Larvae eating..

[vanillaXtiffy]

How can you tell if they are eating? When they eat they zip through the food right? I'm pretty sure they're growing, which means they must be eating, but I am finding a few dead ones in my tubs every morning. I know this can be due to other conditions, but I really am worried that they aren't eating their food. They are about 9 days old, and right now I'm feeding them Microworms and frozen daphnia. I know, not the best choices, but I can't get the brine shrimp to hatch, and none of the shops anywhere I can get to have live shrimp or daphnia. When I put the daphnia in, they start zipping through it, and occasionally I give the tubs a little shake to make the daphnia make the daphnia start moving. Would the best thing to make sure they're eating be getting a magnifying glass and checking if they look full? I really cannot see the stomachs except on the clear ones, which do look like they are eating.

=/ I guess everyone goes through anxiety whether the babies are eating, but if anyone could help me or give me very detailed descriptions of these things, it would be appreciated.

 

[ge0h0und]

I look at their bellies. I think you can tell who's eating based on how plump they look. If possible look for some blackworms around your area too. That's what I feed them if I see that certain ones don't look as full as the others. I just chop them up into tiny bites and use a small zip tie to pick it up, then aim it right above their head and slowly dip it up and down until the worm loosens and falls above the front of their heads and they snap it up.

If you don't mind buying off of eBay this is who I got my daphnia from(if I'm not allow to post links like this feel free to edit my post).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Daphnia-starter...ryZ20759QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$17 shipped for a daphnia culture, and he provides instructions on how to maintain it. Mine came in a variety of sizes with a good amount of tiny ones to let them feast on. :O

Also I wouldn't shake the the tub as much as it can probably cause vibrations to perhaps stress them out? If the daphnia are floating above water what I did was to make the water shallow and gently blow at the water to have the dead food move around(usually in a clockwise motion). Kinda makes them seem like they're alive, and since they're moving in a circular motion they'll constantly move above your larvae.

 

[vanillaXtiffy]

=3 Yeah, I would do that, but I spent all of my money on the frozen daphnia and stuff for the shrimp eggs, since I couldn't find the daphnia locally. I got my microworm culture on e-bay. I get paid biweekly, and just started a new job, so I am broke right now.

I try looking at their bellies, but I have bad eyesight. I am planning on getting a magnifying glass soon, but until then...I guess it's just guesswork.

I don't shake them too often and it's not like an aggravated shake, it's more of a gentle pull back and forth a couple times.

 

[vanillaXtiffy]

Last night I found one larvae sitting like I had seen mentioned in some other threads...it was just below the surface of the water, and at kind of a tilt. So I crumbled some pellet on his head and he ate it. I then did that to some of the others, and they too ate the crumbles as they were falling. I like doing this, because then I can monitor who eats and how much. So I guess in addition to the other things, I will now feed them crumbled pellet.

I shined a light on them to see them better, and on the clear ones I noticed that they have little red spots near their bellies. On the rearing page of axolotl.org is says that around now (10 days) they will start to form limbs, so these red dots mean that the front arms will be coming in soon? And since they're growing, that means they've been eating this whole time and I have no reason to worry?
(Sorry for so many questions. I have a lot of time on my hands.)

 

[philbaker76]

You do lose a few in the first week or so. I'd get them on live daphnia as soon as possible though mate. I've never tried to feed them dead or pellets.

If you can see a full stomach, they're eating enough

They grow at a different rates, depending on how much they eat and temperature - so don't worry if you don't see any just yet.

 

[vanillaXtiffy]

Thanks Phil. I did separate the small ones from the bigger ones, and with the help of the flashlight, I finally got to see if they looked full or not. They do, all of them. I was just worried the first week because I didn't have any live food so I wasn't sure they were eating, but they must have been since they're a lot bigger now and everything. Can't grow that much if they don't eat. I think we're good now, because I did see them snapping up the micro worms, and I fed them some crumbled up pellet and they ate that too. I'll switch it up everyday and give them 2 different foods. Also, I finally managed to get some of the shrimp to hatch, so that's another good food for them. I think they'll be okay.

Thank you for all the help everybody.