The Miracle of... Eggs

The hoped for and anticipated moment has occurred, Cordelia has had/laid/brung forth eggs! It all seems almost too soon, seeing as Nessie and her have been co-habitating for less than a month, but we will ask no questions of the happy couple! I have taken most of the eggs out of the tank, (I think there still may be a few on plants etc, but have taken all I can see). The little axolotl miracles will now live in a big plastic tub, (about 20 litres), until hopefully the birthday (hatching day?) happens in a couple of weeks!

Nessie, my little 'Water Monster'

Axolotl roughly translates as  'water monster' from an ancient Aztec language.  Their scientific name is Ambystoma mexicanum.  Axolotls are sometimes referred to as Mexican walking fish, but they are not fish, they are amphibians.

The axolotl originally comes from some lakes in Mexico, but are endangered in the wild due to pollution and loss of habitat.  Luckily, they are commonly bred in captivity around the world, so are unlikely to become extinct.  As well as making excellent pets, scientists are motivated to breed and study them because they have the amazing ability to regrow parts of  their bodies! So if an axolotl has a leg or part of its gills eaten by a fish (or another axolotl) it will regrow it within a few months. 

My pet axolotl Nessie gets his name from the Loch Ness monster, the most famous water monster of all!

Cordelia

 This lovely and rather fat axolotl at the bottom of the picture is my new axolotl Cordelia.  She is a lovely big healthy looking female, and makes Nessie look quite small next to her.  This is a picture of the two of them eating blood worms, as little (including Nessie!) gets in between this girl and her food.  One big swish of her tail is enough to send him flying, so I take the precaution of feeding them at the same time at opposite ends of the tank.

Like Nessie, she is very active.  She also enjoys swimming or walking through the log in the tank.  I rarely see Nessie do this but Cordelia does quite a lot. 

I had been looking for a female for some time, to be a wife/companian for Nessie.  When I saw Cordelia, she was the biggest and most active axolotl in the petshop, so I knew she would be a great match for my active boy Nessie! 
They get on great, (as long as he doesn't get between her and her food!) so I think I did some great matchmaking.

How To Feed a Fussy Baby Axolotl

Lucky has been eating well for the last day, which is reassuring to me. I can now see that the other baby Axoltls, Precious and Heidi, are getting a little more filled out in the body compared to him. I'm not sure if this is because technically they are a little older than Lucky, so a little more developed, or just because they like their food more! To encourage Lucky to eat, I moved him into a much smaller jar. This allowed me to chase him around with the food a bit more easily, because he couldn't dart away quite so far! Then with some patience, he ate twice yesterday (some chopped up bloodworm). I'm not sure if he is timid, and darting away from foreign objects that come near him as a survival skill, or if he is just a fussy eater!

Lucky the Baby Axolotl

I have noticed that the seventeen day old axolotl, Precious and Heidi, are feeding very quickly and well now. They eat a small piece of blood worm immediately when it is offered. Lucky, however, still takes quite a bit of patience to feed. I move the food very slightly in front of him until he takes it. I can't always get him to take the food, so I just keep offering it to him as often as possible. I worry about him when he won't eat! I am hoping that he may just be a little behind developmentally, as he was the last larva that I broke out of the egg. He wasn't out of his egg until nearly a week after the other two. He is the same size (about 2cm), as Precious and Heidi, and is swimming well and darting about like them. When I get home tonight I will try him with some boiled egg.

Feeding Hungry Baby Axolotl

Today the baby axolotl, Precious, Heidi and Lucky are 2cm long at about two weeks old. They are growing well, and are hungry! I have tried feeding them frozen blood worms (thawed), tiny pieces of boiled egg, and have even tried gold fish granules just to give it a go. Their favorite seems to be the bloodworms.

What I do is chop the thawed blood worm into tiny pieces just a few millimetres long. Then I use a thin wooden skewer to feed the baby axolotl from. I basically just wiggle it a little bit in front of their mouths, (mimicking live food) until they eat. This sometimes takes a little patience! I have noticed the last few days that all three babies, but Precious in particular, are starting to eat much more quickly when I feed them. I think they are starting to associate the human who comes hovering over their bowl, with food!

  I feed them twice a day, morning and evening, and three times daily on the weekend when I have the time. Sometimes one won't eat, and then I just have to leave the food with it and hope for the best.

