Photo: Golden Albino x Wild eggs developmental progress

[Sassafras]

To my great surprise this morning when I went to feed the babes, I found their first ever cluster of eggs! Thanks mom for laying them over every plant in your tank! Sure makes moving them easier! Haha... not.

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to post pictures of a few of them growing each day.
This is also my first time rearing eggs, so let me know if you have any concerns that I should be aware of.

Mom (Normandy) is a 7" wild type and dad (Peut-Etre) is an 8" Golden Albino, both a bit over a year old. I'm hoping for a good variety of baby types, but what should I really be expecting?

 

[auntiejude]

Do you know what the parents of your axies are? If so it may be possible to make an educated guess.
If not there is no way to tell what the babies will be, but I would say some if not lots of wildtypes - probably aroynd 50%+.

How many are you intending to raise?

 

[Sassafras]

Do you know what the parents of your axies are? If so it may be possible to make an educated guess.
If not there is no way to tell what the babies will be, but I would say some if not lots of wildtypes - probably aroynd 50%+.

How many are you intending to raise?

I'm not sure what the parents are. I bought the two not intending to ever put them together but they just ended up doing really well. So I never asked the gal I bought them from about parents.

Also, I read about culling eggs but I'm not sure how many to cull or how to pick the ones to cull. So I'm not sure. But I know I have to make the decision in 5 days.

 

[auntiejude]

By day 3 or 4 there will be a subtle shape change, from round to slightly flattened. Keep as many of those as you want to raise - if you're just doing it for the experience I'd suggest a dozen or 20 or so - and sell or freeze the rest.

As for what type the babies will be, its going to be a case of wait and see!

 

[Sassafras]

Day two: no major changes in the majority of the eggs, but you can see one starting to flatten!

 

[Sassafras]

Day 3: More egg flattening! One egg I've been monitoring, only because it was whiter than the others, has shaped up the most out of the whole group! It's reminding me now of a year ago when the parents were just babes they grow up so fast. There's a picture of the eggs and a happy little Nori and a happy big Nori roud:

 

[Sassafras]

Day 4: I culled 65 of the dud eggs and it feels like I hardly made a dent in the population, so I'm going to go for an official count later today. The majority are developing like champions!

 

[Sassafras]

Day 7: they're beginning to move sporadically, which according to the Embryo Photo Log on axolotl.org, is a couple days ahead of schedule, correct? If so I'm anticipating the approximate hatching days to be between May 1-4.

I've also counted them. 582 total, 74 dud or deceased, 508 growing and living.

Attached is also a picture of what will be the hatchery. I'll be putting the third middle tier back in once they hatch so I can separate them by size when the time comes, but I wanted to get some feedback on the system thus far.

 

[lQdALPHA]

Wow firstly congrats.
Also how exciting
please keep updating!

 

[Sassafras]

I'm anticipating to see some hatching tomorrow

 

[HannahMarie]

Those little guys are growing fast!
I think that hatchery set up is completely GENIUS! I may have to copy that idea, I'm all about vertical storage in my little apartment Let me know how it goes! Always love getting to know more Washington axie lovers!

 

[zeet]

JUST A QUICK QUESTION, WHEN DID YOU NOTICE THE BABIES MOVING INSIDE THE EGG. MINE ARE LIKE TINNY LITTLE C SHAPES AND OTHERS ARE STILL ROUND, DO THEY MOVE BEFORE HATCHING OUT.