Axolotl babies size differences?

[lovesheraxies]

My babies I am raising are mostly all in the 2 - 2.5 inch range, some of them however are quite a bit smaller, like 1 - 1.5 inches. I've noticed that the smaller ones are either albino or golden, they are all 7 weeks old. What would cause this? I'm not overly worried, they eat like pigs and have lots of spunk, I just find it odd that a select few just don't seem to be growing much and have been this same size for weeks.

 

[lovesheraxies]

No one? I assume it's nothing to worry about then. Most of them are getting back legs now, not the little ones tho.

 

[usafaux2004]

It happens. Read the guides on here.

 

[auntiejude]

They all grow at different rates. I have 16 all hatched at the same time, the biggest is over 3" the smallest under 2". They've all been kept together, fed the same food, so there is no reason other than individual genetics and growth rates to account for the difference in size.

I did find however than 2 of my albinos grew much faster than the rest to start with, got thier legs first, discovered air first, and I can only put that down to individual variation, and possible they both have an 'early bloomer' gene!

 

[piaalexa]

Yeah we have a leucistic here that grew much faster and is about 50% larger than it's 3 other siblings - we call him/her (not sure of sex yet) the "fatso-lotl"

 

[lovesheraxies]

Thanx guys, I'm having a terrible time switching their food source to blood worm, they all swim away as if in fear of it. It's exhausting to say the least.

The weird thing is my second clutch born was all golden except 4 albino and 2 wild type. My third clutch is 80% wild and Melanoid and the rest golden. There are a few from the third clutch I believe won't make it, three are in complete u shapes, are way smaller than the rest, kinda look underdeveloped and twitch. Then there are a couple that have crooked tails or in "L" shapes but move quite a bit. They all came out of their eggs looking like this. I have them in a separate tub so I can monitor them.

 

[auntiejude]

Thanx guys, I'm having a terrible time switching their food source to blood worm, they all swim away as if in fear of it. It's exhausting to say the least.

I founf frozen is easiest to start with - chop it up with scissors so they get the 'fresh meat' smell in the water. Mine took a while to get used to it, they're now on 1/2 cube each a day!