Different way to hatch eggs

[axowattyl]

With all the eggs I have at the moment, I'm getting ready to move them.

I have a couple of those "fry cages", the small rectangular frames with mesh net around them and suction cups to stick them to the sides of the aquarium.

Would there be a problem with putting all my eggs into one of them?

They'd be in the same water they were laid in, and they'd have fresh aerated water circulating all around them continuously.

Obviously my axolotls think the water is good enough for their eggs.

I realize I'd have to put them in a separate tank once they hatched, so as to keep the food close to them, but what about during the incubation period?

When they hatched I could use a little shrimp net to transfer them to the fry tank, leaving the unhatched eggs in the cage.

Just a thought...

 

[Dunny]

I would say you could but shouldn't. From my understandings the aireated water could hurt the babies. They would do best in calm water with minimal movement, if it is your only option then do what you have to. But they would be much better off in a smaller container that you can controll all the variables such as lighting. Water movement.water temp. And water purity/quality. From most of the posts I have seen. A mass majority of the people with eggs place them in a very shallow fish tank. A very clean food grade plastic container, or a plastic drawer set you can get at a local store for almost nothing. Small containers are easy to keep clean, to easily check all the parameters. And easy to transfer the babies from one to another. Seeing as you are looking to keep them in a container later after hatching. Why not go ahead and place them in one now with water from the tank. Save yourself the hassle of trying to catch them from one net with a second.

 

[axowattyl]

I would say you could but shouldn't. From my understandings the aireated water could hurt the babies. They would do best in calm water with minimal movement, if it is your only option then do what you have to. But they would be much better off in a smaller container that you can controll all the variables such as lighting. Water movement.water temp. And water purity/quality. From most of the posts I have seen. A mass majority of the people with eggs place them in a very shallow fish tank. A very clean food grade plastic container, or a plastic drawer set you can get at a local store for almost nothing. Small containers are easy to keep clean, to easily check all the parameters. And easy to transfer the babies from one to another. Seeing as you are looking to keep them in a container later after hatching. Why not go ahead and place them in one now with water from the tank. Save yourself the hassle of trying to catch them from one net with a second.

Actually my way isn't that new, it seems that a few people do it that way already.

My water isn't heavily aerated or running fast, as that's a bad thing in an axolotl tank.

The reason that I'm doing it this way is that my water is very nicely cycled and is the water the mother chose to lay in.

The mesh cage is allowing fresh water to gently circulate around the eggs, which seem to be developing very uniformly at 4 days in.

It's also much easier than setting up another tub, etc, as I'm focusing heavily on live food cultures at the moment.

Catching them won't be an issue.

But yes, I will get the hatched fry into a shallow tanks as soon as they are born, so I can concentrate their access to live food. Also so as to separate the bigger/smaller to minimize cannibalism.

Even then I'll do daily changes using the water from my big tanks, as I really trust the cycle and quality in there.

 

[Bette]

You could try it, but it sounds like it may be troublesome. I was keeping eggs for about a week or so in a fry saver, but ended up moving them to a shallow container. I did this because I remembered that when I had guppy fry in that thing, some actually ended up falling thru the bottom slats.
Also, I was concerned about water purity because I've also noticed that the water can get pretty yucky in the fry savers, as the slats don't really let the water flow very well. I also knew that I would need to move them anyway, being that the live food I feed the larvae would fall thru the slats.
So, you would be okay to keep just eggs in there for a time(as long as there is sufficient space around the eggs, and they aren't piled on top of each other), but I wouldn't try to have any hatch in the fry saver.

 

[axowattyl]

You could try it, but it sounds like it may be troublesome. I was keeping eggs for about a week or so in a fry saver, but ended up moving them to a shallow container. I did this because I remembered that when I had guppy fry in that thing, some actually ended up falling thru the bottom slats.
Also, I was concerned about water purity because I've also noticed that the water can get pretty yucky in the fry savers, as the slats don't really let the water flow very well. I also knew that I would need to move them anyway, being that the live food I feed the larvae would fall thru the slats.
So, you would be okay to keep just eggs in there for a time(as long as there is sufficient space around the eggs, and they aren't piled on top of each other), but I wouldn't try to have any hatch in the fry saver.

It's not one of those kind of fry savers.

It's just the plastic frame with a mesh net around it, same material as a scoop net.

Water flows freely through it.

 

[Bette]

Oh thats right, you did say it was mesh! Good then, that's alot better.

 

[axowattyl]

Oh thats right, you did say it was mesh! Good then, that's alot better.

I'm sure both ways are just as good.

I have large tanks, so this way is simple for me. If I only had a 30-40 gallon tank the cage would take up too much room.

When I was a kid we used to raise the eggs of huge green frogs on our farm (which looked just like axy eggs) in all manner of jars/buckets/chinese food containers, you name it.

Once they start to hatch I'll get into more intensive care.

 

[Bette]

I'm sure both ways are just as good.

I have large tanks, so this way is simple for me. If I only had a 30-40 gallon tank the cage would take up too much room.

When I was a kid we used to raise the eggs of huge green frogs on our farm (which looked just like axy eggs) in all manner of jars/buckets/chinese food containers, you name it.

Once they start to hatch I'll get into more intensive care.

Cool. Now what did you feed the frog hatchlings? Is their diet more vegetation based?

 

[axowattyl]

We used to give them goldfish flakes and leaves from our peach tree.

They used to grow into quite large tadpoles, over an inch long.

No happy ending for them though, I used to feed them to an enormous albino axolotl I had back then, who really enjoyed them.

 

[Bette]

We used to give them goldfish flakes and leaves from our peach tree.

They used to grow into quite large tadpoles, over an inch long.

Boy, if only axolotl larva were that easy to feed, huh? Fish food and leaves!

 

[axowattyl]

Boy, if only axolotl larva were that easy to feed, huh? Fish food and leaves!

Tell me about it!

I'm just packing the quad bikes with my sons right now to go to a remote little waterhole on our farm, in the hope we're going to find it full of daphnia for us to start our culture at home.

Then there's the BBS and microworms I'm already doing.

Bloody fickle these axolotls...