Larvae has died

[newton09]

Hi,

Not sure which section to post this on in all honesty.

My eggs hatched roughly 3 weeks ago, all 8 in the space of 5 or 6 days.

I put them all in a container with a few live plants, some daphnia (which some were quite large) and for the past couple of days I have had to put a lid on the container to stop the adult newts climbing in three and eating them, but pierced absolutely loads of holes in the lid so there was plenty of air getting in, and then left the container floating in the tank to keep the temperature of the larvae water the same as the newts.

Long story short, over the past week, all 8 have died, and I cant put my finger on why.
I did a partial water change (50%) daily, changed their food enough and kept them fed.

Complete newbie to raising larvae, and was loving it until they all died and now were compeltely gutted.
I dont know whether it is the temperature of the water, putting the pierced lid on the container, can be a number of things I guess.

Printed off the Caudata Culture caresheet on how to raise them and how they can die etc as soon as they started hatching ... and have read through this about 100 times, and can't think where I could've gone wrong.

Not even seen any new eggs in the plants to start again with since these last ones that hatched

 

[vistajpdf]

I'm very sorry for your losses. I'm sure you are stunned and so disappointed about this. I, too, am new to this breeding thing. May I ask what species you are dealing with? My C. Orientalis had about 20 babies and I still have some unhatched eggs. My oldest is 5-6 weeks old, the younger ones are hatching. I never thought to put them in a container w/in the adult tank so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Mine were put into those plastic containers like the size of a shoe box. I didn't have a lid on it and no filter or aeration. I now have three containers going as I don't want large ones in with new ones.

Did they all die at once or over the course of a few days? Have you tested the water to be sure the ammonia and nitrites are OK?

I only have had one death and it looked malformed or it had a giant air bubble in its midsection. However, I did have one medium larva (2-3 weeks old) swimming oddly and yesterday, I noticed our oldest one amongst the fake floating plants belly side up and I thought it was dead. Both seem OK now. I'm not sure what's happening.

I did start mine on the smaller Daphnia and some frozen mixes.

I wish I could tell you more, but sometimes they don't make it for no reason. Someone else should be able to tell you if the container was getting enough air - I'm not sure. I don't have lids on mine.

Good luck,
Dana

 

[vistajpdf]

One more question: Did you see them eat? Did they hop? I'm only familiar w/ fire belly newts.

Dana

 

[newton09]

These are also Fire Bellies.

I couldnt get my head round what temperature they needed to be at, and couldnt find it on the caresheets, so I thought the best way would be to put the container in with the newts to keep it at their level of temperature.
My container was the same as yours, the size of a shoe box. I did not have a lid on them whilst in the tank, until I saw one of my newts trying to jump aboard the container, so had to make a lid wit pierced holes.

All died over the course of a few days, mainly in the last 4 days.

Didn't test the water in all honesty, only due to the fact I wouldn't know what to be looking for, I am quite aware of PH levels etc ... but not sure what levels they have to be at for these guys, if that makes sense.

In all honesty, I did not see them eat, or hop, I saw a couple kind of glide round the container, and noticed some days some of the food had gone, but never saw them do either.

Typical now that I can't find any more eggs in the live plants, when I would like to try and raise some again.

 

[Critter Mom]

Sorry about your loss. Must be frustrating.