The following information is from my own personal experience. Just remember, you can and probably will lose babies, sometimes a lot, for seemingly no reason. Don't let this discourage you, just analyse and learn from your mistakes.

 

So your axolotls have laid eggs, what now?

Firstly, your eggs will develop quciker in warmer water, and slower in colder water. You want to aim around 15-20 degrees celcius. If you need time to prepare yourself, keep the water nice and cold. Axolotl eggs take about 21 days to hatch, add or subtract a few depending on temperatures. In this time, you need to locate yourself some live food.

 

Baby axolotls will only eat live foods until they are about 2cms at least. Live food options for new hatchlings can be microworms, baby brine shrimp (BBS) and daphnia. Sometimes they do not receive one type of food well, so always have variety. I find microworms aren't taken well, but can encourage chomping in the early days. BBS and daphnia are the best choices in my experience. As they get bigger, you can move onto underwater bugs, mosquito larvae, and white worms. If you have ponds nearby, you might find edible life in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                      Leucistic and Wildtype hatchlings                                             Golden Albino Hatchlings

 

 

- For 24-72 hours after birth, they won’t move much or need food. This extra time can be a life saver.

- Feed once or twice daily. Don't give the axolotls too much room or too much water, especially at feeding time. It is tiring to find food, so you don't want the axolotl to be searching for it too hard. You can add more water in between feedings to keep the water cleaner.

 

- Replace some water each day, removing any filth and dead axolotls. Brine shrimp die quickly as they are salt water creatures, so be sure to clean well after feeding. A filter isn’t necessary while they are so small, as long as you keep water changes up.

 

- Separate the babies into containers or tanks, glass if you can. I find cheap plastic leaks toxins into the water and they die. Keep them together based on size and avoid overcrowding, it will dirty the water, and result in more deaths, at a quicker rate. Overcrowding is one of the main killers of young axolotls.

 

 

- Whenever a baby dies, which you can tell by its loss of colour and bloated look, scoop it out and change most of the water to avoid disease spreading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Once they are bigger, with their front legs, you can start dicing up frozen bloodworms for them. Some will catch on to this new food type quicker than others, so it is good to combine with a live food. Don't give it to them whole at this stage, I've had babies eat whole bloodworms, have it block their entire intestine, and be poking out their mouth, which results in their death.

 

- Eventually they will start eating non-living food like frozen bloodworms and axolotl pellets (will need to be soaked and broken into smaller pieces) but not until they have their front legs at least. Just test it out every now and then. You can see who has eaten by their swollen bellies. 

 

If you look around on the internet you can probably find more information, a good place to start is www.axolotl.org, they have a forum where you can find answers to many questions and help if you are desperate.

 

Just remember:

Daily water changes.

Daily food supply; if daphnia, keep it constant.

Remove old food and dead axolotls.

Don’t overcrowd, it encourages diseases.