Babies every where, is there cheaper food?

[khenderson21]

the babies hatched (about 2 weeks ago) finally. we've been feeding baby brine shrimp to about 600 babies and it is getting kinda expensive. is there anything that is cheaper but still as healthy? are there any good websites to buy food for them as they grow? should we seperate them when they get hind legs or when they start to change size? Anyone know anyone that wants any?
Thanks,
k

 

[Jake]

Brineshrimp are the cheapest food to feed them, other than micro foods you can culture yourself, but you'd need a lot of space to culture food indoors for 600 larvae.

Since this is obviously your first time raising larvae, you might not want to attempt to raise so many. You'll need a LOT of space for them when they get to be about 2 inches long. If you don't have them separated out well enough, they'll end up eating each others' limbs. It would probably be best to start out raising a few dozen. I raise several several hundred every few months, but it takes more dedication than a full time job. You can't take a vacation from all of the water changes, and you always need a good back-up supply of food to give the larvae, just in case you run out.

When the larvae get bigger, so does the price of their food. I feed them frozen bloodworms when they reach about 1-1.5 inches. A pound of brineshrimp is about enough to get 800 larvae up to the size where they'll feed on frozen bloodworms.

Have you read the breeding/rearing sections of www.axolotl.org/ yet?

You can find both at http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/

Good luck with the larvae.

-Jake

 

[Jennewt]

How much tank/tub space are you planning? Another expense in raising 600 of them will be the number of containers you will have to set up. Unless you start planning this now, you may have to witness massive morality as they become overcrowded as they grow.

I don't know of any cheaper food. If you buy a lot of bs eggs from the website Jake recommended, that will be cheaper than buying small packets at a pet shop.

If you haven't found a source of live blackworms yet, I recommend that you start looking. Call all your local pet shops, and if they don't have any, consider mail order. After a couple of weeks on bbs, axie larvae can switch over to (or supplement with) chopped blackworms.

Anyone know anyone that wants any?

If you are offering them, I recommend posting in the "for sale/give away" section of the forum.

 

[michael]

I missed the part where it was mentioned what was being hatched. My guess is we are talking about axolotls. If it is axolotls I'd raise them on baby brine shrimp till they are big enough to eat small salmon pellets. I think that is the cheapest route. The best place to get brine shrimp cysts is brineshrimpdirect.com

 

[mary_kate]

Unless you start planning this now, you may have to witness massive morality as they become overcrowded as they grow.

Jen I've just been enjoying a laugh at the thought that overcrowding might result in massive morality It's never worked with humans!

 

[Jennewt]

LOL, that's one of those errors that a spell checker would never catch.