Separating babies to prevent nipping

[Lora Cottom]

I am a high school science teacher and I keep seven axolotls in my classroom of various colors. Recently I was surprised with a batch of eggs. When I decided to raise them, I was not aware of the bad success rate of first spawnings. Of the eggs laid, approximately one-third hatched, and the larvae are now over 2 weeks old. I am feeding them baby brine shrimp and doing a total water change with dechlorinated water daily.


I am losing a couple of larvae every day and my concern is that they are biting each other.

When should I separate the larvae to prevent this? I am trying to keep in mind that the whole batch may die for no reason because it is a first spawning. However, my students are getting really into the process of raising these babies, and will take the loss of them very hard. Any help or comments would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[melfly]

Hi Lora.

If the babies are only a few weeks old i suspect that it has nothing to do with them nipping each other yet.
They wont start that til about 5-6 weeks.

I think that its just the fact that they are 1st spawn and are weak.

My first spawn seemed to go fine for the first 2-3 weeks then they all started dying one by one. They were eating well and looking fine and all of a sudden they just deteriorated. I managed to keep one. (the one in my avatar actually)

If you dont already have them split up into groups I would do this, just in case its anything else causing the problems.
It sounds like you are doing everything you should.

Fingers crossed you get some that survive.

Mel

 

[Lora Cottom]

Thanks so much. If I had known that first spawns were so weak, I might not have kept them. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I get some survivors.