Jacksonii xanth female giving birth right now!

[Sepioteuthis]

Jade is in the process of giving birth!

This is my first experience with a live bearing cham babies. I'm so excited and scared and nervous right now.

Question for the experts: how quickly should the babies by getting up and walking around? I've seen a few of them wiggling but none have gotten up yet. The first one was born about 10 minutes ago.
They all still have some yolk too, for as far as I can see...

11 babies and counting!

Suzanne

 

[Chris Anderson]

They should break out of their sac just about immediately. If they don't, it sometimes help to pick the sac up and re-drop them. The dropping seems to stimulate them to break free of their sac.

Chris

 

[merumontanus]

Congratulations, Suzanne!

As mentioned, they should break free very quickly-- she will also rub her cloaca against either the screen or the branches to break them free. Be sure to increase the relative humidity, if you can, as those membranes dry quickly and may pose a challenge for the little ones. I wouldn't mist, but perhaps place a humidifier next to the cage?

I look forward to seeing photos!

Cheers,

Fabián

 

[Sepioteuthis]

tried redropping most wriggled some more but no serious efforts. could it be that they are being born prematurely?

 

[merumontanus]

tried redropping most wriggled some more but no serious efforts. could it be that they are being born prematurely?

It's hard to say but you'll know when you look at their crania. You could try removing the membrane manually, carefully, as I have done so in the past, but if they are, in fact, premature or weak, this may not make a difference in their long-term survival.

Nonetheless, it's a bit early to conclude that, so I would assist them if you can.

Fabián

 

[Anilr16]

This is awesomeeeee!!!
I wanna breed Jacksons soon lol.
Yeah some of my Rudis that were born took about 10 seconds at the most to start wiggling out. A couple of them DID need my help, so yeah, try to aid the young ones if need be!
Hope their all alive and survive with long years to come, Sincerely, Anil

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I'm devastated. None of the 19 babies made it.

I had no idea she was that close to giving birth. She never stopped eating. I wonder if I messed it up by taking her outside yesterday. I figured it would do her good, but now I'm thinking it may be what caused her to go into labor too early.

 

[Julirs]

Did you remove the sacs?

 

[Sepioteuthis]

yes, i did. I few gasped for air but none got up. There are a few that may still be alive but they still have so much yolk and aren't moving.

 

[Anilr16]

Oh my god..this is horrible. Its not your fault! Dont feel guilty about it. Let nature take its course. And dont sweat it, I had no clue my female Rudis was close. She ate like a horse days before birth and came out her cage on my hand and everything. Its okay. Just keeep checkin on those young ones:/

 

[Julirs]

I would place them in a container with a moist papertowel. Keep the towel moist and see what happens. Egg babies will sometimes lay around and soak up yolk, but live bearers are usually up and running. You have nothing to lose.

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I would place them in a container with a moist papertowel. Keep the towel moist and see what happens. Egg babies will sometimes lay around and soak up yolk, but live bearers are usually up and running. You have nothing to lose.

I already did that actually, when I went to remove the membranes.

It's hard to say but you'll know when you look at their crania

Here are a few pics

 

[merumontanus]

I agree, Suzanne. Keep them in high relative humidity and see if they recover. Unless something very dramatic happened yesterday while she was out, I doubt the incident had much to do with this result. It's not an entirely uncommon event in captivity, but it's important to know whether they were, in fact, premature, or the humidity wasn't such that allowed them to break free.

Here are a couple images of some premature T. jacksonii merumontanus. You can clearly see the under-developed crania (which actually appear enlarged), and the overall weakness.

These were from a clutch of captive-bred and born merumontanus which, as opposed to my captive-born clutches (from wild gravid females), were born in a compromised state. There is clearly something we are lacking in our management of these taxa-- it is most likely dietetic. Your experience will contribute to the efforts of everyone working with this species, whether the result was positive or not.

All the best,

Fabián

EDIT: I just saw your post with the photos. They do look premature to me-- but not as drastically as I have seen in the past. Trace?

 

[Sepioteuthis]

That's very interesting, Fabian, thanks for sharing that. These are also CBB. The mating took place in the last week of January, so gestation was 6 months.

The babies are still on wet papertowels in a container in the chameleon room and I've turned on the misting system (not on them) to keep the humidity in the room as high as possible.

Jade is doing great, BTW, so that's a bit of good news.

 

[Sepioteuthis]

All 21 babies have now officially passed away. I actually think 8 of them may have been stillborn, since they never moved at all.

I'm really saddened, but glad that Jade got through it ok.

 

[dodolah]

O no... my condolences

 

[Chris Anderson]

Sorry to hear that Suzanne. Has there been any abnormal vibrations during the last few days (construction, etc.)? Sometimes this has been suspected of causing premature birth in live bearing species. The stress of moving may have done it too. Hard to say.

Chris

 

[Sepioteuthis]

Sorry to hear that Suzanne. Has there been any abnormal vibrations during the last few days (construction, etc.)? Sometimes this has been suspected of causing premature birth in live bearing species. The stress of moving may have done it too. Hard to say.

Chris

No, no abnormal vibrations.
I do have another gravid female that mated in early Feb with the same male. We'll see how she does in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed.

 

[merumontanus]

No, no abnormal vibrations.
I do have another gravid female that mated in early Feb with the same male. We'll see how she does in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for documenting the event here, Suzanne. I'm glad to hear she's doing well.

Fabián

 

[AJA]

Fabian, do these neonates look premature to you based on the photo?