The preferred first food for axolotl larva is live. But as I came across these eggs unexpectedly, that wasn't possible. I was hoping my guppies may have produced some fry, in which case I would have tried that, but at least my alternative labour intensive feeding method seems to be working!

New Aquarium and Axolotl Companion

Great news, my axolotl Nessie is now in his new and improved aquarium.  This one is a 60 litre tank.  I also bought a few new plants with heavier bases on them, as, following best practice, there is no gravel in this tank.  His log has of course made the move with him. 

Most importantly, I have taken the precaution of putting styrofoam underneath this aquarium, as you can see in this picture.  That will even out any irregularities and avoid a repeat of that last disaster.

Most exciting of all, I have found a wife for Nessie!  This is Cordelia.  I saw her in the pet shop when I was buying the tank and had to have her.  She captured my heart very quickly, much like Nessie did, with her playful antics.  She is lovely and healthy looking, and at 24 cm long, she makes Nessie look quite small. 

This picture shows Cordelia being gradually adjusted to the temperature of the tank.  The two of them are getting on beautifully.  Within the first few minutes of meeting, Nessie came over and layed his head on her back.  It was so cute, like he was cuddling her.

Nessie's Temporary Accomadation

Poor Nessie, he has come down a bit in the world and is currently residing in a large styrofoam container. I have his half hollow log in with him, so he has something familiar with him. I am currently in the process of getting him another tank, hopefully this weekend. I am looking at getting a tank (maybe an even bigger one!), with a stand. I think possibly Nessie's aquarium may have cracked if the bench it was on was not absolutely, perfectly flat. The babies, Heidi, Precious and Lucky are still in their jars, but I'm planning an upgrade this weekend.

The Survivors

After the recent disaster, I'm happy to say Nessie has come through with no obvious outward signs of stress. He is eating well, his skin and gills looks good and normal, and he is swimming around and coming to me as usual to be hand fed. If anything, I think he was just relieved his humans came home to rescue him! The remaining baby axolotl who survived are Precious, Heidi and Lucky. Precious and Heidi are now eleven days old. They are both white/translucent at this stage. Precious was named by, and is the favorite, of my ten year old daughter. She is adorable, with black eyes that look too big for her. Heidi has clear eyes, so I'm thinking she may be an albino? Lucky (living up to his name), is grey. He was the last baby that I saved during my 'egg intervention', so therefore is technically, at seven days old, the youngest, although he is not noticeably smaller than his siblings. The other baby Axolotls we lost, were all darker coloured, and Wiggles had looked to be a striking wild type, but I won't dwell on the past.

Disaster- Three Axolotl Dead

A terrible sight awaited me when I came home from work today. I walked into the kitchen to find water all over the floor. At first I looked toward the sink, but it wasn't coming from there. Then I looked at Nessie's tank, and saw the awful truth. There was a huge crack down the side of the aquarium, and Nessie was stuck in one corner, in about 4cm of water! He has (or had) part of his aquarium built up with gravel so was in the only part that had enough water to cover him. Nessie is safe now, in a Tupperware container for the night, but most devastating of all, is that three of the baby axolotl were swept away. Their jars were up against the side of the tank, and the leaking water went into three of the jars, overflowing them in turn, and apparently washed them away. Poppy, Peekaboo and Wiggles (my particular favorite), have all been lost. We salvaged the survivors, and cleaned up the water from the fifty litre tank. I can't understand why this one long crack developed along one side of the glass. I am thankful just enough water remained to keep Nessie alive.

Nessie's Aquarium

This is Nessie, my little 'water monster'.  He lives in an aquarium approximately 60cm x 30cm.  Out of view but at the other end of the aquarium, is a synthetic log, that he also likes to swim through or just sit in.

 I have this pink coloured gravel in the aquarium, which I realise is a some what controversial decision, as some axolotls have been know to swallow the gravel and die.  When I found that out, I thought seriously about removing the gravel and have only kept it because:

1) I kept my last axolotl on gravel for four years, and it was fine,
2) Nessie had already been on this gravel for more than a month when I learnt this new information, and
3)I have observed Nessie to occasionaly eat rocks, but spit them out.

In saying that, I do not plan to keep any future axolotle pets (including my six new babies), on gravel, and wouldn't have but put it in Nessies's aquarium to start with, had I know about the risks.  But as he loves his home, I am leaving it there for now. 

