Babys not eating help ??

[robbrown]

Hi well i got my batch of axxie eggs through the post the other day 45 eggs ish, i currently have 35 babies about 13-15mm there all mostly brownish but there are two that are a goldy colour, im getting worried because i have them in a small tupperware tub with about an inch of water, they have plenty of room to swim around in but they all just sit on the bottom of the tub, i have been feeding them vinegar eels but they never move around to get them, at least not while im watching, they started hatching on the 5th of june so they are nearly 20 days old, i have been dropping liquifry in the tub also and doing regular water changes to siphon out all the **** (must be vinegar eels) floating around,

they must be eating something because they are still alive and will dart away if the water is disturbed, im just wondering if there is something im doing wrong or if they are always this lazy?

Any help is apreciated thanks

 

[yellowpebble]

they will always just sit around. They wil almost never move unless desturbed. They can't see or smell yet, they sence their prey by waiting in one place and snapping when something moves past its face. They must be eating something if they have survived 20 days! Have they grown at all? The have a fast groth rate so if they are growing, they are eating. Why are you not feeding brine shrimp? its an almost fail free method of feeding, they love it.

 

[Anette]

I don't see why they wouldn't be eating the vinegar eels. They wouldn't be growing otherwise. Do their stomachs look full?

 

[robbrown]

i dont know i cant really see their bellys, their heads are getting pretty big though, ive noticed that some of them are floating on one side ?

 

[Kaysie]

The floaters are probably not getting enough to eat.

Yellowpebble is absolutely right: they just wait for food to swim by.

 

[laalflaach]

If you do a search for DIY Brine Shrimp Hatchery on google, the info is pretty straight forward to produce enough shrimp to feed all your babies.
I replaced the jar with a 2 litre bottle with the top cut off. Once I have started one bottle, the next day I start another. You use a t-section to connect two pipes, one for each bottle, and a small clamp to regulate the bubble flow from the air pump.
Brine shrimp eggs are available on ebay, and rock salt from tesco. Measuring spoons from Wilkos, 4 tsps of rock salt dissolved in warm water, 1/4 tsp brine shrimp eggs, one air pump to move the water, oh and one lamp about five pounds from wilkos, to keep the heat going.
Check out my setup in my pics, it never fails. I have a tub filled with gravel now to stand the bottles in for safety, and balance. Honestly the babies cant get enough. I leave the shrimp in for around 45 mins, (they are turkey basted into a filter shape made out of kitchen towel, and rinsed gently twice under the tap), just to make sure the babies are well fed, I split babies into several tubs (chinese tubs are perfect) to make cleaning quicker and easier.

I turkey baste (Wilkos again, 52p) the water out so far, then I gently tip the tub over a small container, sift the water and the babies slide with the water flow into a tablespoon held against the corner, one or two at a time. They are so used to it now, they wait in the corner for their turn on the water slide. Frogbit, a plant in my photos, also available on ebay, is good for babies to shelter underneath and to aerate the water. I sometimes have to clean the root filaments as shrimp eggs get caught in them, but anyway, it works so definitely give it a try!

 

[robbrown]

Thanks for the comments guys ive put some of my daphnia in that seems to be taking of okayish, i have been having some problems with the vinegar eelsthey seem to be an orange colour instead of white what does this mean?? i prefer daphnia i suppose as it is a lot easier to transfer into the tub with the axies, also you cant really culture BBS and im on a bit of a tigh budget at the momennt especially as the month is coming to an end. bring on payday, ive set up 4 jars ready for my bbs when i can afford some eggs so hopefully it works the thing is that ive seen people say different things, when i let the water settle afte x amount of hours do i take the bbs from the top the middle or the bottom of the jar??? my babies are running on steam at the moment guys they cant be eating the daphnia because there is still loads left in the tub and the daphnia are just getting bigger. hlep

 

[Aaran]

I find mine at daphnia all the time, only when they were near them though. They dont seem to move until yuo see a jerk, they have what looks like lumps at the side of their tummys when there bellies are full, when you pick your daphnia try to get smallest ones possible, you may find they are too big for the babies to pick off. if you have a pipette, try seperating the bigger ones? Also it could help to get them into more seperate tubs and feed them a little to test if they are eating, then add more if they do Try to watch them, granted most people dont have the time but its the only way to know for sure (other than looking on their underside to see if there tummys are orange

Sometimes you have to accept babies just wont eat. one of mine ate, very intermitently of course and then it died about a week later, i got it to eat daily just natures way.

 

[laalflaach]

Thanks for the comments guys ive put some of my daphnia in that seems to be taking of okayish, i have been having some problems with the vinegar eelsthey seem to be an orange colour instead of white what does this mean?? i prefer daphnia i suppose as it is a lot easier to transfer into the tub with the axies, also you cant really culture BBS and im on a bit of a tigh budget at the momennt especially as the month is coming to an end. bring on payday, ive set up 4 jars ready for my bbs when i can afford some eggs so hopefully it works the thing is that ive seen people say different things, when i let the water settle afte x amount of hours do i take the bbs from the top the middle or the bottom of the jar??? my babies are running on steam at the moment guys they cant be eating the daphnia because there is still loads left in the tub and the daphnia are just getting bigger. hlep

You cant culture brine shrimp as such, as they are new born when they hatch, you would need a growing on tank which would take weeks, with the method I mentioned you would have brine shrimp hatching around every two days, within the two days you would have enough to feed your babies very well, whilst the next lot is hatching.

You only need to leave them for 10 minutes for the water to settle, hatched eggs lie on the waters surface, unhatched eggs on the very bottom, and shrimp somewhere in the middle. I had a magnifying glass at first to see them, now they are very recognisable, if you place the jar near a window or shine a torch at the side for 10 minutes they cluster together, an orangey pink swarm, so they are easier to baste out. When I am finished I put the jar back onto the air pump just to keep them moving around and get the unhatched eggs to hatch. Dont panic though, easy enough to say, as I panicked terribly, so I know what you are going through.

And the problem I had with daphnia was that the babies would eat the tiny ones and leave the large ones coz they were too big. So I started a daphnia farm which seems to be doing very well. Just leave a large tub outside with water in for a few weeks till it starts going a bit green and its perfect for daphnia. Top up with water as it evaporates. I just purchased a daphnia and tubifex farm off ebay and added the previous daphnia to it, unlimited food here we come, well in a few weeks anyway.

Keep up the good work, you are doing so well, dont give up!!