The Indiana University Axolotl Colony

About Axolotls...

Frequently Asked Questions

Short Guide to Axolotl Husbandry

Staging Series

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The IU Axolotl Colony handles albino eggs differently than it handles normal, dark eggs. Normals are all sorted under a scope before shipping. All you see of those spawns are the fertile, properly developing embryos. Usually a very high percentage of presorted embryos continue to develop properly, though some may go bad at later stages.

Albino eggs, on the other hand, are entirely unsorted. Therefore, not only is there a varying percentage of good and bad (0-100%), there is also lots of extra jelly: gooey, sticky, and suffocating. You must take special care of albino eggs until they are used or until they are past stages when the good become obvious and can be removed.

Here are some suggestions on handling albino eggs and increasing the percentage of healthy, developing embryos:

1. Divide them into groups of 50 or so embryos and place them in finger bowls about 8 inches or 20 centimeters in diameter.* Fill the bowls with clean distilled water (or other standard water solutions when available**) so that there is at least 1 inch or 2.5 cm of water covering embryos. Pipette out extra jelly.

2. Stir embryos daily and pull out extra jelly. Top off with clean water as needed, never letting the water drop much below 1 inch or 2.5 cm deep.

3. After 4-5 days, it should be easy to recognize good and bad embryos. Be careful not to rush them, or you will end up discarding good embryos. Either carefully pull out the good as they become obvious and place them in clean water; or wait until the entire group of embryos is far enough developed that the bad can be recognized and pulled out, along with the extra jelly.

4. Place good embryos 50 per bowl* with about 1 inch or 2.5 cm of clean distilled water.

5. If raising to hatch, remove larvae from the distilled water at hatch and place them in fresh water or modified Holtfreter's solution (40-50%).

Notes

* Axolotl eggs need lots of oxygen. If they are too crowded or left in clumps, the eggs in the center will die or develop poorly. Spreading embryos out into several bowls as well as stirring daily to break up clumps and mix in oxygen is very important.

** If a salt solution is being used, be careful not to use too high a concentration. Too much salt causes exogastrulation in most spawns. At the Colony, we use 20% modified Holtfreter's solution.

Albino

Phenotype is albino (a/a). Many of our albinos are also axanthic (ax/ax) or carry the gene. Sometimes albinos also carry the cardiac (c) mutation. Albino embryos are the only ones that we do not routinely sort because of the difficulty of working with pigmentless eggs. Order larger numbers to compensate for those which are infertile or non-viable.

Click on this button to see an albino axolotl (17 K). This golden albino has the genotype D/- a/a. Because the wild-type axolotl has both black and yellow pigments, the dark axolotl without black pigments (the albino) is yellow-colored.

Click on this button to see an albino axanthic axolotl (25 K). This axolotl has the genotype D/ a/a ax/ax. When very young axolotls of this genotype are virtually colorless, but as they grow they accumulate riboflavins from their diet, giving them a paler yellow color than is exhibited by the golden albinos.

Click on this button to see a white albino axolotl (32 K). The white albino axolotl's genotype is d/d a/a. It is similar to appearance to any white axolotl, but the eyes are pinkish rather than black.

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URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~axolotl/axolotls/handlingaa.html