Female's First Breeding

[HannahMarie]

So I have two batches of larvae that I am raising now. One is from a well established breeding pair and the other is from a new female that I do not believe has laid eggs before. The established pair's eggs formed well and the babies are growing rapidly. The other group however is having lots of problems. They are much smaller and are dropping like flies. I expected the latter group to have lower survival but not to this extent.

More info on the new breeders: The male has been trying to breed since I got him (as in laying spermatophores). He even tried when there weren't any females in the tank. I made sure to fatten up the female in her own tank before adding her to the male's tank. Then, the same day I put them together, I caught them dancing and found eggs.

So my questions are: Is super low survival (10%) normal for a first hatch? Or could it be specific to this female/male? I am treating each group exactly the same. Same containers, density, food, water changes, temperature, everything. The other batch has 98% survival so it is a pretty big difference. Thanks for any info!

 

[auntiejude]

It could be any number of things - but I'd say genetics may have something to do with it. Have you examined any of the babies for deformities?

I can understand a first batch having a few issues but not a 10% survival rate. Maybe next time try a different male t rule out genetics.

 

[HannahMarie]

They all seemed pretty normal just like smaller versions of the healthy ones. It was about two deaths every day since they hatched not like huge dieoffs or anything. I did give away some of the eggs so I might contact the other person to see how theirs are doing. I was considering breeding the same pair in winter when the temperature is more reasonable to give them the best chance. But I might also try other male-female combos to weed out the problem. Thanks for the suggestion! I don't plan on breeding anytime soon though since I have 60+ babies to keep me occupied

 

[layna]

My Axies just had their first babies, during development lots of the eggs started to turn into crescent shapes then just stopped and started to go white, a lot of the babies came out of their eggs far too early and just immediatly died and of the 28 that hatched, 16 died in the first day and im now (around two weeks after hatching) down to two little babies
very very bad survival rate

 

[xxianxx]

First batches of eggs can often be duds or have poor mortality rates. This is applicable to many amphibian species.

 

[HannahMarie]

Yeah. I fear they may have been pretty premature because of the heat.

 

[layna]

I think my axies were too premature (hatching at 7-8 days) and had very high mortality rates, loads of the eggs were duds and didnt even hatch, two weeks later any that did hatch have died