned photos - Mark</font>

(Message edited by aartse_tuyn on February 02, 2007)
 
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nicole

Guest
i was wondering since 50% of the eggs are on my sub filter if i would be better off moving the parents and leaving the eggs??? they are all still in a 55 gallon. the eggs that were laying on the bottom are pretty much gone now but the parents havent touched the eggs on the plants or filter yet. i am 6 mo pregnant so the less moving pails of water the better!
 

heihei

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Hi nicole - congratulations on your eggs!

From the angle of the photo you posted of your yellow, it looks like a male, but i could be wrong. Has he got a large cloaca (behind the rear legs), the ones with large cloaca are males. The ones that are plumpish looking and smaller cloaca are females. Tho if your female/s have laid then they may look a little skinnier than usual.

Just because the black one wasn't in the vicinity of the eggs doesn't mean that it might not be the mother!

Rather than remove all the eggs; think about how many you intend raising and/or selling.

If you are six months pregnant and intend raising all the left over eggs then you may find it very tiring and time consuming once they hatch and having to make sure you have enough live food for them, constant daily waterchanges, then as they get bigger having to separate them into different containers or tubs by size and feeding twice a day (some axie babies will be stronger and therefore eat more and grow faster which will leave the little ones behind. Invariably if you don't separate the big from the small then the small ones become food for the larger ones).

I have 5 babies but my sister and I helped a friend when he had a few spawnings within a few weeks. He kept and raised 100 eggs out of about 700+; and even they were time consuming. Interesting, exciting but very time consuming. Of his 2nd batch I bought my 5 and my sister bought 5. They're 3 months old now and he has 35 hungry mouths as well as his own older axies left. Also he still is doing twice daily feeding and every 2nd day waterchanges.

So its up to you. 2-3 months down the line if most of your eggs manage to survive and grow are you prepared for the work as well as a young baby? You also have to be aware that once you have raised them you'll have to find homes for them; because we like them doesn't mean they'll be an influx of people or petshops demanding them and you may end up stuck with a few extra adults if they survive.

I would say if you are prepared for that then just lift the plants out only, leave the filtered ones, or scrape them of and leave in tank for parents to eat and place the other eggs in a oontainer/tub as Lee suggested rather than try to raise the lot.

Also, when my friend took his axie eggs out first day he used tank water from parents tank and then every waterchange he changed most of the water daily but used dechlorinated water (tapwater treated with a water conditioner/ager/dechlorinator that removes chlorine and chloramines) .

While the eggs are developing you should try and get some baby brineshrimp eggs in preparation and/or a source of daphnia/water fleas if you can find them. Babies will only eat live food. Once they hatch they eat their yolk so it will be about 2-4 days before they'll require the livefood. During that time you can set up a brineshrimp hatchery. See: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Nicole, I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth of experience as both a raiser of axolotls and as a (human) mother. I adore axolotls, obviously, but my honest advice is to throw away as many of the axolotl eggs as possible, and consider separating your male and female axies, as they are likely to produce more. If you want to try raising a few, keep a few, but the vast majority need to be disposed of BEFORE they start to develop. At this point, the eggs don't suffer by being frozen or put into alcohol. Also consider trying to find people locally that would be interested in raising a few. I wouldn't recommend that ANY first-timer try to raise more than about a dozen axies.

Is this your first baby on the way? You may not believe me now, but after s/he is born you won't have time to care much for axolotls. (My newts were very badly neglected for several years when my kids were little - fortunately they were hardy!) Raising axies takes a lot of attention - and buckets of water - neither of which are going to be easy for you to manage.
 
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nicole

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okie dokie..... well here is what i did... might sound a little stupid. I took a ten gallon tank and put the babies in it and placed the tank into the 55 gallon tank! i didnt know if this was a good idea but it seemed the easiest for me at the time. I put a small airstone in the 10 and i did scrape the eggs from the filter and kept it in with the parents. I will try to get a better picture of the adults to see if i can find the sex of them. I removed the little plants and placed them into the 10 gallon. I cut the section of tubing from the bubble curtain that had eggs on it as well and placed it into the 10 gallon. I am not sure how to tell which eggs are not going to make it. I currently have 5 people that want one and that know what they are doing. they want the albino ones but i do not believe these will be the albino type. the tank is a little cloudy now from the changing so i cant take decent pictures. i did a 20% water change on the 55 gallon and treated the water but I kept all of the water in the 10 gallon from the 55 gallon. No this will actually be baby #3 for me. I have a 6yr old and shes the one who started wanting the axolotals then got another one from her last birthday. I honestly wasnt expecting babies so soon from them. my other child is a year and a half. So far having the axolotls has been a hobby for me and my oldest so she helps out often. what do you all think of the tank setup idea? hope it wasnt a bad choice i was also thinking this may be useful later on when introducing the babies to the other tank ( familiarized).
 
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nicole

Guest
i have someone that is interested in an adult one so what i was also thinking is that if after I find out which ones are male and female perhaps i can keep a baby one of that color and give them the adult. the yellow one HAS to stay.. my daughter got that one first and even named it after herself. she also got the white one for her birthday. I had someone look at them that gave them to me and he thinks that the wild one is a female and the white/yellow are both males. Again i will post clearer and closer pictures as soon as possible. This website is great!!!! and i appreciate all of your help and advice!
 
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nicole

Guest
i forgot to mention the petstore where i live has a brine shrimp hatchary so i can cheat and just buy live ones from there right?? lol
so far feeding them seems to be the part that i will have the most trouble with. i tried to make an estimate of how many eggs i now have in the 10 gallon and its still about 80 i would say. but i am doubting that all of them have made it. I have a yahoo id if that would be easier. im slightly absent minded so i am sure i will forget to post about half of the things i intend to lol.
 

Elphick

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Hi!
I've been keeping axolotls since 1979 and now I have my first eggs &#55357;&#56845; My daughter and I watched the laying last night...fascinating...exciting. Actually quite beautiful!
So you can imaging how useful I've found this, and similar, pages...thanks peeps!
Be lucky!
 
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