Success rate with eggs?

[sezzabearz]

For anyone that has raised axolotls from eggs, I was wondering what your success rate was in terms of how many survived?
I got my first ever (already fully grown) axolotl in about July last year and then a friend gave me another fully grown one in August. By early September I suddenly had over a hundred eggs milling about in the tank with them! So I did my research and decided to give it a go and look after them and it was a lot of fun and very educational!

Out of those 150 or so I ended up with about 30 that made it until now. That might sound pretty shocking to think that so many died, but I think I did okay considering I was thrown into the deep end and just had to research on the internet like crazy and assume I was doing the right thing.
I was just wondering if in comparison to others the amount I was left with sounds about right or if I did something terribly wrong and that I should in fact have close to 100 with me now instead of 30!

Anyway, I've more or less housed them all, only have a couple left that are looking for a home but I'm sure someone will snap them up soon.

I am interested to hear your stories! :happy:

 

[j3nny]

when I had lotls a few years back they had eggs and I had about 150ish I think I lost 5 in the first few days (think they must have been weak/difformed) the rest survived.

as I wanted to be an axy mom again I decided to get some eggs and rear them. I brought 20 and 3 months later I still have 20 growing nicely about 6cm long now

 

[bayhicoach]

I think the biggest mistake that people make with these animals is trying to raise large numbers of larvae in situations that don't allow them to get proper nutrition. My first experience with raising eggs was exciting. I kept the eggs in separate containers and made sure that each larva got proper food and clean water conditions. I didn't lose any larva which created a problem since I over bought eggs thinking I wouldn't have this type of success.

It makes sense that a larger body of water would be more stable, but it's difficult to make sure each larva gets enough food.

Now that the animals I kept have reached maturity and are producing their own young, I am still keeping the larva in small containers (no more than two in each dish) to make sure they can eat as much as they want. It might be tempting to experiment with a batch in a larger group type of setting to see what results I can achieve.

 

[Rhandi Claxton]

Our axies laid eggs for the first time in January, they started to hatch around Feb 14th. There ended up being just over 200 eggs. I took the parents out of the tank until all the eggs hatched. I would say probably 40 of the larvae were not formed correctly. I used daphnia with micro worm culture. to feed them. I scooped them out of the tank as they hatched and put 6-8 into small plastic containers. I did not expect a high survival rate since it was the first time for this pair. I sent 8 babies to the high school for rearing, which they still have. I have already given away 8 to their new homes, and now have a ten gallon tank with 14 in it a twenty gallon tank with about 30 in it, two big tubs with about 50 in them and several smaller containers with individuals in them..So a total of about 140 that have made it. Two of the babies are 'crooked' when their back legs started to come in they seem to be bent there. So I separated them and we call them Bentley and Benz.. Not sure if they will live, or straighten out, but we will keep them and hope they do well. I still have 4 that are very small, but they continue to eat so we shall see what happens with them. They are all eating frozen blood worms now, and its like a feeding frenzy every time I drop a few cubes in the tank. I do full water changes every day for the ones that are not in tanks, and partial once a week for the ones in the tanks. So far so good.:wacko: