Help! Time to clean up dead eggs and larvae!

[ChezaBelle]

First time with eggs and axolotls in general!

What is the most effective method for removing dead babies and eggs that did not develop from the tank?

I need to clean out the eggs especially. I am having a hard time determining which larvae are dead and which ones aren't. I am not seeing very much movement at all.

 

[Kaysie]

Turkey baster!

In fact, get a couple. You'll use them for all sorts of things: cleaning up poop, delivering food, etc.

 

[Gemmy]

Dead ones usually look a bit fuzzy, like theres some kind of mold growing on them. It depends what stage they are at whether they'll move or not, and even then they won't always react to things so that's not a realiable way to see which are and aren't alive, plus poking them all the time could be stressful.

 

[Niels D]

You can also use a straw. Keep your thumb on one end and point the other one under water just above the object you want to suck up and remove your thumb less than a second if possible. The water shoots in the straw together with the target object (if it fits) and if your thumb gets back on the other end the water remains in the straw (capillary action) until you remove your thumb again.

 

[ClaireNZ]

I'm not an expert here - it's my first time with babies and now they are 10 days old. I did an ammonia check this morning and it was really high so knew I had to get clean water in there fast and get the dead ones out.
I don't have a turkey baster but decided to catch the living ones - if you stir the tank they start swimming. I scooped up my 5 swimmers and put them aside, then siphoned most of the yuck water out and refilled it with clean water from the adults' tank, then put the babies back in.
I'm feeding them on microworms (well I hope so - I bought a culture but I can't see them), and have daphnia ready for when they are big enough.

 

[ChezaBelle]

Thank you all for the helpful info! :happy: I have only lost two of my babies so far and it was easy to tell since there was white fluff around them. This leaves me with around 25. I'm new to amphibians in general, but studying every day.

My plans are to separate them into individual containers when they are ready to start eating blackworms. This way each of my students can have one to care for in class with daily feeding and water changes.

The larvae are currently 10 days old, give or take a day considering some were already hatched in shipment and others hatched a day or so after arrival. From the information I have, they should be ready for blackworms this week. Is this true from your experience? When do you start feeding blackworms?