Moving Blog

I have finally got around to setting up a web page about axolol's called www.axolotlinfo.co.uk/ and I have moved this blog to its new home at https://axolotlinfo.co.uk/how-to-hatch-and-raise-axolotls/

From now on this new site will be updated and I will no longer maintain this blog as there is no point maintaining 2 blogs with the same content.

Babies getting really big

The babies are getting really big now and are eating lots of baby brine shrimp and also daphnia.

I think that they are now between 4&5cm long. No sign of rear legs yet but they are looking way more axolotlie than tadpole like now.

Did a water change today

Did the first water change on the babies tank today. I was amazed how much they have grown again!

It turned out that that tub I have to put the babies in while I change their water is exactly the right size to fit the width of the tank.

You can tell how much bigger the babies are getting as they actually show up in photos now 😂

Babies living the tank

The babies seem to be really happy in their new tank and the new location on my bedside cabinet.

I am really enjoying the tank being on my bedside cabinet too a I can chill and watch them whenever I want.

I am going to do water changes every other day due to the amount of water in the tank and also to give the babies time to eat all the daphnia as well.

Moved the babies

I was washing out an old aquarium this morning and decided that I am going to move the babies into it.

I only put a couple of inches of water in there and intend to carry on with the daily water changes so the aquarium is basically an expensive tub at the moment but it is much easier to see the babies and keep an eye on them.

The babies are really growing still the largest ones are around 5cms now. 

I have now found that the tank is too tall to be able to feed the babies so I am going to move them into my bedroom so that the tank is accessable for feeding.

It also means that I can enjoy them more as I am in my bedroom a lot more than the kitchen where they are at the moment.

Babies eating daphnia

I found out yesterday that the daphnia that I had put in a couple of tubs last month and forgot about in the garden have been thriving.

We took the lid off of the tub yesterday and there were thousands of daphnia in there. I decided to try the babies on them and they loved eating them.

I have done a water change again today and given them more daphnia and also baby brine shrimp and the babies are darting around the tub like no-ones business.

Babies have front legs

I did the water change with the babies today and noticed that they all have front legs fully developed except for one of the babies.

I did the last water change 2 days ago and didn't really notice the legs at all so they have grown really quickly!

Babies growing well

Not much has changed since the last update appart from daily water changes and feeding 2-3 times a day.

The babies are growing nicely. The larges ones are 2.5 to 3 cm long now and the smallest one is about 2cm.

I have had to renew the first hatchery today as well as it has pretty much dried up and the second one is in full production at the moment.

The 2 hatcherys are producing plenty of baby brine shrimp for the 5 babies to eat really well and their bellies are always full and pink which is idea.

Second Hatchery running out.

Checked the Baby Brine Shrimp Hatery's this morning and the second one has pretty much stopped producing.

Luckily the first one that I re-setup last week is now in full production so it is time to re-setup the second one again.

Babies still growing

The babies keep on growing on a daily basis which is a great sign.

They are already getting too big to fit in the turkey baster easily and in the next few days I think they will be too big and I will need to start using the modified turkey baster that I cur a couple of cm off if the tip to make the opening bigger.

Babies growing well

The babies are growing well and eating enough as they all have pink bellies 😁

I also got around to refilling the first hatchery that I used as it has stopped producing and the second one is in full production at the moment. 

Babies doing really well

The babies are doing really well. They have grown noticeably and are very easy to see now.

The second hatchery is starting to produce loads of baby brine shrimp now so I am going to clean out the first one and refill it so that when the second one slows down the first one will be producing again.

Moved the babies

Had to move the babies from the shelves they were on into the kitchen as I have taken the shelves down to free up space on the lounge.

The babies seem to have doubled in size again over night.

Babies growing nicely

Checked on the babies yesterday and they are all growing nicely.

Lost a baby

I checked the babies this morning and unfortunately one of them has died. So I now have 5 healthy growing babies.

Baby brine shrimp hatchery in full production

Checked the hatchery today and the basket is full so it seems to have kicked off nicely

I fed the babies and I will leave them a couple of hours and then move them into the other tub and change the water in the current tub.

I am also going to start the second hatchery off tonight so that it should be in full production once the current one slows down.

I am resting the daphnia culture for a few days as it has been depleted alot over the last week.

Last baby born

The last baby was born yesterday and moved into the tub with its siblings.

I have cleaned out the tub that the eggs were in and put clean water in it to get to room temperature ready for a water change.

