Live food for newly hatched axolotls

[Cizza]

My eggs will be hatching soon and i have chosen to start them off feeding on daphnia insted of baby brine shrimp because im dont have any money to make or buy a hatchery for brine shrimp.

 

[Daniel]

You don't need any special hatchery as long as you have some brine shrimp eggs/cysts. You can build one yourself as described by Jen at http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml or else you can also use a simple plastic bowl or a bottle with some aeration:

As an alternative you can go catch some daphnia of course but you will have to sieve it and must be cautious not to "feed" any predatory insects as well.

 

[Cizza]

I allready have a Daphnia culture set up but i didnt get paid last friday so im ultra skint and i got no money in the bank. will daphnia be allright as a first food sorce?

 

[Cizza]

This is where my daphnia came from orginaly and they are like the size they came...

 

[Daniel]

Daphnia will be okay as long as they are small enough - you should try to get some baby daphnia or cyclops for the grownups will be too big for the larvae to catch them.

 

[philbaker76]

I "pond dip" to feed my hatchlings - I have a 1ft plastic tank; I dip it into a corner of the pond and pour back in through a fine net. What's left in the net I put in with the hatchlings.

If you don't have a fine next - you can pour the water slowly out of the tank, the daphnia seem to swim against the flow; do this until there is bit of water left and it'll be packed with water fleas.

Cooler the weather, lesser the water fleas.

Down side to this; you end up putting a little dirt in - and I suppose there is a risk of introducing some potentially harmful water monsters in with your hatchlings.

But I raised my last batch this way and didn't have any problems.

 

[Cizza]

If i put a bit of tubing going down threw the top of the lid(conneted to and air pump) of a bottle put some eggs in and then keepin light will this work?

 

[Ganesh]

Will & I are off to France for 4 to 5 weeks and so I'll be leaving the remaining hatchlings in the care of my mother [my mother's face >> :ha: ]

May post some pics in the gallery at some point, if not of the infants then definitely the adults 'cause I have a truckload.

Thanks everyone for all your interest and feedback. We've really appreciated it!!