Hey, these are the IRLMUDKIPS that you might have seen. Here's the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl

These are my baby axolotls, the pictured one is Biggie Smalls. They are all growing really fast, so I'll update with newer, higher quality pictures soon. They grow up to 16 inches, so they are gonna be fucking awesome. I might vid them, let me know any questions. This will probably be a growth log for them. The pictures are kind of old, because they grow so fast.

so tiny
and they grow to 16 inches?

Yeah. I got them when they hatched out of their eggs. I saw them in the beginning stages of development, like when the spine and head/tail is developing. They were so tiny.

it kinda looks cute to me

oic
that'd be pretty cool to watch full development

agreed ^^

UPDATE. I know I didn't take close pictures of the other one, but everyone has doubled in size! Pictures in post #1 are old, they didn't just double in 4 days.

Biggie Smalls' close ups (wild-type coloring):





My other wild-type axolotl, he's a lot smaller. His owner didn't take such good care of him

that'd be pretty epic if they doubled in 4 days
hm i swear i've seen something like these before.. maybe it was on planet earth documentary..
are they all in separate containers?

Another 3 pictures. I have 6, but not all of them are pictured.

Additional pic of my wild-type, I didn't take the pictures this time, so there's not a great variety


Here's a Leucistic (white). It differs from the albino phenotype, because it has black eyes and it's gills (the furry things on its head) aren't pink.


This is the larger of my two golden albinos. They are completely gold/yellow and I've noticed that both of my golden albinos are functionally blind. I hand feed all of my axolotls with a pipet, but these two require a bit of prompting to take their food.




Yes they are. You can pair the less aggressive ones, but for their first 6-12 months of life they are cannibalistic. They may look familiar to a type of amphibian nicknamed the "mud puppy," but these critters spend their entire lives in water (unless they receive a iodine injection and metamorphosis). I've moved my largest axolotl to a ~6 liter tank, I've got fish bowls waiting for the other two larger ones, but right now they reside in Glad containers


I'd also like to add the coloration phenotypes of my axolotls to keep a little inventory:
2 Wild Type - one is 3.25 inches long (head to tail), the other is about 1.75-2 inches. My largest one could possibly be Melanoid, it will darken with age, but for now it looks to be wild type.
2 Golden Albino - one is 2.5~ inches, the other is around 1.5~
1 Leucistic - This one is 2.5~ inches as well
1 That is a mix between wild type and golden albino. He will possibly darken with age. He is the smallest at about 1.25-1.5 inches long. He's been sickly multiple times now, but he's really turning around.

The three large ones were raised from birth by me. The other 3 were raised by a mother who didn't take as good of care of her babies as I did

I'll be sexing them soon, the large ones can be sexed, but it's a hard call with the small three. They are sexed based on the shape of their head if their genitalia cannot be accessed. I'll hopefully pair them based on aggression. 2-3 axolotls living together is beneficial to their health.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I'm still learning, but I'm really excited!

This post was edited by Mycenaean on Apr 13 2011 06:51pm

D: I want one!