Babies dying

[lee]

just recently we had 300 babies born and yesterday and today we have notest alot have died today there must of been about 130 that died.any one got any ideas why there dying so fast we have split the babys up in 2 diff buckets both have oxygen and give them both 20% water changes every day also feed them dafnia and brine shrimp can the food kill them by attacking the babys as i notest on quite a few of them theres dead food attatched to them when the babys are dead please can any one help as we want to save as many babies as pos thanks

 

[jennifer]

Even 2 huge buckets is probably not big enough for 300 axie larvae. The most likely reason is water quality. Unless you were doing daily 100% water changes, there just wasn't enough water to support the waste products from that many animals. Have you tested for ammonia?

The foods you are using sound perfect. You just need to raise FEWER larvae! I would suggest taking out about 10 of the best looking ones, keeping them in a separate container and really pampering them. You can try to raise the rest, but what you are seeing is the usual problem with trying to raise too many.

See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/why_larvae_die.shtml

 

[lee]

ill do that then but this morning i nottest there was more dead in the bigger tub the biger tub is about 2 and a half foot by 2 foot thats the tub the babys are dying in but hardly any deaths in the smaller tub wich they seem happy i dont want them all to die so ill seperate them like you said thank you for repling. p.s how many do you normaly get out of a littler or 300

 

[jennifer]

Bacterial infection is also possible (read the little story at the end of the article I linked). Be sure to test for ammonia.

I don't understand your last question... do you mean how many eggs do axolotls usually produce in one litter? It varies, but it's usually more than one household can raise

 

[lee]

what i mean is when they all hatch how many survive out a litter of 300. i will get an ammonia test kit 2moro have you ever raised babies jennifer if so how did you get on

 

[jennifer]

If all got very good care, and they were not wiped out by an infection, I would expect over 275 adult axolotls from 300 eggs. There are usually a few mutants and weaklings that don't do well, but all the rest are capable of growing up.

 

[lee]

the babies are alot beter now hardly any deaths when do they stop dying compleatly.got abot 90 babys and they look strong

 

[heihei]

As long as you can keep them well fed with plenty of live food and water changed regularly. Also, as they grow, you'll notice a distinct size difference, the stronger ones/ones that get the most food will be larger. Separate them by size then into containers, otherwise you might find the bigger ones will try to swallow/eat the littles ones if they are hungry; and could lose them that way.

(Message edited by heihei on February 03, 2007)

 

[jennifer]

If the babies stopped dieing, then the problem was probably water quality, not infection.

By the way, my previous post was not exactly accurate. From 300 eggs, it depends on fertility. Sometimes a batch of eggs isn't entirely fertilized, then the number you would get is lower. If they are all fertile, then my answer holds.

Keep us posted, and good luck!

 

[lee]

the babies are growing now there two weeks old still a few deaths but not like there was.when do they grow out the death stage and what food do i fead them now. im still feeding them dafnia and brine shrimp shale i try them some thing diffrent. also thanks for the repies

 

[heihei]

Daphnia and brineshrimp are good to continue and if you still have them. I only stopped using brineshrimp when I finished the last batch of eggs when they were about a month, then continued solely on daphnia till I discovered mosquito larvae and bloodworm in one of the buckets.

 

[denise]

I have now had four spawnings - all have died apart from a few yet to hatch from the last lot - water is fine - I feed live Daphnia - oldest got to about two weeks then keeled over - any ideas would be appreciated

 

[jennifer]

What exactly do you mean by "water is fine"? How many did have in each container (and what size container)? How deep was the water, and was there airation?

If you can really truly rule out all other causes (see link I gave above), then bacterial infection is a possibility. What products are available in England for fish diseases?