Just a few questions

[heather]

1. I have been feeding my larvae once a day. Should I feed twice a day?

2. My larvae are currently in plastic storage bins 30cm long and 17cm wide, wiht about fifteen in each bin, do they need more space/

3. Whenever I feed i always seem to get alot of shells in to the bins along with the shrimp, i wait for it to settle but it doesnt seem to matter. Is there a way to not get so many shells?

4. Petey my Golden albino is five and a half inches long. His toes just went black, Is he mature? I think he might be a girl!

 

[cynthia]

Heather - I fed my larvae twice a day. I tried to keep them with full orange bellies.

I separated mine by head size of larvae (the ones with larger heads generally swallowed the ones with smaller heads) and then by body size.

Not always to bigger containers but fewer larva to each container. I was using closet storage boxes that were about 24 inches by 18 inches. I had a few containers that were larger(the sweater box size).

If nothing else you will know when they need more space because they will start eating each other.

What kind of shrimp hatchery did you get? Some shrimp hatcheries are not as easy to harvest from as others.

You can try putting the shrimp you have rinsed into a small clear jar with about an inch of clean water and letting them settle. Then use a syringe to suck the shrimp from the bottom of the jar.

I have read that black toes mean they are mature. I have a golden albino that has a few black toes too. It has a really broad head and rounder body and I have always thought it was female, but I am still not sure because all 3 of mine all look the same cloaca wise, but not body wise and they are all about the same age.

(Message edited by cynorita on January 24, 2005)

 

[heather]

I use a home maid hatchery, its just a two liter pepsi bottle turned upside down with a hole in the new top. I dont think im going to have the canabalism problem qite yet, they are all the same size more or less, not any drastic differences. That is not as drastic as smaller ones being small enough to eat.

 

[cynthia]

I am glad they are all still doing good

Please keep us posted on their progress.

 

[michael]

I use the soda bottle hatchery. I turn of the air a couple minutes before harvest. Put a light shining at the bottom of the hatchery. Suck of the very bottom with a turkey baster. Strain through a brine shrimp net. I feed once a day from a hatch set up a day and a half before. Right now I'm going through one heaping table spoon of artemia cysts a day. I get a few cysts in the harvest but not to many. If their is to much air everything turns to mush. Not enough air and you get a poor hatch. If you try to keep the baby brine to long they die. I wouldn't put more than a table spoon of cysts in a bottle. You probably need much less. I use brineshrimpdirect premium cysts.

 

[heather]

Out of curiosity of what they would do with pellets I crushed some up and put it in their buckets. They ate it! Hurray! now I won't have to hatch so many shrimp.....Or will I? Do salmon pellets pack enough nutrients for a baby axie? I still feed shrimp but not as much.

They are growing so fast, *sniffles* its hard to think that im going to have to sell them all so soon.

Oh and one more question:
Will they develop more dark pigment as they age?

 

[michael]

If you can get them to consistently eat the pellets that should be plenty of nutrition. I haven't had good luck with feeding pellets to newly hatched axolotls but once they get a little size on them they do well on salmon pellets.

 

[charlie]

maybe i should try that?...at the minute mine are romping through gallons of daphnia each day (ok, so that was a slight exaggeration!)

 

[heather]

Yeah, we were going through a bunch of shrimp, but they kept dieing...
i guess they are going to have to get used to the pellets