My eggs + parents

[Bellabelloo]

The eggs are now hatched, but if you look really carefully you can just see the speckled larvae.

 

[ryanhearps145]

Congratulations, how many did you end up with?

 

[Bellabelloo]

Far too many! I think I have approx 30 in one and 40 in another tray. I had been aiming to keep just 20 but had'nt appreciated how jelly like the eggs where. I was hoping to give away the rest but didn't quite succeed. . I also left some in the parents tank, I had thought they had all gone but yesterday I emptied the old into the new and found more in there..and they are looking very good too but these ones will be fending for them selves .If i have further eggs in the future it'll be unlikely that I'll keep them as it is a little time consuming! I had ment to take photo's of the larvae, but my husband went to watch his football team ( Bristol City) and thought he'd need the camera...men!!!

 

[Bellabelloo]

Rapid reduction in numbers

Since I posted earlier , I have had a disaster on the axolotl larvae front.
I put the two trays on the cooker while I cleaned the kitchen surfaces, lunch time when I turned on the grill I failed to notice that one of the top cooker rings had been turned on and one tray was cooked. One of my boys has since counted the reamaining batch and he reckons we now have 40 left. I have no idea how he managed to count them as they are like little rockets..
The cooker and I have long given up being friends, I have cooked far to many non food items now. I have now gotten into the habit of turning the electricity off at the wall but this clearly still does not work for me. I suspect what little brain I have had is rapidly disappearing..or I have my poltergiste back ( now thats another story..but he was fond of electricity).

 

[Kaysie]

That's unfortunate, but probably a blessing in disguise. 40 is still a LOT of babies.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I do agree with you, it is suprising just how time consuming it is. They are rather taking priority at the moment as they fully rely on me to clean/ feed etc them...not to mention the fretting of wether the next batch of brine shrimp is ready. I will be strongly advising people to only try raising 20 max...especially if its their first time..its a lot harder than you would think!. It has been good educationally wise how ever for the children as its covered many 'issues' from how did it happen, watching the egg developement , hatching, feeding, cleaning ..responsibility ( now thats a new one for them!) , death and so on.

 

[damien]

For me it's not really thát much work to keep it all going.. I make sure they have food a couple af times a day, I change the water once or twice a day and I make sure my brine shrimp are happy.
Am I forgetting something, or is it because I only have 10 of them now?

 

[Kaysie]

10 is a good number to raise. It's when people try to raise hundreds that it gets seriously time consuming.

 

[Jake]

Raising hundreds isn't as time consuming as some people think. It takes me about an hour and a half a day right now to keep up with around 300 juveniles and adults from 2-11 inches long. You just have to set them up so you can get everything done in an orderly fashion.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I've got legs!!

I have spent a lot of time gazing at the axollittles with the magnifying glass wondering why they weren't developing their front legs...what was I doing wrong?, I have trundled through many sections on the site and in the end decided they just weren't going to have any..I can cope with mutant axolotl's , no problem!
However , this evening I fed them the brine shrimp, plus some wrigglers and the tiny tiny worm things from the main tank as usual, then I sat there studying them (once again, I hope they don't get a complex!!) , there was too much sport celebrations going on with the male members of my household, I then spotted a leg. Now I have determined that their front legs are completly transparent , cunningly disguised ammoungst the gills I can see over half have them . I am now down to 25 as I had a water change accident and lost most of one batch. Now I need to find the next food source ..

 

[Kudos]

my young ones

Out of my first spawn there are about 30 left. They are 25 days old and not even 1.5cm yet. My newest spawn is just hatching. These ones were un intentional and I have now removed the male to prevent more young ones.
They get fed bugs out of a pond (i think they are daphnia) since no pet shop around here sells brine shrimp. Now I shall wait until my brine shrimp hatch which I got off the internet