Death of a mutated newtlet

[benjamin]

Well one of my newtlets died today

. Upon close investigation I found the animal was very different from its siblings. It lacked eyes and a mouth and had a large transparent lump attached to the side of its head. It also was smaller, had smaller gills, and was more vertically flattened than its siblings

. I have a few questions about it:
1. Could it have hatched prematurely or was it just very mutated?
2. How many defective larvae should one expect, what percentage?
3. Could be infected and contagious?
4. Could it have something to do with the mineral content of the water?

I know this is only one death but I'm still very upset and wondering what could be wrong, if anything besides bad genes.

 

[danny]

Sorry to hear about your first death, that's one of the main reasons I'm not sure ready to start breeding my newts. Any death I would take personally

But in the end, you just have to work through it and give the remaining members of the family the best care possible! I think it was just a bad gene. Not every human born is 100% perfect. You had about a hundred eggs? One in a hundred mutated is a very good statistic. Just focus on the raising the rest and the ones that grow up will be even more special.

 

[joseph]

I wouldn't say that 1-100 mutated is good. It probably was a mutant or some kind of fluke...and since you said it didn't have a mouth it wouldn't have made it anyway.

If its any of the others you mentioned I think many more larva would show the "symptoms"

 

[kim]

Humm, I know the hatchling I have at the moment aren't Fire bellys, but I have just had a batch of 100 axie eggs given to me, they have been hatching over the past 3-4 days, and I have noticed 4 strage ones so far.

They are exactly the same as Ben discribes his...

Any ideas?

 

[william]

Kim if I were you I would remove them from the rest in case its an infection it could e spread to the rest of the healthy ones.

 

[kim]

yeah i have done William,

I'm very impressed as ive just got a very good photo of one for you to see...

Im also going to put this picture some where else so it gets seen a bit more

 

[william]

Doesn't that one have eyes though? Wow that lump is huge.

 

[benjamin]

The position, size and colour of the lump was different from yours. In my mutant the sac was relatively detached from its body, it was not as large as your mutant's lumps, it was clearer, and protruded from the side of the head just under the animals miniature gills. Luckily as the rest of my 167 eggs hatch I have yet to find another defective larvae.

How did you photograph the larvae? I'm having difficulty.