What next?

 Were your axolotls not separated and you discovered unexpected eggs in your tank?  If so, you are not alone. The following information will help walk you through what to do.  Raising axolotls is not easy so we advise you to take all the information below into consideration.

Axolotl Breeding (Accidental Eggs)

Ok so the first thing you need to do is remove the male. He will now need a bachelor pad of his own. If you leave them together he will continue to breed her far more often than her body can withstand, and she will become sick and could even die from over breeding. You can tub him if you have no other tank setup where you can move him to.

Next, when the female is done laying her eggs you will need to remove all the eggs to their own tub as well. If you leave them in with the parents the adults will eat them. You can use a turkey baster to suck them out and move them or you can pick them up by hand. 

Now that you have everyone safe, evaluate. Did both the female and male come from the same source? Around the same time? If your answer is yes then they are more than likely related. If this is the case, you will NEED to cull them NOW! 

What is the age of the female, under 18 months?

If  yes, laying will be particularly hard on her and it is likely the clutch is at risk for a low hatch rate and a higher than usual rate of unhealthy hatchlings. 

If the clutch is her first, then that increases the negative affects of success rates of the clutch.

Both of these factors can become emotionally draining. But, culling what is at this point just a group of cells is much different than culling a fully formed hatchling in a few weeks.

Raising eggs is at minimum a 3 month twice a day commitment EVERYDAY for water changes, feedings and preparing the live food they will require for the first couple of months after hatching. You will have no days off, no short or extended getaways, and no sick days. 

If you decide to keep all the eggs you will then need to rehome all the babies. Will you be able to find homes for ALL of them? Will you be adequately prepared to house all of them if they don't sell. You may get lucky and sell them all at 3 months when they become ready. But if you don't you may need to house them for several months maybe longer.

The things they will need such as tubs, equipment, and live food becomes costly. Does your budget allow you to support them until they sell?

Once you have considered these points you will then have 3 options or possibly even a combination of the three.

If you can not fully commit there is NOTHING wrong with responsibly culling them. You will need to place the eggs in a Ziploc bag and place it in your freezer before discarding. Immediately after being laid the eggs are no more than a collection of cells and have no sense of pain or awareness.

You may be able to sell the eggs. Eggs are fairly easy to ship. You will need to wait until the eggs bean (start to change shape). Be very transparent with customers that this is in fact the female’s first clutch. 1-3 dollars per egg is about average. If you know the hets and lineage of the parents then you could go for the higher end. Otherwise since this was an accidental clutch then charge on the lower end. Be sure to charge the buying shipping costs if you must ship the eggs.

Another option is to choose to raise some or all. If you decide this, I  would recommend trying no more than 25-50 for your first try at eggs. This amount is enough to give you an idea of how labor intensive a full clutch is. And then you can cull or sell the rest.

Keep in mind when you raise hatchlings from eggs you must have a proper food source as well. This would include hatching baby brine shrimp every day, culturing micro worms in varieties safe for axolotls to eat. This task is labor intensive and if you can not or do not have these food sources available to you your hatchlings will not survive.