How many daphnia do hatchlings eat?

[Oddish]

This post will be like watching paint dry for most but I thought it might help those who are having a go at hatchling, like myself.

One of the issues that seems to occur for newbies is that we fear the hatchlings aren't eating and will die.

So I painstakingly added five small daphnia to each of my individually housed hatchlings and counted what was left this morning!

There are 18 hatchlings aged between 2 and 11 days old. I found that the newest still hadn't begun to eat and the eldest were eating up to three daphnia ( they consumed those over a 20 hour period ).

Results:

8 hatchlings ate nothing
5 hatchlings ate 1 daphnia
2 hatchlings ate 2 daphnia
3 hatchlings ate 3 daphnia.


Boring experiment over! Thankyou for reading roud:

 

[AxolotlChris]

If you have enough daphnia, use it! Daphnia does not foul the water and will survive until eaten.

 

[Oddish]

Good point! I should have stressed that this was an experiment and mine are housed individually in very small pods so could easily catch the daphnia.

You wouldn't want to put just five in a huge tub and expect the hatchlings to catch them!


Was interesting though. I dont want to limit the daphnia, I just wanted to check which of my Axolotl were feeding. Couldn't catch them in the act and couldn't think of another way other than count out the daphnia :wacko:

I fear, I have too much time on my hands...

 

[Bellabelloo]

I think this could be quite interesting to see how much food an individual larva consumes at various stages of development. Please keep it going

 

[Oddish]

Will do!

 

[Denaye]

Where do/did you get daphnia from?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

 

[ron1fritsch]

I have 2 tiger salamander larvae in one container. I bought 130 daphni from Caroline Supply company.

ALL 130 daphnia were gone in 36 hours in the aquarium. Best feedings I had up to this point in the season.

 

[AxolotlChris]

Look on aquatic websites. Local aquatic stores are cheaper

 

[JM29]

Very interesting.
A problem remains :
Daphnia can have a different size depending on the species, the age, the pond and the season.
Then I suppose the number of daphnia a hatchling eats will depend on the size of the daphnia.