# Other Animals > Other Amphibians >  Axolotl eggs!!!

## Shanny

I'm so excited! I was just looking around on craigslist for fun, and came across a post of a guy trying to get rid of his Axi eggs. His female laid about 200 of them around his tank and he was not prepared. So for $5 bucks, I got about two dozen eggs, which is awesome because I couldn't find anyone who owned axolotls in minnesota back when I had to mail order my two now adults in from Pensacola, Florida. Which by the way I was hoping to get a male and female but I'm pretty positive that I have two males.
So I took out my spare tank and set it up before I left to go pick up the eggs.


I'm going to have so much fun rearing little Axi's and I'm planning on keeping at least one, if not two of the little guys for myself. The others I will be selling to locals, just because I don't like the idea of shipping them in the mail because I've never done it myself.
So after I picked them up, I went to a local shop to buy some brine shrimp eggs, so that when day 20 (hopefully a lil sooner) comes around, I have lots of live food for them.

Just thought I'd share with my frog loving friends!  :Smile: 
Hope you enjoy. 
I will be posting more pics of progress as the eggs grow and develop/hatch.

----------


## koyuchan

I've been searching for people who sell their axolotl egg or even give away for free , Lucky you  :Smile: 
Hope they will hatch and grow safely !

----------


## Shanny

You should put a wanted add on craigslist. I was just tooling around on craigslist in the pets section when I found these  :Smile: 
It's only about day 4 for these eggs and at least 3 of them are already taking that "bean" shape
Here's a crappy pic, sorry bout the quality it's all I have...



I have two adults that I got shipped to me overnight from this college guy out in Pensacola, Florida. I found Him on YouTube his name is glowingaxolotls. All you do is email him to see what he currently has. Mine were about 3 inches long when I got 
them. And from what I remember he was the cheapest I could find too, mine were $25 and $30, then I paid for shipping. 
I had contacted one other person before I found this guy, and the other guy was a jerk and his axolotls were more expensive. He wouldn't answer half of my questions when I emailed him. But you should check out glowingaxolotls on YouTube, he was super friendly and helpful and worked with me very closely on what day worked best for shipping, I even talked to him on the phone before I bought the axolotls.

----------


## koyuchan

wow thanks shanny for the information  :Smile:  

I've emailed him, hope he will respond but hey, it's new year's eve, guess I must wait until holiday's over :P

Thank you again , shanny, I did go to craiglist and all I saw is just offers to take care of pets during holiday, lol.

----------


## Shanny

Cool  :Smile:  yeah I hope he can hook u up too!

Today is now days 5 and all the eggs are in that bean shape if not past it. It also looks as though I may have 3-4 unfertilized eggs..  :Frown:  hopefully they are just slower to develop than the rest.



Yeah the CL thing is a hit or miss with what your looking for.. I usually look on there every couple of days just for the heck of it, I just got lucky I guess.

----------


## koyuchan

aww those are so cute, I can't wait to see how the babies look like  :Smile: 
yeah, still no reply until now D: It's new year holiday anyway, by any chance, Happy New Year to you  :Smile:

----------


## Shanny

Yeah I suppose, maybe he is out of town for holidays. Thanks, I cannot wait to see what there colors will be either!
Happy new year to you as well! :-)


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926764,-93.081262

----------


## Heather

Awesome!  :Smile:

----------


## Shanny

Ok, so today will be one week since eggs were laid! And this morning while I was checking water temps I witnesses two lil embryos flick there bodies inside there lil eggs, I know I may sound like such a nerd but it made me even more excited to see that they are starting to move. It makes you realize more that they aren't just boring lil eggs anymore, that they actually are alive and thriving!
I didn't take a pick of them today just yet because, to the naked eye (or my crappy camera phone) they look the same as day five. But if you look closer you can actually start seeing there heads take more shape. It's truly amazing  :Smile: 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926664,-93.081277

----------


## Heather

That is so cool!  :Big Grin: 

Not silly at all  :Smile: . Quite amazing to watch life begin and grow really  :Smile: .

----------


## Shanny

Here, I put a dark piece of paper under the tank so that my pics turn out a little better and it worked. You can see the lil white embryos better against a solid color now.

Day 7....



---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926789,-93.081160

----------


## Heather

Much easier to see  :Smile:

----------


## Shanny

Oh I know right haha
I did a test run of hatching baby brine shrimp just to make sure I had it down before hungry mouths appear, and it worked out great! I was very surprised being this is my first go at raising axi eggs and hatching my own baby food.
Since I don't have baby axi's yet, I fed the bbs to my small tetras, they loved it and were going crazy after them


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926766,-93.081098

----------


## Heather

Awesome! Any idea of how long they take to hatch?

----------


## Shanny

The axolotls take anywhere from about 14 to 20 days to hatch, on average. It all depends on water temperature. People say you can keep then in unheated water or up to 77F, I have a small heater in with mine and an airstone to circulate water around eggs, my water temp ranges from 64-68F. That temp is probably a perfect medium, I didn't want to leave eggs at room temp just because it's cold where I live right now and my adult axolotl tank stays at 60F now. I'm hoping they hatch around or before day 20, they have been doing quite a bit of movement especially in the mornings, it's exciting to watch.

----------


## Heather

Very interesting. Do you have pictures of your adults?

----------


## Shanny

This is them the day I got them in the mail..

This is Lilo as a baby..

This is Mowgli, he doesn't like the camera as much haha...

all of these pics are at least a couple months old, this is when they lived in a 20 gallon. 












This is a bad pic but this is why Mowgli isn't that good at swimming.. He has 2toes on each front foot that are fused together and he has what looks like a third arm growing under his left arm. And his chest area is almost see through you can kind of see his organs....



