Chinese Fire Belly Newt egg questions

[Aplestris]

Hi
My CFBNs finally began laying and I have collected 15 or so and placed them in sets of about 5 in small containers. I noticed a few had become 'fluffy' with some white fuzz covering them. Does this mean they are dead? I wasn't able to change the water for about 4 days so I cleaned it today.
They are in small food containers (have not been used for food or have not been cleaned with any soap or chemicals) about 15cm long and 8cm wide.
One has hatched so far and I placed it into a goldfish bowl by itself. as it was unexpected I haven't got any daphnia or anything to feed them which hopefully I can get tomorrow.
So the main points:
1) what's the white fuzz? Is the egg dead? Will changing water daily stop this?
2) Will they eat daphnia after their yolk has been absorbed?
3) Any tips?
Thanks for any help :happy:

 

[stanleyc]

The white fuzzy stuff should be fungus; those eggs are done, just just remove those before it spreads. They should eat daphnia and it's a great food choice. I've also raised mine on chopped tubifex worms before as well, so if you have those available, you might want to give them a try as well.

 

[evut]

Any egg which goes opaque/cloudy should be thrown away immediately. Don't try to save any eggs which aren't developing well by themselves. I would recommend to do water changes in the tubs daily, with cycled water from the original tank. Do the same for the larvae. If you put some plant cuttings from the tank in with them, it will give them hiding places and extra surfaces with beneficial bacteria. Just make sure the plants don't rot. Don't put too many larvae together and keep them well fed so that they don't snack on each other. A good option is live baby brine shrimp (BBS), also known as artemia. There are many tutorials for making hatcheries around the internet.
Have a look at the Reproduction and rearing articles here, they will answer many questions.

 

[Aplestris]

Thankyou for the help.:happy: I have 4 larvae now, 2 have are slightly better developed with small gills and stubs that I am guessing to be the future front legs. I have added a lot of daphnia in too. They are currently in a gold fish bowl (without a gold fish of course). The oldest is about a week and a few days old but I have not seen one eat.
The articles claimed they would begin to eat a few days after hatching but I can not see this. Apparently they make a hopping motion when eating? I will try to keep an eye on them though. They are near a slightly opened window so they are kept cooler than my other indoor pets but not so much so.
I will be adding a few plants.

 

[Jennewt]

For the first few days, they don't eat. If you can still see yellow on their belly, that's yolk, and they don't eat until it's gone. If they are kept cold, then this might take up to a week.

Also, if they have daphnia all the time, you'll never see them eat. They might only eat one daphnia per hour, and what are the chances that you'll be watching at that moment? If you let them go with no food available for a whole day, then add daphnia, you'll see them hop to it.

 

[Aplestris]

Thankyou jennewt for clearing that. Actually, watching them for about 5-10 minutes (I have no life) I have started to see them 'hopping'. The biggest of them must now be around 1cm long.