'Forced' hatching?

[auntiejude]

When I changed to water in my axie tank on Friday I noticed some movement in the waste water. On closer inspection it was actually 2 tiny baby axies!

I think what happened was I missed some eggs when I removed them from the tank the eggs were damaged when they go siphoned up, in effect 'forcing' the babies to hatch - do you think this is the case? The rest of the eggs are twitching and due to hatch this week.

They are doing OK, I have them in a little tub together, they are swimming around (I have called them Alpha and Beta) and I'm offering them BBS daily, but I don't think they are eating. I know they often don't eat for the first 24 hours as they as still using their yolk, but is it normal not to eat for 3 days? Or could they be eating and I'm just not seeing it (even though I'm watching them for 30 minutes at a time)?

 

[layna]

They can not eat for up to 72 hours, it just depends how slow they eat their egg sac
I would just put one or two bbs in at a time and look to see if they are eaten, then add more when they have been eaten i found a magnifying glass very helpful when i had axie babies and their tiny food hehe
I would also try to get them on to daphnia as soon as possible so you can just drop them in the water and leave the babies to it, i once sourced some daphnia that were tiny, a little bigger than bbs and my newly hatched axies loved them as they could chase them round and eat them all haha.

 

[auntiejude]

I'll be getting them on to daphnia as soon as they are big enough! They are 9mm right now, and I have a little magnifying glass.

 

[Gemmy]

In my experience when my hatchlings have eaten BBS they get little orange bellys. Usually when they've not eaten there's not much of a sign of a stomach sticking out at the side.

Also with baby brine shrimp there's not as much of a need to 'snap' at them as I've seen done with daphnia since the BBS moves so slowly so if they have been eating that might be why it's not been noticable?

 

[auntiejude]

No orange bellies, no obvious widening of bellies. I wasn't watching for snapping per se, but I was watching for orange bellies, even though they are all speckly on top they are pale underneath.

But they are still going strong, and their siblings are starting to hatch too. I'll keep offering BBS, they'll either eat them or not....

 

[SkollSunChaser]

Did the little guys come around?

 

[auntiejude]

Oh yes! I called them Alpha and Beta, they did fine after a couple of days and are now 13mm long. I have them in with thier siblings - I now have over 50 babies chomping through BBS at an alarming rate!
There are pictures of my babies here