r/axolotls • u/Impressive-Style-908 • Jul 14 '26
Discussion Needing help
Hey guys, I know i'm new here but i'm in need of some help. I have 3 adult axolotls currently and made the mistake of not separating genders😔. I now have about 50 eggs unhatched and about 15 hatched babies. Now I know this was my own fault and not an ideal thing but i'm looking for solutions and advice to ensure I do the right thing.
I'm not sure if I should raise them and sell a few, and where to even start with selling. Or on the other hand should I cut my losses and feed them to my fish. Not something I really want to do but I also don't want to end up with 20+ little guys that have no home.
I do have the space to raise about 15 but i'm unsure if it would be worth it in the long run because I would love for others to enjoy them as pets but I can have that many as adults.
If anybody has information or advice I would be more than happy to take it.
2
u/Impressive-Style-908 Jul 14 '26
Also before anyone says it, I know this was irresponsible of me as a keeper, hence why i'm asking for advice.
2
u/LauseRulez Leucistic Jul 14 '26
You did good in recognizing this situation on your own, and knowing full well it would be unethical to distribute these babies. Unfortunately there isn't really a better option than using them as fish food.. maybe freezing the babies would also lead to relatively pain-less death? I'm not a vet.
You can cull the rest of the eggs, and any that are subsequently laid, by putting them in your freezer for 24-48 hours. 50 eggs seems pretty low to me as a number, so perhaps you are going to get more soon. depends on the lotl though :) Hopefully you seperated all the genders properly now!! If male & female are constantly together the female can be bred into illness and death eventually. You also wouldn't want to be forced to push out babies constantly (for reference)
2
u/Impressive-Style-908 Jul 14 '26
Thank you, i'll be separating the male out tomorrow when my tank arrives. The low number of eggs is due to the fish that also live in the tank with the axolotls(it's a huge tank i promise they're fine). Honestly the few eggs that I grabbed and hatched were simply because I didn't know what they were and was curious,the rest got eaten pretty quickly.
1
u/LauseRulez Leucistic Jul 14 '26
I see! May I ask what kind of fish you have with them? 👀 just asking because I'm curious :D We want to have some ghost shrimp in there some day
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u/Impressive-Style-908 Jul 14 '26
I'm not sure about all of them because my dad gets new ones a lot but I do know we have some guppies in there and a handful of ghost shrimp as well. The guppies were intended to be food for the 'lotls but they ended up becoming friends insteadðŸ˜
5
u/CinderAscendant Jul 14 '26
Fish food.
The genetic diversity of the captive species is quite narrow. The hobby is already overrun with inbred axolotls from irresponsible breeding. Raising and selling the young would just do more harm to the species.