Axolotl Eggs and water condition question

[Robroy]

I am expecting some Axolotl eggs from a breeder this week and had a few questions that I could not seem to find answers to.

Are Axolotl eggs sensitive to PH and if so what PH should the eggs be kept at?

If the water from my tap is to high could I use vinegar to lower it while dechlorinating?

Is it best to use Dechlorinated tap, R.O., distilled, Spring or water from an established fish tank?
(note: My Axolotl tank that the Axolotls will be transferred to when old enough is still in the cycling process so the water would have to come from one of my loach or eel or shrimp tanks and I'm not sure what residual medications might still be present)

R.O., Distilled and spring water I can get, but I know some people do not to use R.O. water for other aquariums due to its super pure properties.

Also how often do you guys do water changes in the egg/larvae tank? I will be using a 10 gal with only a few inches of water and feeding only live daphnia and brine untill they are ready for worms.

Thank you in advance all for your info and sorry if I over looked answers to these questions in previous posts or blogs.

 

[melfly]

Hi
I have recently had to learn all this stuff too!
I have some month and half old babie axies.

I kept my eggs in little tupperware containers split up into batches of 7 or so

I changed the water 100% every few days and every day once hatched.

I use tap water with dechlorintor in it (stress coat)

my babies are fed on brine shrimp and are growing well. I have them in containers still (larger ones now) so that food is concentrated and i can keep a close eye on them.

Hope this helps
Mel

 

[Robroy]

Thanks! I was just going to ask about water changes. I have had some hatch now (about 5 of the 77 eggs) and I tested the ammonia in the tank and its 0.50 ppm A little high for my taste, so I am doing a water change now. I am using a 20 gal extra long, about the size of 2-10 gal side by side. I may switch to rubbermade tubs soon though just to knock back any sibling consumption. :lick:
I will get some pics posted as soon as I track down my memory car reader.

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi,

Just thought i shall attach some links for you to have a read through.

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

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

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

Cheers.

 

[Robroy]

Thanks for the links. The two I have read already, but that spring water one is a great addition to my bookmarks. Its nice that they listed the PH of the water types. Saves me the hassle of buffering.

More of my eggs hatched last night, I now have about a dozen.

 

[melfly]

in my experience so far (not very long) mine have not yet started nipping at each other so i wouldn't be too worried about those problems just yet.
Mine have only just started getting their front legs.
I make sure they are well fed and have had no cannibalism yet.
Some are getting bigger than the others and i will be seperating them into sizes soon.

Its so much fun watching them grow.
Good luck
Mel

 

[Robroy]

OK, this has to be by far the cutest thing I have ever seen. All of but a few of my axolotls have hatched. Along with my first batch of brine shrimp. I just took a small portion of baby brine filtered it and added the shrimp to the tank. Instantly my larvae started, as best as I can describe it, "jump feeding". I'm sure you all know what I am talking about. I have read about it, but until now have never witnessed it in person. I could sit here for hours and watch my lil guys who are only 1/2" long jump almost their height every time they gulp up one of these tiny shrimp. And at last I can get some sleep knowing that all 70+ of my lil babies have been fed.

 

[cherryscented]

in my experience so far (not very long) mine have not yet started nipping at each other so i wouldn't be too worried about those problems just yet.
Mine have only just started getting their front legs.
I make sure they are well fed and have had no cannibalism yet.
Some are getting bigger than the others and i will be seperating them into sizes soon.

Hi Mel, was just wondering how old yours are? Its just I wanted to know what age the front legs start appearing. thanks x

 

[Robroy]

From what I have read ,and I am by far no expert, size and body development is based more off of how well fed they are and may also be effected by slightly higher water temperature. The more food they have available and the quality of food they get speeds up their growth. Its a double edged sword though with water quality. If you overfeed and pollute the water you may end up killing your lil guys too. I have been told that they grow fast if you feed them Daphnia. Mine are fed Daphnia, baby Brine Shrimp and micro worms right now. As they get bigger, along with my Daphnia colony, I am going to ween them off of the micro worms as those seem to weigh heavily on the water quality. Brine shrimp also seem to die off relitivily quick in cool freash water, there for if you over feed with them it will taint the water also. Daphnia live in a wide emperature range so they will stay in the tank untill eaten. They still exert some bioload on the tank, but no where near as much as decaying BBS or microworms. Wish I could tell you an ballpark age for the legs, but this is my first batch of Axolotls. I know I did not answer your question directly, but thats my spin on it from what I have read. Someone with more rearing experience may be able to give you a ballpark range of the age they start to develope legs.

On A side note. All of my Axolotls are doing very well. They all eat like pigs and are very active. I really wish I could find my camera cable so I could share some pics with you guys. I have gone to several stores to buy a new one, but the USB cable seems to be a Kodak spacific cable and none sells it. I may have to get a memory card reader and seperate charging cable.

