Axolotl egg - cell differentiation

Today I made some pics of the last batch of eggs of my axolotls (yes...its breeding season again over here - comes fall, come eggs...)

With these pictures you can see that the part of laying takes some hours or even days - the eggs are more or less differentiated (all pictures from the same batch, taken in about 20 minutes):

those are great! I hope you keep posting of pics through the whole development!

Wonderful pictures..I found the developing larva fascinating,but I couldn't see it very well even with my magnifying glass so your photo's have given me far more insight on how it all goes. Thankyou.

Developmental Stage Series - Part 2

...okay, next pictures coming. I thought it might be a nice idea to cling to the developmental stage series described in the book "Developmental Biology of the Axolotl" (stage series pictured by Bordzilovskaya et al).
Unfortunately I can not edit my last message to add the information, so I will have to do it in this post:

Pictures 1 & 2: Stage 4 - 8 cells
Pictures 2 & 3: Stage 5 to 6 - 16 to 32 cells
Picture 4: Stage 7 - 64 cells

And now the new ones (unfortunately the female did not want to place the eggs the way it would be best for documentation...).

I have to guess a little bit for the different stages because there are only drawings in the book so every corrections are welcome!)

Stage 7 to 8, early blastula - 128 cells (I did not count them!):



Stage 9, Late blastula - smooth surface:



Stage 10 to 11, Early and middle gastrula - first signs of dorsal lip:



Stage 11, Middle gastrula II - Lateral lips formed, ventral lip marked by pigment accumulation:



Stage 12, Late gastrula II - Blastopore has a circular shape:



Stage 12 1/2, Late gastrula III - Blastopore is closing:



Stage 13, Early neurula I - Blastopore is narrow vertical slit (on the backside ), boundaries of neural plate outlined but neural fold not yet raised above surface:



That's it for now - I hope I will be able to get some more pics (left the eggs in the adults tank...)

...been quite busy the last weeks but finally I managed to put the whole series online. I had to combine pictures of different batches for unfortunately I had to get some sleep now and then and cell differentiation and development is quite rapid, especially in the first 4 days.

So here is a selection; if you want to have a look at the whole series, just visit my HP (so far without comments...):
Axolotl - Development

First cleavage:



...some hours later:



early Neurula:



late neurula:



post-neurula:









Wild larva vs. leucistic larva:



post-hatching-egg with emergency exit and the user of this exit



So that's it in fast forward...took them 16 days for hatching at 16 °C

Wow!

Fantastic to see how they developed ....many thanks.

absolutely fascinating....the wonder of life huh

wow that is amazing!!! i have never seen anything like it, i have bids lol

awesome pics

Really nice photos and impressive vigilance on your part. What kind of camera/lense do you use for such photos?

awesome!!! pics!!

Yeah, Daniel, how did you do that? (take those photos)

Well, thats's no big secret - I just took some photos

To be true - it took a little piece of technique (I had a Canon EOS 400D, a 60 mm macro lense and an extension tube to get closer to the objective), a cool hand and good eye for focusing (and several 100 pics...) and a lot of patience for several days.

I "invented" a little trick to prevent the eggs from getting dirty - I simply seperated them in a small tank and put a cover (some foil) over it to prevent any dust to get into the tank.

The cell differentiation is even visible with bare eyes - just take a closer look!

They are totally cool.

Yeah I agree, those are the best pictures I have seen. Great job.

I wish I could figure out my extension tube... For some reason, I just can't make it work. I really would have liked to photographed this when mine were developing. It's SO cool watching them develop!

Daniel, those are very impressive pictures. When my Cp eggs were developing I was trying to remember the names of the embryonic stages I was seeing (blastula, gastrula, etc) but was too lazy to get out my old biology texts. So thanks for having them so clearly labeled! Great photo series.
Heather

That was quite amazing. Very nice pictures.

Thanks for all the nice comments!

To those of you who are interested in the "more biological" part of the development (apart from the mere photographs), I put a page on with the description of the developmental stages - I even did it in english, just for you!
Here is the link to the english version:
http://www.ambystoma.de/html/axolotl/axolotl_development.html

edit: As I am no biologist but just a hobby-amphibionist and not a native english-speaker, any comment, hint or correction via e-mail or PN is highly appreciated!

Kaysie, what type of camera and extension tube do you use?

Excellent pictures and thread!
This should be sticky-ed as a reference for breeding axies thread, very useful, and amazing!