The Hobby hatchery started working last night so the babies are eating and growing nicely.

One more baby born

When I checked on the eggs this morning another baby had hatched.

This leaves one more to hatch.

I have moved the hatched baby into the tub with its siblings to keep them all together.

The babies that hatched yesterday have grown a lot compared to the newly hatched baby which is a good sign.

I have checked on the hatchery and there are not any hatched baby brine shrimp yet.

First babies born

Checked the egg this morning and we officially have 3 babies 🎉

I am just getting a seperate container ready to move them to.

I have setup the new tub and put some daphnia in the tub and moved the babies across to the new tub. When moving them it turned out that there are actually 4 hatched not 3.

The babies will feed off of their egg sacks so there should be enough time to hatch the baby brine shrimp before the babies are hungry.

I have filled the Hobby Baby Brine Shrimp hatchery to the water level with boiling water do disinfect the hatchery.

I am now waiting for the water to cool to about 90 degrees and I will then finish setting the hatchery up and add the baby brine shrimp to the hatchery.

Can see eyes now

Had a look at the eggs today and the eyes are now visible.

 

Embryos looking more like axolotls now

Took a look at he eggs this morning and they are looking more like axolotls now than they were yesterday. Especially as they pretty much looked like beans yesterday:

This Morning

Yesterday

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Eggs changed again

The eggs have changed again today. They have flattened out so they look more like sausages than beans now:

Eggs opening up more

The eggs are beaning more again today which is a great sign:

I am happy with their progress so far but the temperature of the water keeps hovering around 18 degrees so the development may be a bit slower.

Preparation for hatching

Until the eggs hatch there really isn't much to do with them so I have been making sure that I have everything ready for their arrival. Although they are starting to bean nicely which is a good sign:

Today I have cleaned my hobby artemia breeders (I will call this the hobby from now on) that I bought after xmas from amazon to hatch baby brine shrimp (from now on called BBS). They haven't had any use for a couple of months as my juvenile axolotls are now eating blood worms and starting to eat chopped up worms so they are too big for baby brine shrimp.

This is what the inside of the hobby looks like:

It looks like this when it is closed:

The hobby works by filling with salt water and then sprinkling eggs in the outer ring. Once the lid is on the only source of light is in the middle of the hobby so the newly hatched BBS are attracted to the light and swim under the dividers to the center. The unhatched eggs and shells are kept in the outer ring by the dividers.

The hobby has a the following basket in it that is used to remove the BBS to feed to the axolotls:

The basket has a fine netting in the bottom so the water runs through leaving only the BBS which makes this method really easy to collect the BBS for feeding.

A downside of it is that the BBS are only collected in small amounts at one time and they take between 2 days to about a week to get to the center for collection.

This is why I have 2 of the hobby's so that I can stagger them so that when one is producing a lot of BBS the other is just being set up and will be at peak production when the other one is slowing down.

I found this method worked really well for me but I only used them for a small number of axolotls (10) so it was fine.

I found that the hobby also had virtually no smell compared to the fizzy drink method that I will explain tomorrow when I set one up.

Another advantage of the Hobby is that it does not require an artificial light source or an air pump so it is silent and uses no energy.

My new Eggs arrived today

My new eggs that I will use to create the content for this blog arrived this morning.

I bought 5 eggs for £6.99 + £2.99 postage which is more expensive than most eggs that come in batches of 15-30 eggs for the same price but I only wanted a small number of eggs as I already have a lot of axolotls so I didn't want too many more axolotls to find homes for once they are fully grown.

The seller says that the eggs were laid on 14/02. They arrived in a sealed sachet stuck down to one side of a letter sized cardboard box.

I cleaned an old 2.5 litre tub that I used for my last batch of eggs and half filled it with new decloranized water that had been sitting over night (I have 40 litres in buckets sitting every night for water changes) and poured the contents of the sachet into it.

I then put an electric thermometer into the water and put the tub in my bedroom as it is the warmest room in the house.

The water temperature is currently 18 degrees C which is a little on the low side. According to axolotl.org the water should be between 20-25 degrees C for the eggs to hatch quickly:

"Keeping the eggs at a warm temperature (to an absolute maximum of 25 °C /77 °F) will cause the eggs to hatch sooner (generally in less than 14 days), whilst a lower temperature (such as 18 °C / 64 °F) will result in them taking perhaps more than 20 days."

That means that at the current temperature my eggs should hatch around 05/03/2020 hopefully the water will get above 20 degrees soon so they should hatch before then.