 

[Darkmaverick]

Hi Cherryscented,

This link might be useful for you. It shows you the limb staging process.

http://www.ambystoma.org/AGSC/limbstaging.htm

Cheers.

 

[cherryscented]

The more food they have available and the quality of food they get speeds up their growth. Its a double edged sword though with water quality. If you overfeed and pollute the water you may end up killing your lil guys too. I have been told that they grow fast if you feed them Daphnia. Mine are fed Daphnia, baby Brine Shrimp and micro worms right now. As they get bigger, along with my Daphnia colony, I am going to ween them off of the micro worms as those seem to weigh heavily on the water quality. Brine shrimp also seem to die off relitivily quick in cool freash water, there for if you over feed with them it will taint the water also. Daphnia live in a wide emperature range so they will stay in the tank untill eaten. They still exert some bioload on the tank, but no where near as much as decaying BBS or microworms.

I had a problem with brine shrimp before,as i didnt know how to transfer them from the hatchery without getting some salt water in their aswell. I dont know whether this was what killed my 2 weeks old axies. Since then someone told me coffee filters are fine enough to do this, as I was using a pipett before.
This time round I'm going to try feed them off Daphnia, as i have read they have a higher nutritional value than brine shrimp and thats why they grow quicker. No salt water worry either!

Hope yours are doing well :happy:

 

[Robroy]

Mine are doing great. I use a turkey baster to draw baby brine from the nursery. I then run the water through a brine shrimp net then rinse them with some dechlorinated water. i keep about 50 gallons around at all times,in a 50 gal rolling rubeermaid, for various water changes. Then I invert the net (they are stuck to it) and dip the net in a glass of declorinated water. I use that glass to portion off how many brine I want to feed. I have noticed if you overfeed baby brine even rinsed it pollute the water quickly so I only feed a small amount of them and allways before my water change. Daphnia are much better in nutients from what I read and my axies love them. They are also easier to keep and live in the water until eaten so they are perfect. They also breed like crazy so if you order a colony of them and split it in two 5 gal buckets afew weeks before your eggs hatch you will proably never run out. I just recently picked up a couple 50 gal plastic drums (type people make rafts out of). I am cutting off the tops of them and using them for Daphnia colonies in my basement. Once I get them going I will share the love with everyone on Caudata.org.

 

[melfly]

Hi Mel, was just wondering how old yours are? Its just I wanted to know what age the front legs start appearing. thanks x

Hi
Mine are about 6 weeks from first hatching, they all have their front legs now.
One is a monster i have nicknamed Jaws he/she seems to be a bit of a bully at the moment!

I have them split into 5 in one container 6 in another.

I fed them live bloodworms today for the first time and they loved em.
Some look full to busting!

Mel

 

[melfly]

With regards to getting to the shrimp

I pour them from the 2 litre pop bottle they hatch in into a bowl then pour this into a jug ready to pour back into the bottle.

about half way thru pouring into the jug you see a big orange cloud which i pippette and check whilst in the pipette (to check i've got plenty of swimmers - and not many eggs/shells)
I squirt this from the pipette into a little container of dechlorinated water to rinse off the salt water then suck up and feed.

probably not the easiest way but it works for me lol

Mel

 

[Robroy]

Mefly, is the Pop bottle upside down with the bottom cut off? I use a pop bottle with the neck cut off with rocks in the base then another bottle with the bottom cut off (lid still on) shoved in the first one witch works as a weighted stand. then I have a airline tube with a airstone at the bottome of the neck. This way the eggs will all keep moving like a lava lamp. When I get ready to take some brine I turn off the air and all the eggs float to the top. I then shine a flashlight at the bottom of the bottle. THis makes all the brine go to it. You can then see the cloud of baby brine closest to the light. Thats where I draw the water from with my turkey baster. You can then use a brine shrimp net over the bottle to squirt the turkey baster into. That way you wont lose any brine water. Then you can rinse the brine off with dechlor water, in the net, and poof you have all brine no eggs and no salt. The whole process only takes about 4 min. Also another reason I use weighted stands is because I have several of them in a 20 gal tank with about 8" of water in it and a submergable heater, that way I can maintain my brine at the right temp. This is prolly overkill for most, but my fish room is in the basement so the heater is a must for me. I think most people just have a light on the brine colony at all times because the heat/light from it makes them hatch in 24 hours instead of the 2 days at room temp. Hope this helps and saves you a lil time in your daily routine. I would post a pic of it, but I just broke the tank down and started feeding strictly Daphnia this morning.

 

[melfly]

Hi there, sorry for the late reply. I missed this.

No my pop bottle is just a regular pop bottle (no messing about me lol).

Just pop bottle with air feed.

Works great!!
When I want some I tip em in a bowl pippette off the orange clouds, rinse off (in dechlorinated water) and give them to the babies.

Mel