Einstein the axolotl!

 About 3 weeks ago, we got a baby axolotl and named him Einstein. In the first picture, he's about four weeks old and his rear legs are just starting to grow.

At this size Einstein can eat brine shrimp so I started trying to grow those. Baby axolotls need live food because the movement triggers them to eat. It turns out that brine shrimp are kind of tricky to grow? I'm not sure what's up - I started my second batch of eggs hatching a few days ago, and I have a handful of adults from the first batch that I started several weeks ago. Einstein is eating black worms that we get at a local exotic pet store, so I don't need to get these brine shrimp growing, but ... everyone says it's easy! Why can't I get them to grow? It's basically just a challenge at this point.

Here's Einstein now. He's much bigger, and his back legs are even starting to get fingers! You can see some black worms to the side of him. Lots of axolotls in captivity have been genetically modified to glow with GFP (green fluorescent protein, originally from jellyfish, used extensively in biochemistry research). We got out a UV flashlight to check Einstein - some of his siblings glow, some do not. Einstein definitely has GFP! Unfortunately, axolotls are a species that prefers the dark and the GFP is literally everywhere, including in their eyes, so this party trick will only be done rarely.