New Axo Mommy

Hello everyone, I'm new here. My axolotl journey started when my sons wanted axolotls. We have an albino, golden and melanoid all in a 55 gallon tank. They were about 3 inches when we got them but now juveniles and approximately 8-9 inches.

Much to our surprise, our melanoid gave birth and we ended up with over 300+ eggs. As a first time axo mom, I didn't know what the heck I was doing so I was watching various YouTube videos and reading so much about them. I even reached out to several axolotls owners on FB. We were so excited as we were going to have melanoid/albino axo babies but our excitement was short-lived. Over half died and didn't make it through the hatching period. And nearly 98% of those hatched died after several weeks. I did everything I could to regulate the water temp, change water daily and hatch baby brine shrimps for feeding, but it wasn't enough. I was so sad and disappointed that I was responsible for my babies death.

One mistake I made was placing them in plastic containers and leaving them out in our kitchen counter. I didn't take into consideration that the temperature varies and sometimes drops at night, so many died because of the temperature change. All but 8 were left. So, to regulate the temperature, besides using a heater (which I feared would hurt the babies or over heat) I placed them in an incubator and set it at 80F.

The babies were thriving and water temperature was at 68-70F all the time. This is my set up with brine shrimp hatching device in there. I have containers set in there too with fresh treated water to change daily so they don't go to shock with temp change. Everything went well and the babies were growing bigger and bigger with orange full bellies after feeds. Up until it started to get cold and we had a rainy night, my youngest son turned the incubator off at night. He wanted to look at the babies, and made sure the incubator was off so it wouldn't alarm on him and make this horrible sound when the temp went down. Well, he forgot to turn it back on or let me know, and the next morning the water temperature was at 50F and babies were shriveled up. I was so sad! They were twitching and you could see their little hearts still beating. I tried to do a quick water change and slowly bring the water temp back up to 68-70F but unfortunately, all 7 babies died. The oldest one of them all survived.

I am so sad how all 300+ babies didn't make it and only 1 survived so far. This is definitely a learning experience for me, as now, I know what to do if there will be more babies.

If you guys have any suggestions or advice for me, please share. I am willing to take any for the hopes that next time, they will survive. Thanks for reading!

So sorry to hear about your babies. It's super difficult when you aren't prepared. That's why it's always suggested to beginners to get a tank divider or to only get adults or to only get one juvenile at a time. I hope that if you get another clutch, things go better! Your adults are very healthy looking.

Autistic Catholic said:

So sorry to hear about your babies. It's super difficult when you aren't prepared. That's why it's always suggested to beginners to get a tank divider or to only get adults or to only get one juvenile at a time. I hope that if you get another clutch, things go better! Your adults are very healthy looking.

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Awe, Thank you! Yes, I was so not aware of it so we didnt get a divider. But, now I don't mind that they breed. I think after this whole situation, we gotten all supplies necessary to take care of the babies. Extra, extra tanks included. I've watched YouTube videos of how breeders place them in plastic Tupperware but what I don't understand is how they keep the temperature steady so the babies don't freeze overnight. So far, we have the one that survived and it is looking great!