fertile? albino?

[Dinozzo]

4 days ago my golden albino axolotl laid eggs. Its been 4 days but they havnt changed and some have collasped. They are all white and they are her first eggs. Im not sure if they are fertile or not. Can some one please help me? The male was white with black spots and black eyes if that helps.

 

[kapo]

Have they collapsed or look fuzzy looking or are they starting to take a sort of bean shape. See: www.axolotl.org/embryo_series.htm as this may give you an idea if they are infertile or not (the embryo photos show albino eggs developing).

I know albino eggs are white, unlike the wildtype (dark or black axie) and leucistic (white with black eyes/spots) eggs which are half dark and half white.

How many eggs did she lay? If she only laid a few, she may have more eggs in a few days or weeks.

 

[Daniel]

After 4 days fertile eggs should have changed in shape. At least they should have straighten and flattened like on this picture:

If they collapse (meaning the inside lookes smashed and murky) they may not be fertilized as you already said. I have seen this on some first batches of young females (independent of color) - maybe some kind of inexperience to allocate the sperm.

On the other hand sometimes (but rather seldom) some Axolotls do not fit together (also independent of color as far as I know) meaning there is a high rate of unfertilized eggs or dying embryos. I do not know the reason for this but I suppose some genetic incompatibility.

As for your eggs: Just have a look on them, maybe some of them will develop. And if not, give the Axolotls some time, I am sure that there will be another batch.

 

[Dinozzo]

she laid heaps of them! they are every where maybe about 200 - 300? about 2-5 have started to go a little bit oval shaped but no as much as in the pictures. the rest are still perfectly round or fuzzy and mulched on the inside. they have a grey stripe on some of the too like in the axolotl . org pictures. thans for replying

 

[kapo]

The fuzzy ones won't develop, that's fungus inside the egg. Remove them if you can.

Whereabouts do you have the eggs - in the original tank with the parents or have you moved them?

Some may develop faster than others, depends on the temperature where you living. Our so called warmer weather still hasn't arrived so our temps are about 18C on a good day dropping to 7C in the evening. They will develop faster if your temperature is warmer.

How many do you intend raising to keep (as it's your first time - if you intend keeping them) I'd suggest keeping about 20-30 to raise.

 

[Dinozzo]

I have removed about 20 eggs and the rest are in with parents. about half the ones i removed have gone murky so im going to take them out an put some others in. Im not sure how to get rid of the rest of the eggs though. I talked to my local pet shop and they have said they will buy all the ones that I sell. They are also going to get me some Daphia from Rotorua.

 

[kapo]

You can leave the remaining eggs in with the parents (they'll eat them) or sell them locally or even post them (people are willing to pay for them and the cost of shipping).

Ask the petshop if they sell brineshrimp eggs to hatch in the meantime so you can set up a hatchery (you can make one out of softdrink bottles - see: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml).

Invest in a turkey baster or two if you don't already have one, they are handy little cleaners especially for picking up and transferring larvae, etc...

I'm raising 40 axolotl larvae at the moment, but so far only using daphnia, mosquito larvae and tiny live bloodworm, as we have plenty available. I do have brineshrimp eggs as a backup though.

 

[Dinozzo]

Ya! I think most of them are fertile because they are starting to look like thin crossonts and every now and again their tails move! they are now 6 days old. Thanks for all you help!