How big should 3 wk A. maculatum be?

[karen]

My two larvae, sadly the only survivors out of the 20 that hatched, seem very small. I'm not at all sure they are eating well although they have live blackworms and frozen bloodworms available.
The larger of the two is nearly an inch long; the other is noticeably smaller. I'm guessing that this is not normal growth rate, but I was wondering.

 

[joan]

Get them smaller live food, such as brine shrimp or daphnia. Blackworms are too big yet, and they wont see the frozen bloodworms as food because they're not moving. At 3 weeks, 1" or so is a pretty good size.

 

[karen]

I was looking very closely - and they have legs! Tiny little almost-transparent front legs!

I don't have any way to get daphnia, and I tried brineshrimp but they were messy and the larvae disn't eat them. I'm trying a microworm culture which I should be able to harvest soon. Until then, the blackworms and bloodworms are all I have.

 

[joan]

Well, then I'd keep trying with the blackworms. If they're getting front legs, you also need to watch for cannibalism if they're not the same size. But keep trying!