Baby axolotls

[norman]

am new to axolotls and just got surprise with some newborns. what do you feed axolotls that are under a week old. about 1/8 inch long

 

[jeff]

brine shrimp and daphnia

 

[norman]

frozen brine shrimp?

 

[joan]

Newly hatched often won't eat anything that's not alive.

Hatch some brine shrimp.

 

[norman]

no idea how to do that

 

[deb]

Norman you should check out the fabulous information by Jennifer Macke at http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml
Also go to www.axolotls.org for masses of useful guidance.

 

[paul]

MICROWORMS ARE A GREAT FIRST FOOD AS WELL. They live for a long time in the water, they sink to where the young can get them readily and they are easy and inexpensive to culture.

 

[al]

Paul,
Do you have a good source info. to get started on a microworm culture?

 

[deb]

Try the same web page I gave you by Jennifer Macke (see the message 2 above this one). We bought a plastic container of microworms from a pet shop and made our own from that. We wet 2 slices of white bread and rubbed a smear of the original culture over the bread. Put them in a lidded plastic pot with tiny holes punched in the lid and they will be seething with worms within a week.

They muck up the water and they are not as nutritious as BBS but a great ongoing source of food for larvae.

 

[jennifer]

Hi Al, the cheapest place I've found microworm cultures is aquabid.com

 

[al]

Thanks Jenn, I was reading you article on microworms...very nice and helpful. I'm thinking of branching out this coming season and trying other microfoods. I've gotten lazy with shrimp cultures and blackworms. It's usually that first 3-5 week period that I'm frantic with my cultures.

 

[joseph]

Microworms have worked well for me...great for the first week or so of life. Just be sure not to feed too many or they annoy the larvae.

However, they are a hassle in that you have to consistently start new cultures, and if you don't need more worms than 1 culture can provide it is hard to justify making back-ups. I lost mine this spring, but have so far done fine without them. Might want to obtain some again if I end up raising lots of larvae as although they are a hassle they are also very convenient...well, you get my drift.