7 weeks 2 days since hatching only 22mm long?

[RuthiePee]

It's 7 weeks and 2 days since my eggs hatched, (from 23 eggs I have 3 survivors) and the remaining look healthy (are not housed together) with front legs but they are still only 22mm long. From blogs and posts I think these are tiny....I am feeling them baby brine and then daphnia, they are not interested in the high protein pellets I bought or bloodworm, though I keep trying.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

 

[Neil C]

They are still far to young to be eating pellets but keep trying with the frozen bloodworm. If you can buy live blackworms/bloodworms these would be much more likely to provoke a feeding response.


Regards Neil

 

[RuthiePee]

Thanks Neil, I thought the same but the reptile shop owner thought he knew best! I will trust my instincts in future. I will try live bloodworm, defrosting all these cubes for three bloodworms at a time is hardly economical! Can live ones be kept for long? Thank you

 

[Hamamelis]

If you get a bag of good live ones as soon as they come in to the pet shop, open asap and keep it in a tub in the fridge, they'll last at least 2 weeks, maybe 3. If you don't open the bag, they'll be dead in a week, even if you do keep them cold.

By the way, 22mm seems a little small to be eating bloodworm to me; they'll only be able to fit in the very smallest. Daphnia might be better at this stage, and they'll form their own colony from a starter few if you put them in a sunny spot.

 

[RuthiePee]

Thank you for the advice re: storage. I used to work in an aquatics shop many moons ago and absolutely hated the bags of live food- they used to give me the creeps! Quite funny looking back at that when I chop up earthworms and all sorts for my axies lol I chopped some defrosted frozen bloodworms in half and they loved them! I'm sure they've grown a lot in 48 hours, and their colour seems to be changing too. Thanks so much