Feeding larvae

Quentari

Quentari

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Quentari
Okay so slight problem.

My babies are almost seven days old. I got some brine shrimp when I first got the eggs and so far I've only had one successful batch. On the second day my first batch of brine shrimp hatched. None have hatched since. I haven't been able to get any new eggs from any stores near me so I'm going to have to look on eBay but everything seems to have long shipping.

I'm starting to get worried for my little babies, they're kind of skinny. I've called every pet store in my area looking for daphania but with absolutely no luck. In the meantime I've been crushing pellets and shredding frozen blood worms for them, but they barely nibble at it because none of it moves.

So far no casualties, but I really need to find food that doesn't have 1-3 weeks shipping. Is there anything anyone can suggest?? A friend said dried egg yolk and a lady at a pet store gave me some liquid fry food which I'll be trying out. I really don't want any of them to die!
 
I buy mine from Kappooww on Ebay. They arrive the next day for me in Syd, so I think you'd get them within 1-2 days. They're magnetic, but you don't have to use them that way. I use them the normal way and the hatch rate is fantastic.
kappooww | eBay

Otherwise this SA seller ships them overnight. I was really surprised that I ordered them in the afternoon and they came the next day. Brine Shrimp Eggs 100G BAG Ocean Nutrition Artemia Free Overnight AIR Freight | eBay

Are you adding half a teaspoon of bicarb soda (or baking powder) to your brine shrimp hatching water? I find this helps a lot. So does using actual sea water from the beach. If you set the hatchery in a bucket of water or small tank with a heater set to 26 degrees you'll have bbs in around 12-24 hours.

Getting the knack of it is a little tricky but you'll soon set up a system that works for you.

Another thing to try might be daphnia. Jacquie from Melb sends them overnight, but if you're close to her you might be able to pick them up? She sells them as a culture, but I'm sure she could just sell you pure daphnia and enough green water to keep them alive until you can get your bbs going.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f49-ad...new-zealand/89125-daphnia-sale-australia.html
 
BBS are supposed to be easy to hatch - but it's not quite as simple as it should be!

I found they needed to be kept warm. I had one unsuccessful attempt at hatching - after 36 hours I had about a dozen BBS! So I warmed it up a little, and the next batch was much better - about 80% hatched. I did find they don't last long once hatched, so setting up a new batch almost daily seems to be needed.

Looks liek yo have some great local contacts for daphnia though!
 
Thanks everyone!!

I'm having lots of trouble keeping them warm, I think that's my main problem. All the la,ps in the house are those "non-heat" kid safety ones so that didn't help at all and my hatchery is a soft drink bottle, much too small for a heater.

Not to mention my dear little lop bunny ate my air cable so I need to replace that too -.-
 
Big W sell really cheap heaters in the pet section. If you stick the hatchery and the heater in a bucket of water you should be all set. :happy:
 
elim said:
Big W sell really cheap heaters in the pet section. If you stick the hatchery and the heater in a bucket of water you should be all set. :happy:
Click to expand...

I've never even been to the pet section of Big W, I'm usually a Kmart kinda girl :rolleyes: I'll check that out tomorrow. Daphania are being purchased and if I get a heater tomorrow I'll give one more go with the bbs eggs I already have.
 
Yep, Kmart is pretty awesome ;)

Good luck! So long as they have the right temp, some bicarb soda and the right salinity levels in the water you should see results. If not, then your eggs are duds.

I recently bought some from Thailand, just because they were ridiculously cheap and I thought what the heck, but they ended up being useless. Not one hatched. I was thinking maybe the customs xray machines might damage them? I don't know, long shot I guess. But still, probably best to buy aussie seller eggs.
 
I didn't even know big W had a pets section...... might have to check it out, i'm thinking of up-sizing my axie tank..... but ima K-mart person too
 
Some BigW's have a garden centre instead of a large pet section. If that's the case at your local shop, then they probably only have a small aisle dedicated to pets :)
 
My pets section at Big W was pitiful, but I have a little culture of daphania going. Little guys are looking much better now! It looks like I have about 6 Wild Types and 15 melanoids, 21 out of the 27 sent to me isn't bad! only one didn't hatch and I thought I'd have a lot less at the two-week mark, despite the food problem I'm not doing too badly!
 
woops no, I counted 4 wild types as melanoids. 10 wild, 11 melanoid
 
Quentari said:
woops no, I counted 4 wild types as melanoids. 10 wild, 11 melanoid
Click to expand...

I had a quick look at my guys tonight and I'm thinking there are more melanoids than I first thought ...... Will try to check better tomorrow, maybe they are all melanoids, couldn't see any shiny eye rings ???

Was also thinking of getting some daphnia from on here but don't know how to handle them -- oh well, off to do more research I guess ;)
 
Just my personal opinion but i found daphnia far easier than bbs and bs when i had little ones, less worry about the salt water and hatching them ect, just set them up in a tub feed them and then take as many as you need without having to worry about them dying in your lottle water and fouling it :D
 
I'm getting the hang of harvesting daphania, I think my lotl's are thanking me for it! Might not bother with more brine shrimp if I can help it
 
Yep, agree BBS are fiddly and can be unreliable at times. I had trouble finding daphnia at the time I needed them and wasn't confident to try them.

Glad my babies are growing a little so I can wean them onto bloodworms or blackworms soon. Tried a little chopped blackworms last night and the larger babies went ballistic, loved them :D
 
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