# Axolotl Spawn Chat and Tips



## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

Thought I would make a thread in here for anyone who has Axolotl spawn weather you bought it from the classifieds recently or have some at home yourself or experience keeping it,

thought instead of clogging up the classifieds original thread with chat and help we could do it here, 

at first i was worried that mine may die as my last ones seemed to melt away and the new ones are the same colour as they were, and i have been told they turn grey when they die so i couldn't tell, 

new ones are doing fab according to this guide Axolotls - Embryo Photo Logand every now and then one of them flickers like its dreaming (i know its not dreaming)

how are everyone Else's doing?


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

I got some a week or so ago for the first time. They have pretty much all hatched over the last 2 days and look pretty good. I ordered a load of daphnia and have put it in with them, seems to be plenty of baby daphnia in amongst the big ones so hoping they will start feeding as soon as they are ready. Was advised to split them up into groups just incase anything goes wrong, that way i wont loose the lot. seems like good advice. good luck!


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

I was thinking for doing the same thing with mine once they start to hatch place them in small groups in separate tanks only problem i think is knowing when it will be safe to start moving them


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

i woke up this morning and the eggs have gone all furry, the axolotls are still flickering about in there so i know there not dead, gonna do a water change in a min when i got for a brew, 

how are everyone else's doing?


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

A few of mine went furry but the majority still hatched, would be a bit worried if too many were furry though. Moved some of mine to another container 24 hours after hatching with a small fine net, all still doing fine.


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

cool i would be over joyed if just one of them hatched and survived


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## dodgy (Sep 15, 2009)

hi gemificus
did you condition the water before you put the spawn in, like the day before at least?
i got some from the same person n loads of mine hatched already!
have you got some sort of filtration goin or an air stone?
if you can try and remove the furry 1's but dont throw them, stick em in a tub with fresh conditioned water, they might still hatch.
if you have any that is still round or looks like a flat round splat these can be chucked, as they are deffo dead.
try n keep em at 75f/76f, little bit warmer than adult 1's are kept.
good luck.


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

i set up and conditioned the hatching tank on the Monday and got the spawn on the Tuesday, i have in it a small air powered sponge filter i use theses for all my breeding tanks, temperature is at room temp so slightly over 20 degrees c, 

I'm a little worried about one of them it looks almost fully forms and is twitching around like it's having a really bad dream (i know its not dreaming) it's in one egg with 2 other that i haven't seen move i fear they may be dead will they kill that one too?

i will start conditioning a sep tub now


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

got mine on tuesday. Set them up in a tank with a filter and a heater as the tank is in the cold cellar, just set the heater on the lowest setting of 20.c I have counted ruffly 18 that are growing well! I can now see there gills developing.

Going to order some daphnia but bought some brine shrimp eggs which im hoping to hatch to feed them.


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## GemzD26 (Sep 22, 2009)

Hey Guys,

Just wondering did all the eggs hatch then?

How they doing?

Ive never had eggs before but may in the future,just wanted o get any info so i will know if they are easy to maintain or not!

Thanks : victory:


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

well, so much for splitting them up incase there is a problem! the ones i moved to another container all got a fungal infection and died...rubbish. all the ones i left in the tank they hatched in are fine. think the pot i put the dead lot in was too small a body of water. at least ive still got the other lot.


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## GemzD26 (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi,

Aww thats a shame sorry to hear that!!!

So how many have you got left now??? :2thumb:


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

I split pretty much ever egg separate, the triplet who was dreaming has turned the same colour as the other two i think its pegged it, 

i have 3 possibly 4 that look like they are still alive one of them in particular is quite active inside the egg but each of them are sharing eggs with dead siblings so I'm hoping they start to hatch reasonably soon to prevent them dying as each egg is split into a diff container there is no risk of contamination so I'm going to leave them all just in case of some miracle,


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

Yay!!! two of my lil guys hatched thru the night, trick now is to keep them alive hehehe, there are 3 eggs that i cannot say are 100% percent dead all fingers and toes crossed,

how long before i need to feed them, the pet shop round here that sells live food has non in until Tuesday will they be OK until then? i have only tubifex in at the mo but those will be too big won't they can you chop tubifex?

any tips on moving the live babies into a diff tub without stressing them out?


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## Pimperella (Sep 26, 2006)

All mine seemed Grey when I got them. None have changed or moved in anyway and I assuming they were all already dead. I had a few that where twin and triplet eggs and only one had looked to have developed in each each, the others beening splattered blobs.
Looks like mine died before they even got to me to be honest.


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

i originally thought that about mine tbh but they have surprised me maybe hold out for just a couple more days, i actually thought the first one that hatched last night was dead cos seemed to change slightly came to bed and it was swimming around, so i removed the twin that doesn't look 100% dead compared to how that one looked so i have popped twin in egg in separate container, the one that i found had hatched this morning that one was also a twin but that was def dead so i removed that soon as i could


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

mines havent hatched yet, but on count I have what looks like 18 formed with gills etc. and 4 that are round blobs that are going furry. not going to seperated them as they are all in 1 mass. when they all hatch i will remove them. they dont need to eat for a few days I read as the absorb the yolk and will remain in the tank floor till they do so, once they start swimming I think they feed.


