My larvae dont have legs yet, should I be worried?

[ThomT]

Hi all,

First time posting here.

I recently hatched 50 eggs from our pair of axolotls about a month ago (I work at a school and our Biology department wanted a pair, also going to donate some to friends and colleagues if enough survive), but I'm a little concerned as none of them have developed legs. They've definitely grown (about 2.5cm or so now) and are eating and swimming, but I was expecting them to have developed at least the front legs by now - is this normal?

 

[Chak]

Hi all,

First time posting here.

I recently hatched 50 eggs from our pair of axolotls about a month ago (I work at a school and our Biology department wanted a pair, also going to donate some to friends and colleagues if enough survive), but I'm a little concerned as none of them have developed legs. They've definitely grown (about 2.5cm or so now) and are eating and swimming, but I was expecting them to have developed at least the front legs by now - is this normal?

Ello! Can we see photos of them?

 

[axie owner]

they should have started growing their front legs after about one week. and their back legs within about 2-3 weeks.
it is very strange that they haven't grown yet. if you got the parents from a breeder ask them how long it took for them to grow their legs. it could be a genetic malfunction. are they imbred babies. what is their diet?

 

[JM29]

Could be a developmental problem, but all the 50 babies from a couple of normal parents ... I seriously doubt.

If the gills are very well developed, then the fore legs (very thin when young) could be confused with them.

At 2,5 cm long, they can begin with cannibalistic trends (especially in case of overcrowding but I don't know anything of your setup). Then most of then would lack legs but a few of them could still have them.


I suggest you to try to observe them by their side. If you see the head lying on the floor of the tank, then they really lack fore limbs.
Otherwise if you see their head frankly above the floor, then they probably have something to sustain the head (no balancers in this species and other of this group)

 

[ThomT]

Hi all,

Thanks for your help!

I've attached a couple of pictures, I didn't do this on the first post because (as you can see) my phone camera is pretty low quality so I'm not sure how helpful they'll be.


Diet: daphnia, so many daphnia. They eat the juveniles at about as quick of a rate as my colony of daphnia can reproduce - I've set up a second colony so I can feed them from each on a rotation.

Set-up: they're in 3s in c1 litre of water, I also have a few in very small 100ml tubs for a few days at a time if they look like they're not eating, then after a few days, when I can see they've eaten, I move them back to the more spacious tubs. I've not observed any cannibalism, and think they've got enough room not to get in each other's way much, but obviously I'm not there 24/7 so maybe.

Hereditary issues: my fiancée got our pair from an aquarium, given that we only found out they weren't both males when one laid eggs, I wouldn't rule out them being siblings.