I decided to start a new achievement thread, to help fellow simmers who might be needing it. At the moment, it still could be typos galore, though, so I will most likely have to edit it several times....
I've had a few mermaid babies. They get leg scales when they ate up to toddler. Don't need to worry about hydration. Probably not till they are teens. My one child mermaid doesn't seem to have a problem.