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## GemzD26 (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi guys,

See below link think it might give you some help with your babies : victory:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/why_larvae_die.shtml


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

1 of my babies have hatch! 17 more to go, proberly hatch tonite!


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## Fuzzball (May 16, 2007)

im not too sure what mine are doing either, the eggs are furry-ish but were like that when they arrived, but they seem to be developing, they actually look like little axolotl now will gills etc, but I cant seem them moving at all, ive stared and stared at them and nothing!! My brother has successfully raised some though so gonna get him to have a look at them


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

Hi all, after my initial problem with one set getting a fungal problem, the other set are all doing brilliantly, started eating small daphnia after 48 hours and have more than doubled in size in the 3 days since then, they had a growth spurt in the last 24 hours and have eaten all the big daphnia too! better get some more tomorrow! Think i have about 25.


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

1 more has hatched lol. they all seem to be ready to hatch any hour though.


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

my two got fed last night it was great watching them chase the daphnia round and catch it but unfortunately upon waking this morning we lost one of our babies and now i just have the 1 left any tips on housing him until he is bigger and keeping him alive


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## sami (Oct 23, 2006)

I used live brine shrimp when mine were tiny, and daphnia when they were a bit bigger. 

The best advice I was given when I was raising mine was to set up a daphnia culture.. A small tank, with rainwater in it... Loads of packs of live daphnia, and leave it alone until the babies are big enough to eat it.. Then hopefully there's enough being produced in there to feed them! 

They need a pretty much constant food supply! 

Now i'm thinking about it again, I miss my axolotls!  I might have to get some spawn next year and start all over again. Was going to buy some interesting coloured young ones from PRAS, but the guy was gone when I went back


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

i have a daphnia culture setup and i use a syringe and suck out the very tiny ones it dose take a while but i don't want to feed them more than they can chew, i can sit for house sucking up tiny daphina cos i have 3 breeding tanks on the go all with small fry in them and all of them eat those tiny specs, 

at the moment my axolotl is in a container inside a 1ft by 6 inch tank, i split all the eggs into similar containers inside this tank, i know they tank will be big enough for the axolotl once it grows a little until it is a few inches in size and ready to move into the 2ft tank 

just looking for tips on how big it should be before i move it into the bigger space and any tips on keeping it going until then, 

thinking of moving it into the kitchen where it is a little cooler at night and easier to do water changes daily


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

I have ordered live daphnia how long does it take for them to breed?

Some brine shrimp have hatched, hopefully most will hatch tomorrow for me feeding them!


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## Fuzzball (May 16, 2007)

we have had 6 hatch so far, not sure how many more as the remaining ones all seem at different stages of development


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## Fuzzball (May 16, 2007)

How are everybody else's axolotl doing?

We had all of them hatch, the last popped out yesterday so we now have 21 babies happily eating live Daphnia for the time being. Our LFS is ordering me some different types of food in for them.


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## adamntitch (Jun 17, 2007)

only some of mine have hatched did have more but my live food never turned up on time so lost them luckly the other lot of live turned up this morning so there mostly all feeding now got a few i dont think will live tho

theres a good seller on ebay i got my live food from he will send you small daphnia or the bigger stuff if you ask


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## Gemificus (Jan 26, 2007)

my little guys doing great, he get daily water changes and food and hes growing bigger and bigger, waiting for a new camera i ordered soon as i get it I'll take pics of it, thinking of moving him into a 1ft by 6inch tank so he can start to grow as big as he needs


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

I have 15 that have hatched all feeding well on brine shrimp and daphnia. 3 left to hatch 1 looks dead though, the others wiggling around in the egg. have all of them im a large plastic tub, with a filter on in the cellar with the light on during the day.
They have black eyes and are clear while the top of there backs are dark. Are these leucistics? thought they were just white?


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## GemzD26 (Sep 22, 2009)

Hi,

No lecustics can have spots of black in them its all down to their genetics.

Some of my babies have light black spots,a lot of lecustics can have "dirty faces" whare their faces are covered in black spots.

So its pretty normal for them to have spots. :welcome:


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## shiftylou (Apr 27, 2008)

I see! well that will explain it then lol. mines are all gulping down the daphnia 1 getting on well!


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## amy90 (May 5, 2009)

hi guys, have been looking into getting some eggs, just wondering where you got yours from? thanks amy


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## mrsslithers (Aug 31, 2009)

*move*

do axolotls in the egg move then?


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## marcuswinner1 (Sep 24, 2009)

Im down to seven now but they all seem fine, started getting a fungal prob again but seems to stop if i use a mild dose of anti fungal treatment for fish. they are getting bigger so hopefully i will get a few to survive without anymore probs. getting through lots of daphnia though as my sharp ribbed newt eggs hatched this week too! thought the newly hatched axies were small, these things are tiny!!


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