Baby Axolotls not growing

[kiwigurl]

Hi Can someone please give me a little advise. We had 11 axolotl eggs hatch (three didnt make it) but they are now over one month old and seem to have stopped growing. We feed them live Daphnia (which they seem to be enjoying) no sign of legs as of yet. Is this normal?? They are only about 1cm long, but all the reading I have done state they should be well on there way by now. Any suggests would be great. Thanks.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Goodmorning to you,
My larvae seemed to stop growing a bit ( but having said that they hatched very fast and then where very active straight away, so they probably needed a rest!). Our temps had been quite high into the middle 20's, but its now cooled a lot and they have slowed down a bit . I have just moved them into a slightly warmer place and they are picking up again.

 

[kapo]

I've moved this thread to the Eggs, Larvae and breeding section.

That can be quite normal and our temperatures are pretty nippy at the moment. Some of our larvae flourished at first as it was still warm weather, earlier in the year, then as it got cooler about half really lagged behind the others in growth/size, a few even taking a month and a half before developing their legs compared to the faster growing ones.

 

[kiwigurl]

Should I move them to a warmer place? another 2 have died over night, how often should I change the water? Thanks soooo much for the help.

 

[kapo]

You should try and change their water daily, dependant on what they are in.

Are they in an icecream type container or tank, if tank what size, what substrate and how often do you clean/spot clean? If you don't already have one pick up a couple of turkey basters from the $2 blue shop they're handy or sucking up muck, and even larvae when you need to separate or transfer them.

I kept ours in 2litre icecream containers, filled 3/4 with dechlorinated water, fed them twice a day with baby brineshrimp and changed water twice daily.

When I stopped feeding them bbs and started feeding them just mosquito larvae, live bloodworm and daphnia, I changed the water once a day.

Some of the larvae that were small/slower developing or floating, I separated out into individual margarine containers to ensure they were getting fed enough.

 

[kiwigurl]

Ive just spent a bit of time reading other peoples messages throught the site, this has all been such good help. Im glad I only started with 11 eggs, any more than this would have been a huge mistake (especially for the wee ones) I have started changing the water daily and moved them to a warmer spot in the house and make sure they have plenty to eat. No more losses, so hopefully the last 6 will live to tell the tail.