i apologize for the (slight) spam but I am so very excited! Some of the fertilized eggs are progressing faster than others and several have developed gill buds! I check on them 3 times a day at the moment just to observe any changes and take photos. today at exactly 12pm (noon - which was only a few minutes ago) I saw the gill buds! They are really forming now! Their tails are beginning to become more distinct, their stomachs and heads are forming and they are doing so so well.

Images (c) me

So in this image, you can see the egg that was not fertilized on the bottom, if you go up one egg, you can see an egg that has its back facing us, you can see its head and a small gill bud on the bottom. If you go up one, this egg is facing us, it is probably progressing the fastest, you can't see its tail very well because it is curled but the bottom of the long "blob" is the tip of the tail. You will see two gill buds on the left and right side and then you will see the head just above that. The next egg up also has those gill buds they just can't be seen clearly from this angle and then on up the stem of the plant are more eggs.

another close up

That's crazy!!

Right!! I suspect I'll start seeing more defined tails tonight. They are super social and apparently one of their full siblings was raised around a ton of people (the lady would take it to church with her in a giant fish bowl and return it to its tank when they got home) and the axolotl grew faster than its siblings who were raised in the lab but it was fed the same amount and everything. So maybe the fact I stare at them every couple of hours has an effect 😂 I have no clue. But they are developing faster than the ones in the lab from what the lab tech told me.

It's a possibility, they might feel pressured to not be culled..

Thats hilarious though, I can't imagine going to church and some old lady has an axolotl in a God damn fish bowl. I'd crack up

This is soooooo cool! Thank you for sharing this with us. It's awesome.

possibly XD I saw the other axolotls in the lab and their development is 3 days behind the development of mine. The lab tech believes that mine are just at absolutely perfect conditions (i have been so picky with these guys). Its going to be so hard to cull them though. I really really don't want to. about a quarter of all of them are GFP which is a very high amount in comparison to the last 2 breedings. This was the final breeding of the pair as well. We are being very selective about the axolotls we are keeping, and so we are going to let them hatch and grow a little so we can see which ones are transgenic. most of the GFP ones will be given to the specialist pet store, and we will be keeping the ones that have the best chance of surviving since many of them actually pass away at about 4 to 6 months old.

and yes!! I thought the same thing! I saw photos of the lady and the axolotl in the goldfish bowl in the church and it was a beautiful axolotl but hilarious. She looked so proud holding it in the pictures too XD

Yea! I love this stuff so I am happy to share it and so grateful to be able to share it with everyone!

*Squeals* Axolotl! Their so cool!

Day 6:

These photos were taken at 7:30am this morning. Last night, I noticed that the eggs had grown nice tails that got a serious hook shape to them. I could really see their organs and their development was going really well. This morning, their tails were much longer and thinner than before. They are beginning to gain pigmentation and their heads are broadening. Tomorrow, if the two eggs I believe are not fertilized do not develop or are not showing signs of development at all, I will be removing them since they can burst and cause damage to the other eggs. They have not changed much throughout the day today, the changes were very very slight. they are only a little larger and their heads are slightly broader. I am really able to see which ones are GFP at this point but will be using a special pen to confirm which ones are GFP.

I also went and checked on the lab eggs today as well as helped catch a volunteer egg keeper up to speed on what she needs to be doing and what to look for. She took about 10 of them home. Two of her eggs were accidentally punctured a few days ago when the lab tech was moving them but they appear to be very very bright green (the brightest of all the eggs) and they are developing at the same rate as the rest of the lab eggs so fingers crossed they make it. The volunteer is another biology student so they are well prepared to take on the axolotl eggs.

Here is a couple of photos (with the GFP eggs I am certain about being labelled) that were taken at 7:30am. I am not taking another photo this evening because there is not much change. I also missed this afternoon's photos because I was in the lab.

There is one egg half in the water, half out and it is doing really really well. I was not sure if it would make it but it has and I am super happy about it. It is developing at the same rate as the rest. Believe me, I have tried to situate it back into the water but I can end up doing more harm to it if I keep trying. I simply added more water to the tank to make sure it was over halfway submerged.

so these eggs are ones I have not taken photos of before because it is hard to get the right angle on them. You can see the round one which is likely not fertilized and the one that has the axolotl developing in it has a very bright green tint in person (you can kind of see it in the photo but it is more obvious in person). I believe this one is going to be a golden albino or chimera with a gold base carrying the GFP gene.

I apologize for the poor lighting in both of these photos. It was still somewhat dark in my house at the time and my lights happen to be yellow in my room, not much I can do about that at the moment so this is the best I can do. I would also like to note that there are more eggs developing on top of the leaf that the eggs in the second photo are attached to. I am honestly so scared to remove the unfertilized eggs. I have some small pipettes that I can use to try and separate the eggs before removing them with a turkey baster (it sounds odd, i know but that is what most people use to actually move the eggs since they are large enough to not damage the eggs) but they are very stuck together. The axolotls will also be very sensitive to water movement and "sloshing" when they hatch and feeding them will be super difficult. Baby axolotls can not smell, they hunt by movement alone. Feeding them live food is risky because in the past, the axolotls have died when fed live food, it just attacks them. So we feed them frozen daphnia (water fleas) which we then trick them into thinking they are alive by lightly using the turkey baster to stir up the daphnia for 6, 5 minute intervals (30 minutes total) to imitate live food. Brine shrimp simply has not worked for the lab or the local axolotl breeders. While the lab tech even tried raising the brine shrimp a week before the axolotls hatched (normal time for prep beforehand), it just didnt work out.

Anyways, thank you all for your support <3 Nyx

(image (c) me)

How interesting and exciting!...Thank you!

i'm so excited to see how these babies turn out. hope all goes well! wonderful experiment