Unexpected eggs

[sarah]

Wow, I'm new to these forums but thought I would share my excitement. When I woke up this morning my axolotls tank had a whole heap of eggs. Quite a surprise, I thought I had 2 males, guess not! i have removed one plant which was covered in eggs and added some more plants in as she was still laying. THere are some eggs stuck to the bottom of the tank... how do i get them out? Thanks

 

[kapo]

Try siphoning or using a turkey baster to get them out. Any you don't want to raise just leave in with the parents and they'll eat them.

Must be this lovely hot n cold spell we're having!

 

[sarah]

Does anyone know like the survival rate of the eggs and then the young?

 

[jacob]

Well, I usually get 9 out of 10 axolotl eggs to hatch (if not more), and the larvae, assuming there are no genetic defects should all survive.

 

[kaysie]

Sarah, if you want to raise the eggs, I suggest starting with 10 eggs, and leaving the rest in with the parents to be eaten. Out of 10 eggs, you'll probably get 5-8 that make it to adulthood. That's still a lot of axolotls.

Don't try to raise all of them!!

 

[kapo]

Sarah it does take a lot of time and money if you don't have access to live food (daphnia, baby brineshrimp eggs, mozzy larvae, live baby bloodworm, etc..) I'm raising 20 at the moment and they keep me busy ensuring there's enough food they're well fed, daily waterchanges (I'm sure I won't know what to do with myself once I give them up - I already have people who want these.) These 20 were from a bunch of 250 unexpected eggs from our axies. The rest I gave to a local breeder who ships round the country.

 

[victoria]

Hi I have raised eggs for the first time and...
I had 40 eggs 39 hatched and I have today 21 babies between 1.4inches and 2.4inches in size. They are all doing great! Good Luck!!

 

[sarah]

Oooh my eggs have started hatching! Yay! Can someone now please tell me, what do I feed them? I don't know where in Hamilton NZ to get daphnia or mozzie lavae, I have brine shrimp eggs which I have hatched but now don't know what to do with, i can just put them in the axie tank can I? any help would be great!

 

[kapo]

I left mine for about 2 days before moving them as they will eat any leftover yolk. After that I moved them to another container (icecream containers work well initially) and started feeding the brineshrimp. My batches of brineshrimp have been lasting a week. I. I initially used one of those removeable coffee filter baskets but holes were still a bit big, so used Cloth's (Sarah in the UK) advice and used a hanky in net as my makeshift brineshrimp net and works a treat!

As for daphnia are you on the TM auctionsite? If so there are a few fishbreeder's that ship daphnia round NZ, costs $12-$16 in total but worth it. Getting a bit cold for the old mozzy larvae now, but still manage to find a few in my flower vases inside. I've also been using a microworm culture but prefer the daphnia or brineshrimp.

 

[sarah]

Hiya, thanks for that... what exactly do i do with the hanky? I know that sounds stupid but i'm new to brine shrimp...
As for TM yeah i'm on there, couldn't find any daphnia auctions tho...

 

[kapo]

There's a few that sell it gypsy-rover, burger_flipper. The 1st one sends a huge bagful well packed, I got my last lot from her. You may need to ask them to list if they don't have any listed.

Put the hanky over a jar, and rubberband it. Suck up some hatched brineshrimp using a turkey baster, squeeze into the hanky so the brineshrimp are left in the hanky, and water in jar. Rinse the brineshrimp then place in a jar/container of dechlorinated water. When you need to feed them just suck up a little bit and add to your hatched axie larvae containers.

 

[sarah]

so the brine shrimp will live in unsalted water? I didn't know that! Thanks

will look those people up now

 

[sarah]

also, how big should the brine shrimp be before I feed them to my babies?

 

[kapo]

You can feed them straight away after rinsing. Mine have lasted up to a week in the separate jar, I make sure to collect a whole pile and keep an eye on my brineshrimp batches. Just make sure to clean your axie larvae tubs/tanks/containers daily. You'll soon get the hang of how much to feed them, their stomachs become round and orange when they've eaten.

(Message edited by kapo on April 26, 2007)