# Other Animals > Other Amphibians >  Raising Axolotls

## Jen

Eggs laid Sunday Feb 5th 2012 (Superbowl Sunday for the USA members)

Wildtype mom and Golden Albino dad.

5th day of development - - 


10th day of development - - 


today, 13th day, I have eight hatchlings


1 day old axolotl hatchlings - YouTube

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## Jen

Day 2 of hatching, we now have 69 hatched axolotls and more we are waiting on!
Day 2 of hatching - now 69 babies - YouTube

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## Jen

Day 3 of hatching, we now have 147 hatched axolotls.  Still a few more left to go
Day 3 of hatching axolotls - YouTube

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## KingCam

Congratulations!!  I will have a few baby axolotls soon myself  :Big Grin:   (Mine all appear to be albino)

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## Jen

There are definite wildtypes in there...but a large portion are a faded tan color with clear eyes. Will be interested to see if they are golden albinos or albinos

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## KingCam

> There are definite wildtypes in there...but a large portion are a faded tan color with clear eyes. Will be interested to see if they are golden albinos or albinos


 I will be interested to see, as well.  All of my (brother's) babies are still in the egg and completely white.

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## Jen

You'd be surprised!   For example, if the mother was albino/golden albino and the father is a wildtype, all of the eggs will look white but you will get a fair share of wildtype babies once they hatch

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## KingCam

> You'd be surprised!   For example, if the mother was albino/golden albino and the father is a wildtype, all of the eggs will look white but you will get a fair share of wildtype babies once they hatch


No kidding??  Now I'm even more excited for them to hatch :P

What are you going to feed yours?  I purchased some starter cultures for live food.  I got grindal worms, vinegar eels, and daphnia.  I also have some brine shrimp eggs as back up.

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## Jen

I have been feeding primarily BBS, and I supplement feedings with a mixture of boiled egg yolk and liquidated bloodworms that I sometimes pour a few drops in while they are feeding on BBS. 

The egg/worm mixture actually helped me with 2 albinos I am also raising when I had a bad batch of BBS eggs.  They lived well off of it for nearly 5 days until I could get a decent batch going.  The albinos are now forming their front legs and doing well

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## KingCam

> and I supplement feedings with a mixture of boiled egg yolk and liquidated bloodworms that I sometimes pour a few drops in while they are feeding on BBS. 
> 
> The egg/worm mixture actually helped me with 2 albinos I am also raising when I had a bad batch of BBS eggs.  They lived well off of it for nearly 5 days until I could get a decent batch going.  The albinos are now forming their front legs and doing well


 That's good information to know!!  Thanks for that helpful tip

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## Jen

Update post  :Smile: 

So this morning I separated wildtypes from goldens...by hand!  Also got a closer look at a lot of the babies and discovered a few albinos and leucistics in the bunch! 
None of the leucistics were caught by my camera (realized this as I was uploading the photos)
First photo is wildtypes, second is golden albinos and albinos



And I have had to separate Butters from Reese because he got her again...I just scooped more eggs out of the plants in the tank.   Naughty little lotls!  
But in all seriousness, she needs a break and I don't want her to become ill so Butters is going to be spending time in a bachelor pad for the next few weeks.

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## Jen

Heartbroken to post this....

Something must have gone wrong between water changes/feedings yesterday while dividing up the babies...


All the wildtypes died.   I am devastated.   I wish I knew what was the cause of 60+ deaths.

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## Tony

Just noticed this thread. Exciting to be raising all these guys I bet. Sorry to hear about losses though.

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## Jen

Thanks.  It definitely is different than raising ACF!   My tank room looks like a mad scientist's with all of the bubbling brine shrimp hatcheries.

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## Niels D

Lucky for you that you spreaded the larvae by putting them in diffirent containers. I assume the others are doing well, because it looks like you're doing a very good job!

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## Tony

> Thanks.  It definitely is different than raising ACF!   My tank room looks like a mad scientist's with all of the bubbling brine shrimp hatcheries.


A tank room sounds great. My wife swears after the newt ordeal of 2000-2002 and the recent clownfish invasion of 2008/2009 I will never be allowed "a bunch of tanks" again. lol. We are moving this spring to a larger house so perhaps a tank room is in the works.

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## Jen

Right now it is in one of the main floor "bedrooms"....in a few years when we have kids this will be moved to one of the basement rooms.    

Right now there is the 72 gallon bow front tank, the 36 gallon bow front tank, four 30 gallon tubs, four 10 gallon tanks, one 7 gallon tank, two 3 gallon tanks, and a bunch of small 1/2 gallon kritter keepers.    It's a bit crazy and I will be doing a bunch of tank sorting in the next few weeks before my husband kills me!

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## Jen

Batch#1 - - From January 10th.  Eggs bought online.
The two albinos are doing well.   Waddling around on front arms, eating chopped up frozen bloodworms.




Batch#2 -  From Feb 5th.
Eating BBS - - watch for their little "jumps" as they go after the tiny shrimp floating by
Little Lotls eating Brine Shrimp. - YouTube

A few of them are *just* starting to bud their little arms....can't be picked up by the camera but the naked eye can see if it stares long enough where your eyes threaten to tear up and leave you cross-eyed.





Batch#3 From Feb 25th. They should be hatching soon!

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## Jen

Batch#2 has been cleared out!   Lots of great new homes popped up.  I will save a couple of hatchlings from the next batch to photograph their development. 

Batch#1 is doing good.  I ended up separating them due to the difference in size.  There is a quite a bit of difference in their sizes and I wanted to be able to monitor the smaller siblings food intake

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