I just moved these two into a 29gallon, but my mom and little brother said they want a tank and two of these babies when they're old enough. So I found a nice 45 gallon on CL for only $100 that I'm going to keep for my axolotls and give my family my 29 gallon  :Smile: 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926765,-93.081097

----------


## Heather

Awe!  :Smile:  They're sooo cute!!!  :Smile:

----------


## koyuchan

they are adorable !! <3
the person that you suggest from youtube hasn't replied me  :Frown:

----------


## Shanny

Aww :Frown:  really? That sucks, maybe he's gotten busy with school or something or he could be just raising eggs at this time because tis the season haha


So, as of this morning, for the first time I can clearly see which larvae are albino and which are melaniod!  :Smile:  it's so cool, I got even more excited once I looked at them closer. Maybe il be able to get a pic later, but I doubt it'll be that good of quality.
It's so cute, u can already see there lil gills and the little black eyes, it looks to be that a little more than half of them are albino... Ahh I'm so happy that It looks as though I have a nice mix of colors so far.
As of today, which is day 10, I have counted 5 unfertilized eggs. So I have 19 growing babies! 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926670,-93.081260

----------


## Shanny

You know another place you could probably check out if that guy doesn't ever get back to you, Caudata.org. I'm a member of that forum too and people post stuff in classifieds a lot of the time. Just like the guy I got these eggs from, people can't handle hundreds at a time and they need others to take them off there hands. Maybe you will get lucky and find someone near your area. Just do a little networking  :Smile: 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926670,-93.081260

----------


## Shanny

Day 10, I used my partners camera but couldn't find cords for it... So these are pictures of pictures haha, but better because I could zoom in. They are really clear if I could just find the cord, but oh well...





---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926670,-93.081260

----------


## Heather

It's so neat seeing them develop. They seem to be growing fast.

----------


## koyuchan

WHOAH that's nice to hear shanny  :Smile:  can't wait to see the babies ! what do the babies eat? :O

----------


## Shanny

Yes they are growing so fast I'm just really excited for the day they hatch  :Smile: .    
Well since they can't smell when they are born, they will only eat live, moving food for the like the first month. So live, just hatched baby brine shrimp, baby daphnia things like that. I've heard how big of a pain in the butt baby brine shrimp are to deal with, but unfortunately that is all I could get my hands on locally. I wanted to get daphnia cuz they stay alive longer, but I doubt any place will ship here cuz it's cold right now.
But, once they're off the bbs, I can start feeding them frozen blood worms and they will probably start taking pellets at that time as well.
I do have a culture of springtails for my RETF terrarium and I was going to try and see if the baby axolotls would eat those as well since they live in fresh water and I have plenty... But we will see :-)

----------


## Shanny

Alright so I came into check on my eggs today after dropping my partner off at work, and I find that some eggs have already hatched! It is only day 11 and as of right now I have 8 little axolotl babies:-D
I decided to separate them right away into there own little containers just because I figure I can keep better track of them eating and all.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926670,-93.081260

----------


## Shanny

This is the only one out of the 8 that have hatched so far, that looks to have dark pigmentation.
 he is in cup #8

The other 7 look like this...
 cup #3
The pic isn't that clear, but he has yellow pigment on his head.




---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926715,-93.081195

----------


## koyuchan

Omg It's hatched !!!  :Smile:  :Smile:  Now, just wait for the legs to show up  :Big Grin:

----------


## Shanny

Yes, only 8 though... I keep on going in and checking on the rest of the eggs, they are moving quite a bit but none look to be hatching yet. The guy I got these from said his female started laying eggs late at night on the 27th and when he woke up there were twice as many... So some may have been laid early the 28th. If I wake up tmr and no more have hatched I may or may not help them along, it all depends.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926746,-93.081139

----------


## Shanny

Woke up this morning and only 1 more egg has hatched

----------


## Sarah

I remember the excitement of watching the babies develop and hatch. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for it so my batches were never successful. And after a while I got tired of clearing out the eggs to bring in to my manager at work...so now he has my female axolotl and I have another male. Haha. 

Good luck with your babies!

----------


## Heather

Yay!  :Smile:

----------


## Shanny

Yeah they are already proving to be a lot of work.

As of 1/8, which was day 12, I had 6 more eggs hatch. And so far today only 2 more have hatched.
Some of the babies that hatched on day 11 are starting to eat bbs, but it's making me a little nervous. So today I ordered live daphnia and hope to see that come in a couple of days.
As of right now I have 7 more that have yet to hatch... Obviously I was off in my previous posts haha because that is 23, which I did not include the 5 or so unfertilized eggs. So 23 babies, wow haha!

I'm going to try and help the others along so that the rest hatch today or tomorrow. I already have a feeding schedule set up for them depending on which day they hatched. 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.926774,-93.081106

----------


## Shanny

I helped the others along later last night, so all of my babies are hatched

----------


## koyuchan

Congratulations , Shanny !  :Smile:

----------


## Heather

That's wonderful!!! I can't wait to see them as they grow  :Smile: .

If I didn't have 5 frogs, 2 fish, and a cat already I'd want one  :Wink: .

----------


## Shanny

Me either, I can see that the majority of them are growing little arm buds already, I have to look close though  :Smile: 
Yeah I know what u mean, I have 2 cats, 4 red eye tree frogs, and 2 almost 1year old axolotls already. I wanted to keep one or two of the babies. And on top of that I have a 12x12x18 terrarium I want to either get a gold dust day gecko or a male L. Williamsi to house in there... But I'm going to TRY and wait until these baby axolotls are grown a few months so that I can sell them to there homes before I get my gecko.. Lol I don't want the significant other to get too mad at me haha!

----------


## Heather

Haha!  :Big Grin:

----------

