Question: BBS or Daphnia in Kitchener-Waterloo - ASAP??

[e23ho]

Hi there
My axolotls hatched about 14 days ago (give or take - they hatched over a 5-day period) and they've been eating microworms well until a few days ago, when they began to eat less and some (mostly defective ones but some apparently healthy ones too) have been slowly dying off - I've even noticed one larvae that had a chunk bitten out of it; I'm fairly sure they've grown out of microworms.

I ordered BBS online last week but the darn shipment won't be here until late next week; none of my LFS have live daphnia or BBS/eggs, and none of them know where to find any. I've been trying to get the aquatic lab on campus at my University to sell me some but they have so far 'encouraged' me to look elsewhere despite my efforts.

Is anyone in the Kitchener-Waterloo area who can help? The larvae are growing somewhat slowly (i.e. none of them have even started growing legs yet, and the largest ones - at 2 weeks old - are barely 2cm) due to the lack of appropriately-sized foods and it's becoming somewhat urgent.

Help? I've got 100+ hungry mouths to feed and no appropriate food anywhere in sight! I would swish around thawed bloodworms but as a Master's student in the last 2 weeks of term I don't have the time to spend additional hours feeding them (cleaning takes enough time) - I barely have time to feed myself!

Thanks in advance,
Elaine

 

[Coastal Groovin]

You should try finding live black worms at a tropical fish store and chop them up with a razorblade. Normally your better stores that carry saltwater fish and corals will have them.

 

[e23ho]

Been to Big Al's - the most likely place (and the only place I know of here which sells marine) - and they only had frozen foods. Also tried a specialty reptile/amphibian store; they offered to sell me tiny fruit fly larvae but I didn't know if that'd work so I gave up.

I'm getting a kit sent overnight from Toronto (or driven in tonight if my other half can manage it) - hopefully I can keep them alive until the eggs hatch. Even in Toronto it was a nightmare to find!

Thanks though - I've heard good things about blackworms and I'd be curious to try them; cutting up bloodworms failed miserably - I tried it last night.

 

[e23ho]

Thanks everyone for your help on this and other threads,

As of today, my last 5 larvae have passed . I've learned a lot and hopefully next year I'll have better luck, especially with the food. I resent having to rely on others' supply for food and that's what got me to this point, so I'm, hoping to have my own daphnia and BBS supply at hand for most of the year next year, ready for any other eggs that come up.

Keep the support going, this forum is awesome.
Elaine

 

[Gavin Hunter]

I have Daphnia and people on GTA aquarists site give it away for free!

Gavin

 

[e23ho]

Hi Gavin,

I'm between Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto as I move back to Toronto right now - where are you? Nice to meet another Canadian! It's a bit late as I've lost all my larvae, but I'm planning to start a culture and just keep them all year round so that when I do have another batch I'm ready for them. Also, is this GTAaquaria you're talking about or Aquarist.info?

Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it.
Elaine

 

[xxianxx]

Sorry im a bit late to help, I saw a post on people feeding cooked egg yolk to larvae, wouldn't try it myself if I had BBS or daphnia available but it would have been worth a try if they were going to starve anyway.

 

[e23ho]

Thanks Ian .

 

[Gavin Hunter]

Exactly a year ago I was stuck and bought Daphnia from Sachs in Florida.I still have the colony going today. I just seeded a 90 gal. diamond tank.Use green water or activated yeast solution.

Gavin

 

[e23ho]

Exactly a year ago I was stuck and bought Daphnia from Sachs in Florida.I still have the colony going today. I just seeded a 90 gal. diamond tank.Use green water or activated yeast solution.

Gavin

Wow. Thanks Gavin! I'll get a small colony running just as a back-up to be prepared for when they do breed again!