Larvae are born. No BBS. Suggestions?

[Sputnik733]

Hatching BBS hasn't worked out, not entirely sure where I went wrong. Larvae are 3 days without food. Looking for any suggestions on what can be done. Pet stores are out of the question, none exist within a 100km that sell live food (bbs, blackworms, etc..)

Thanks in advance.

 

[jewett]

Caudata Culture Articles - Microfoods

Don't know if you've read the above article but it does have some alternative feeding methods like pond skimming and the pelletted food method ( those methods are described at the end of the article).
You can also purchase microfoods like daphnia and micro worms from online sources.
Good luck!

Heather

 

[Sputnik733]

Caudata Culture Articles - Microfoods

Don't know if you've read the above article but it does have some alternative feeding methods like pond skimming and the pelletted food method ( those methods are described at the end of the article).
You can also purchase microfoods like daphnia and micro worms from online sources.
Good luck!

Heather

Thanks for the reply, Heather.

My dilemma is that ordering online would take too much time. I don't know how long they could go without food but it has been 3 days so far. Skimming ponds is unrealistic at the moment as there was a snowstorm the other day. Would the larvae eat ground up pellets?

 

[wargar]

Hi,

I would try the ground up pellets, anything is better than nothing. perhaps if there was a small water current in there so it moved the pellets this might help.
If pond skimming is out, could you break the ice and get some of the sedement mud as this will contain micro food, might not look nice though.

Dave

 

[evut]

Unless it's freakishly clean, you can take some of the dirt from the bottom of the parents' tank - it should contain some micro life that the larvae can catch. It will be better than nothing in the beginning. Regarding BBS, are you sure the cysts are the hatching type? And what method did you use for hatching them? I use 1 TBSP (15ml) salt without additives (rock salt) for 500ml water (left to stand to dechlorinate, no chemicals added) in the classic set up with air bubbling through. I have noticed that if the window sill the hatcheries stand on is very cold, the artemia start hatching only after about 3 days.

 

[Sputnik733]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have successfully hatched a new batch of BBS. Some things that I did differently this time around is that I lowered the temperature from 28c to 26c. I have also added a pinch of baking soda per 1L of water, as well as 10g of salt per 1L of water.

I am now trying to start a colony in a rubbermaid container. The bottle I used to hatch the batch is inside the container. That is how I maintain uniform temperature all throughout (using an aquarium heater).

There are some larvae that hatched inside the parent tank which I was unable to remove. Are they likely to survive in that tank? Given that they might feed on the micro organisms?

 

[evut]

I think artemia are normally used as larvae food in the freshly hatched form, not grown on, because of their size. They are also most nutritious just after hatching.
The larvae in the parent's tank should be ok for a while unless the parents eat them. You could wait for a while and then fish out larger survivors, if there are any.

 

[Jennewt]

The larvae in the parents' tank may actually do BETTER than the ones you are painstakingly rearing, at least for the first month or two. Leave them there for the moment. A healthy established aquarium is a smorgasbord of micro-foods.