Question: Aaahhh eggs?!?

cabbysarus

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sooo.... I woke up this morning with a TON of eggs in my tank, and they're still laying... I thought I still had time to do the research, but apparently they had other plans. Where should I start? Does anyone have any good sites that would help me raise these little things? I've already got a new tank set up to put the eggs in so they don't get eaten by the proud parents :)
 
I found the sites listed in the sticky. I've also acquired a bbs kit. Does anyone have any tips learned from general experience? How often should I feed them? The one site I found said 1-2 times a day, but when I received my little ones almost a year ago I was supposed to feed them twice a day then... should I feed the new hatchlings more often than twice a day?

When would it be safe to move the eggs? I don't want to stress out the mommas. Also, what would be the best way to cull some of the eggs? I have 3 axies laying, which means hundreds of eggs... I don't think I should start my first hatching with anywhere near that many. How many would you suggest I try to hatch? I was thinking about 10 or so.

Thank you so much for any help. :) Sorry about the massive post
 
Still laying eggs....

How long will they be laying eggs??? My girls started last night, and are still going at it. Is this normal? How long before they stop? I'm sure I have several hundred eggs by now... I'm starting to get worried for them... :errr:
 
Hey there!

You can move your eggs any time. I scooped mine out as soon as I found them! They're very goopy and flop around on anything. Use a credit card or spatula to scrape them off whatever surface they're on. The goop is very thick and protects the eggs. They're very hardy so don't worry; in real life they're tossed around river currents and jostled all the time.

You should freeze the ones you don't want - put em in a bowl and pop in the freezer. That's a humane way to dispose of them.

I would say keep 50 eggs - the rate of death is high when they're in the egg stage so you'll probably end up with 10-15 eggs that make it to larval stage.

You can feed them once - twice a day; whatever is do-able. But probably not more; the bbs dies within hours and fouls the water do you gotta do a 70% water change after every feeding. Plus, they can only consume/digest so quickly.

Give them regular light; it encourages appetite and aids in proper growth.

I would suggest raising them together in a small white dish. This way you can see their development very clearly and detect anything amiss. With a white dish you can also spot any yucky junk on the bottom. A whole tank won't be necessary til they're quite bigger! A small dish will be adequate for the first 2-3 weeks I'd say.

Some forums suggest raising them separately while others say together. I've been raising mine together and it's gone off without a hitch; supposedly it teaches them to recognize each other from food!

Also, if you spot a spermatafore in the future I would encourage ya to suck it up with a siphon to prevent future eggs. They're quite time consuming to raise! Then you have to worry about them falling into irresponsible owners who will get bored or tired of taking care; or won't provide proper care at all! :( I worry about the homes I'll find for my surprise batch.

The larvae don't need filter, heater, or bubblers. Just clean, fresh water, regular light, and daily feeding :)

Good luck!
 
Re: Still laying eggs....

Apparently they can lay thousands!! :O

Laying eggs is very taxing for mumma Lotls. Their immune system is weakened and they can become run down. Be sure to feed her lots of fat wormies to keep her health up.

You could also offer to sell eggs to other folks; classrooms or individuals sometimes look for eggs to watch grow.

Try to prevent eggies in the future :) If a Lotl lays too frequently she'll become ill and weak. She'll keep laying batches if the male keeps leaving spermatafore! So suck that junk up when you see it :p
 
Get an eye dropper to suck up the bbs when it hatches, then squirt it into your Axolotl bowl for the larvae to eat!

Keep the remaining hatched bbs in the salted water they hatched in. They can't survive in fresh water so be sure to keep them in a separate salted water. Thousands will hatch with each batch you do! With my kit I have pre-salted egg mix; one uses only a table spoon of mix per 1 litre of water. So you run them in batches like that every two days so you have a constant fresh supply.

The BBS require;
Constant bubbler
Regular, if not constant bright light
Moderately warm water
Funnel shaped container with the bubbler tube pointed directly down into the bottom of the funnel; this makes it so the eggs constantly cycle and tumble through the container, receiving air evenly.
 
Re: Still laying eggs....

but any idea when they'll stop this time?
 
Re: Still laying eggs....

One of my girls laid for a day and the other finished after three... I've heard of a week before, but I don't know if that was true. How long has she been laying for?
 
Re: Still laying eggs....

well I think I have 3 girls laying right now. might be 4... They started last night about midnight... so almost a full 24 hours. :( poor little ones... I know they have to be tired...
 
My tank is heavily planted... I figure thats why I didn't see the spermatafore before it was too late... at least they have lots to put their eggs on :) apparently they're gonna need it...
 
would doing a water change freak out my axies too much? The water is kinda nasty now and I feel bad that they have to sit in it... But I don't want to upset them and cause them more stress.
 
They're hatching ^.^ but some of them seam to be half stuck in the egg... is this normal? I was also kinda worried about them because I didn't ever see them wiggle... like ever... but apparently some of them are ok :)
 
Congratulations! You can help them the rest of the way out of the eggs if they seem to have problems. Or let nature take its course.
 
Something I thought should be mentioned is you'll need to rinse the BBS prior to putting them in with the babies. Look for the sticky at the top of this page and read about hatching them and then straining and rinsing. A glass and coffee filter like shown in the pics has always worked well for me also.
 
How are all your babies doing? Would love to see some pics!
 
This just happened to me, also! I thought we were several months from being old enough to breed, but guess they had other ideas!

My GFP wild type was the one laying - but who knows who the daddy was! I have 3 males in there. I had planned to separate them before they bred.... oops!

There's fungus on many of the eggs, so I didn't think they'd make it. But, here a week later - there are eggs forming. So, guess I'm back to doing tons of research!!
 
Valkyriemome, you might be able to tell who the Dad is when your babies start growing if he is a different colour from the mother (or if your males are all different colours) since batches usually show different colours from each parent (mine were around 60% Wild and 40% Leucy).
 
What does everyone feed hatchlings?

I've heard recommendations all over the board, but "cut up blackworms" seem to have been the most successful.

Where would I get blackworms?
 
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