Moving (with new legs)

The axolotls are growing healthily! Their water needed changing, and their tank was too small, so we decided to move them to a larger, cleaner tank. After siphoning water from the adult axolotls' tank and painstakingly capturing and releasing baby axolotls for hours, the job was complete. The babies are excited to be in their new tank; it is awesome to watch them eating (whereas the last tank was too crowded) and being able to see the entire population without stirring the water. The white ones are even relatively transparent!I know of one death and only a few eggs that haven't hatched. This is an extremely healthy, strong, orange-bellied group of neotenic amphibians.
On some, we can already see little front legs budding. This exciting milestone also begins one of the most treacherous examples of Darwin's research, however. Before reaching maturity, axolotls enter a cannibalistic stage in which they feed on their weaker brethren. We are currently debating whether to and how to split them up. It is the cruelty of the natural world. Hopefully, since we are keeping them very well fed, there will not be too many casualties. We are beginning an adult brine shrimp culture in another tank to keep up with our rapidly growing axolotls. Using a dark blue bottle, a tank of warm salt water, and our current brine shrimp hatching expertise, we should be growing brine shrimp within the next week.

Wait... white?

A speckled hatchling

This past week while feeding the babies, we noticed something. Some of the hatchlings were white, or at least lighter than the others. We didn't expect it; both the parents are wild type, or brown, axolotls. This means they must be heterozygous, or, they carry the white gene, which is recessive. Since the wild type gene is dominant over the white gene, the white

A white (leucistic) full grown axolotl

axolotls must have gotten two white genes instead of a white and a wild, like their parents. Using our knowledge of genetics, about one fourth of the babies should be white and half able to have white children. We are excited about the variety! The hatchlings are also growing quickly. They may be able to eat larger brine shrimp soon - we have been feeding much and often. They are growing healthily and are much larger and more outgoing than when they hatched. We think that some may have front leg buds already. Hopefully we will be able to catch one with some and take a picture under the microscope soon. They are so fast, and the more developed ones are faster.

Feed Me!

The babies are very healthy. Most have bright orange bellies, meaning they are full of brine shrimp.We usually feed them two large feedings a day so they will grow quickly. It is hard work to be sure they won't eat the eggs or shells of the shrimp, which could be fatal. We always have two cultures going, one new and one that is a day or two old. This ensures that if a culture fails, we will have a backup. We haven't changed the water in the tank - and aren't planning on it... the water in Lake Xochimilco has never been changed, the sponge filter is bubbling nicely, the water is chemically balanced, and there is no need to stress out the hatchlings. Some are getting quite large! We hope to see leg sprouts sometime early next week. Unlike frogs, axolotls grow their front legs first.   There is a variety of colors; we may even have some speckled hatchlings! Until next time, watch a video of the feeding frenzy that ensues after the brine shrimp are poured into the tank.

Half Hatched

Over the weekend, about half of the eggs hatched. Now, little axolotls are swimming around the tank. It is hard to see them unless you look really well because of all the leaves. They make them feel secure, though, so we'll leave them in for now. (no pun intended) I was able to round one up in a cup and put it under the microscope. Isn't it adorable? If you looked really closely, you could see the blood pulsing in its gills.

A baby axolotl under the microscope

Because of the new hatchlings, we decided that the goldfish bowl setup just would not do. Instead, we filled two bottles about halfway with fresh water and placed them on top of coiled heating wire. After letting the eggs hydrate for about half an hour, we added two tablespoons of aquarium salt. Then, we placed the aquarium tubes on the bottom. We have started one successful culture with this method and are hatching another. This morning, we put a few droplets of brine shrimp in the tank with an eyedropper.It was cool to see them swimming around with the axolotls! There are still occupied eggs in the tank; we are hoping for the rest of the axolotls will hatch today or tomorrow. Then we can have a lot of little baby brine shrimp swimming around and being eaten by a lot of little baby axolotls!

The new brine shrimp setup

Babies!

A few of the embryos have hatched! Right now, the babies are sitting on the bottom of their tank; that is normal behavior. They are currently feeding off of the leftover egg, so we won't feed them brine shrimp until tomorrow. The brine shrimp also had a successful hatching. We have one culture started and are planning on starting another Monday. Today I put some brine shrimp and an embryo under our microscope. It was extremely fascinating. If you focused hard enough, you could even see blood pulsing through the embryo's gills. The brine shrimp were cool as well; they swam around really quickly, and there were so many of them. Everyone at TESLA were thankful for the successful hatching - especially the axolotls! The baby brine shrimp will be their only source of food for three weeks until we are able to buy adult brine shrimp at the pet store.

Generation II

A student here at TESLA adopted a pair of axolotls towards the end of the school year last year. They were hatched as a school project. He named them Benito and Hector, not knowing that one was, in fact, female. They aren't even a year old now and have parented healthy embryos. We estimate that they were in the tank for about five days before last Tuesday when he brought them to school.

We have had the embryos in a Sterilite container with the fake plants they were laid for seven days, and they are developing quite well. We have a constant fan keeping it cool and a sponge filter for oxidation and filtering the water. We only use spring water, but will have to start dechlorinating our own water as our supply has run low.

When the babies hatch, we will feed them baby brine shrimp. Today, I set up a culture that will hopefully be productive. It is in a one gallon fish bowl with aquarium tubing supplying a constant flow of bubbles, three liters of water, three tablespoons of aquarium salt, and a warming wire wrapped around it. I put the shrimp in about 3:00 PM today, so they should hatch tomorrow.