Didn't know axolotls celebrated Valetines Day...

[psychoboyjack]

...because when I looked at my tank today I saw a bunch of eggs everywhere! I've been doing a quick read on everything so I think I'm going to be prepared for them, I just have to acquire the live food to feed them.

Though a nagging question in my head is are all the eggs fertilized? Unless I missed a paragraph somewhere I don't know what colour they should be - right now they're all dark brown/black and there's an odd white one or a white and dark one. Are these all duds, or all potential pets?!

I'm absolutely terrified I'm going to kill them all. But I know that if it does happen it won't be the end of the world. Since I got my guys I could have sworn they were both the same gender!

Gah.

More to follow as I kill/raise them.

 

[ferret_corner]

hahaha you must have had the sweet music on.

Congrats and keep us updated.

What color are the parents, the eggs will reflect that.

 

[psychoboyjack]

From what I can tell they're both considered 'white'. So. Yay?

I'd love to get some of those darker ones. They look awesome too.

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi psychojack,

There resources will be useful in your preparation. Congratulations.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml

http://www.axolotl.org/breeding.htm

http://www.axolotl.org/rearing.htm

Regards.

 

[psychoboyjack]

Thanks for the links! I did luckily read them all over already but I'm still rereading every one of them to make sure I didn't miss anything.

To date I've managed to get some things done in the meantime, I hope I'm not missing anything major.

- Separated the two adults, since they were still making more eggs after I removed the huge one already. Does anyone know how long they should be separated for?!
- I got a brine shrimp hatchery, I'm thinking I'm going to need two of them to make sure. I can't find any daphnia kits here - should I order one online or just stick with the brine shrimp if I'm making sure their tank is always clear?
- Hatchery tank is all good, sponge filter, heater (to keep it constant and at about 20, since without it the room dips to 17 or so at night.)

Anything else I'm missing?! I have this feeling they're all going to die regardless of what I do. I wouldn't mind to just keep one or two of them around! I have no idea what I should do with them if they do all grow up... :|

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi psychoboyjack,

Excellent homework done! Actually you got it right on the dot. Actually its much easier to take better care of a smaller number of larvae than trying to raise them all. I know some people choose to let the adults eat up some of the eggs and only raise a proportion of the eggs to larvae. Furthermore, raising all the larvae would require a lot of space and you have to think of how to rehome them once they get big enough. A large fraction of larvae will also die off from your initial number of eggs.

All your work preparation looks excellent. The problem with microfoods is that even though they are all called microfood, some of them are actually larger than others and i believe at the different stages of axolotl development, some types are more readily and easily consumed than others. Ideally i think having a daphnia kit on standby would be a good precaution. When the larvae get older you can also try bloodworms etc.

Separating the adults from the eggs is to prevent them eating them. Separating the adults from the adults is to prevent them from producing more. As long as you don't want either of them happening, you would just have to leave them separated/ or use a tank divider.

Cheers.

 

[psychoboyjack]

It's been two weeks and I've managed to get their numbers down to 11. But they're still in their jelly. The water temperature has been constant at 22 and I can see them moving around occasionally inside and they look very thin in there. Should I be breaking them out or just let them break out themselves? I'm worried they're gonna die in there or something else bad.

This is the best shot I could get of a couple of them. I really need a macro lens!

 

[psychoboyjack]

Nevermind. First one hatched.

 

[blueberlin]

haha congratulations!

And now the fun begins. :happy:

-Eva

 

[Hotrod Vampire]

Are you willing to sell/ship some of your eggs/ little buddies :happy:

 

[psychoboyjack]

The FUN!? I, again, didn't have the live food ready for them. I'm going to try every damn alternative I read on this forum until the shrimp hatch and I can feed them that. Ugh!

---

I could be persuaded too, I don't think it's too terribly hard to ship them. Let's just see if I can raise them first, aye? If all that fails I'll remove the divider and get my adults to do the horizontal monster mash, ??? you have eggs.

 

[blueberlin]

tee hee - yep - fun, isn't it?

I wish you and the wee ones all the best.

-.Eva