100% water change - how?

[blueberlin]

How do you go about changing 100% of a larva's (or any axolotl's) water? Don't they need to be in water at all times?

... (gosh I hope the answer to this is not totally obvious)...

 

[Kaysie]

First, why are you doing 100% water changes?

If it's in a small container, just dump out the water and pour new water in. The few seconds they're without water isn't that stressful. If it's a large tank, move them to a small container, and drain it, and fill it back up.

 

[Jake]

When I have a lot of larvae in a big tub and am feeding them on brine shrimp, a turkey baster works wonders for the first few weeks. Just take a smaller container full of water and suck the larvae up in the baster then hold it so the tip is straight down and wait until most of the babies have settled in the bottom and gently release them into the new container until you have all of them out and then use aged water to replace the water in the original tub.

When they get too big for a baster, I use a brine shrimp net and catch a couple at a time to place them in the new water.

 

[blueberlin]

I have the larvae in nursery baskets (nets) inside of larger containers. I have them in the baskets because this keeps them separated and because it's easier to feed them and clean out the dead food. It's easy enough to pick up the basket and set it into fresh water, too - but I have always had the impression that this freaks them out. They are quite jumpy afterward, hypersensitive to noise, movement, etc.

So far I haven't done a 100% water change. The larvae have only been in the containers for two nights (they had been hanging around the sides of the parents' aquarium), so that yesterday was the first water change. So I wondered how I could change out more water than I did yesterday, which got me to wondering how a person does a 100% water change.

Thanks,

-Eva

 

[Daniel]

If it is a smaller number of larvae in small containers, I use a brine shrimp net, too. I pour them with the water into the net and set them into a new container with aged water. I personally make sure that the water has the same temperature, therefore I have several buckets of water standing in my cellar.

In bigger tanks it is easier to remove the larvae for a complete water change - small larvae with a turkey baster, larger ones with a bigger pipe.

 

[vanillaXtiffy]

My larvae kept dying until I started doing daily 100% changes. I have 2 of the same container. I prepare the new one first, then baste them into it and wash the other one out and save it for the next day.

 

[philbaker76]

I've only done 100% water changes when I've suspected a bacterial infection.

Usually I stick to 30% water change a week. But I suspect it depends on what you feed them; e.g. I assume the dead BBS will foul the water quicker than a culture of daphnia living in there.

When I did a 100% water change - all I did was pick out the larvae with a turkey baster, put them in a holding pot (take-away tub) - get a new tank (or clean old).

Then turkey baster them from holding pot to new/clean tank.