R.I.P.

[vanessa]

okay, so everything was going fine with my 31 larvae before i went to school, ive been feeding them plenty of food, and changed their water before i left. i come home to a bunch of axies with their tails and gills all curled up and half of them are dead! some of them are still alive but are in a bad way, i separated these from the dead ones. some looked like fungus was growing on them which wasnt there this morning. i really dont understand what i have done wrong because i gave them daily feeds and water changes. i read in the egg development that they are eating when they jump up, i never noticed any of my axies doing that when i fed them, i just assumed that they were too small to see them eating so maybe they starved even though i gave them plenty of food. could anyone tell me why they would have died and what i did wrong. i was thinking maybe one of them died during the day and because i was at school i didnt know and it fouled up the water too much.i dont know. what makes this even worse is that these eggs werent mine to begin with so it feels like ive killed someone elses axies

 

[claire]

you shouldn't feel bad for the larvae dying. these things happen and sometimes there is no explanation to why it does happen. i cant remember if you have said this but have you tried to raise axolotls yourself? if not then just put it down to experience. ive tried to raise 2 batches of eggs and haven't managed to keep all of them alive. ive managed to keep a couple from each batch. im hoping to have better look next time.lol.

 

[belinda]

I know how you feel!
Yesterday i did a water change and feed my babies, then a couple hours later they all went belly up :-( (except about 8)

I know how frustrating it is when you put so much effort in and you are really careful.

I also found that very soon after they died they started to get the white fluffy fungus on them.

Don't worry you did your best, without you none would have even had a chance at surviving.

 

[anne-marie]

Because baby axies are so small you can't really tell if there's anything physically wrong. Out of 500, I only had 120 make it to juvenile-hood and I've been told that's a good success rate. So by starting off with only a few larvae, your cutting your odds of survivors way down. This is one of the things that happens with baby axies. It's a learning experience, Vanessa.

And Claire's right. Before my last lot, I have before tried to raise 2 batches of eggs during the 10 or so years I've had axies without any of these surviving. It seems that a few practice runs are necessary before you really know what you're doing in this game.