You can see the thermometer in this picture. The water quality and temperature are crucial to axolotl health.  Nessie is currently  enjoying  a balmy 17 degrees celcius. 

Six Baby Axolotl

After a week of hope and expectation, the final count is six of the original nine eggs. The last, named 'Lucky', was ripped out of his egg yesterday. In future I would certainly be less hesitant to perform an egg intervention. The babies are: Wiggles, Peekaboo, Precious, Heidi, Poppy and Lucky. They are all eating tiny pieces of cut up bloodworms, and occasional pieces of boiled egg. Each baby is residing in it's own glass jar, labeled with it's name, and I am changing fifty percent of their water daily. They are very cute and appear to be doing well.

Egg Intervention

The four babies are alive and well, and apparently enjoying their life of luxury, being individually hand fed small pieces of blood worm off the end of a cocktail stick. They have gradually gained names over the last few days: Wiggles, Heidi, Precious and Peekaboo. I am much less worried about them, now that I'm observing them suck up their tiny pieces of blood worms like spaghetti! Unfortunately two of the larvae still in eggs were definitely declared dead today (RIP). Out of concern for the welfare of the remaining three that I can see in their eggs, I decided to take the risk of trying an egg intervention. I gently pierced an egg and freed the baby axolotl within. This late comer appears to be ok, and is swimming around, but has only been 'born' for about two hours. I will watch to see how this one, (promptly named 'Poppy' by my daughter/assistant midwife) fares. Is it appropriate to perform an egg intervention? If Poppy survives, I may try to free the other two, rather than risk them much longer.

Tank Life - Water Quality

When you live your life in a fifty litre glass tank, water quality is important. Today I cleaned Nessie's tank and changed the water. I use a clear plastic tube to siphon about half of the water out into a bucket. The suction of the siphon makes a perfect vacuum cleaner to suck up the debris along the bottom of the tank. I like to change fifty percent of the water, twice a week, which is probably a little more than necessary, but I want the best for my darling, and I can justify the water as I throw the nitrogen rich tank water onto my veggie patch. I use a water conditioner to dechlorinate my tap water, and add it slowly to the tank after it has sat for a while in the room. This is to avoid stressing Nessie with a swift temperature change. Axolotls need temperatures between about 14-23 Celcius. At this time of year, Nessie is enjoying a balmy 17-18 degrees C. I think maintaining really good water quality, is one of the most important factors to ensure a healthy and happy axolotl. The babies are all still alive, I am changing their water daily, but this is only a quick job, as they are currently residing in small, individual jars. Now time to think about cleaning my house....

Feeding Baby Axolotl

I raced home from work tonight to check on my baby Axolotls, (and greet my lovely family, of course)! My biggest concern, as this is my first time raising baby axolotl from the egg, has been feeding them. So far I have fed them frozen blood worm, but as they are so tiny (about 10mm), it is difficult to really see if they are eating much of it. I am mainly being guided by the fact that the four hatchlings are active at four days old, my fear being that they will starve, as I have been unable to provide them with a live food source. So this morning I decided to try giving them some protein rich, boiled egg yolk, just to give the precious ones an alternative option. It was blood worms again for dinner tonight. Mean while, the five 'late developers' are still wiggling inside their eggs. No casualties so far, fingers crossed!

New Baby Axolotl

I have a beautiful axolotle called Nessie. He is black, about 12 months old, and 17cm long. He is very cute and active. I get so much enjoyment from watching Nessie's antics, that I recently decided to start looking around for a potential wife for him. I looked around at a few pet shops, but didn't find any suitable candidates, ie a healthy and happy looking female of breeding age/size. I eventually came across a tank with a male axolotl, and many eggs! I could see the babies within the eggs moving! Apparently the female had recently been sold. The pet shop kindly agreed to sell me the artificial coral piece, in the tank, that had some eggs attached. They also sold me some frozen micro worms to feed them on. I knew from previous reading that axolotl larvae require live food, but bought the frozen food as back up. I brought my precious cargo home to the surprise of my children. My ten year old daughter commented that I seemed to have missed a step in my breeding plans for Nessie! I found nine eggs with live babies within them. I put each into a small separate jar. So far four have hatched, they are three days old at present. The other five are still alive within their eggs. I keep checking the 'late developers' for signs of life. They occasionally do triple back flips within their eggs, Olympic stuff!