Refresher on raising baby axolotls....

[sharon]

Ok in general - I remember things when I'm talking or typing - so tossing this out there -

Newly hatched axies should be fed Daphnia - the smallest species of daphnia at that - right? They can also be fed newly hatched brine shrimp - which looks to be very nutritious for them but problematic because they die in the water - whereas the daphnia live alongside the axies - till eaten.

Axie babies are not cannibalistic until the front legs come in and then they should be seperated to size.

Around that time - micro worms can be introduced but sparingly and soon after baby pellets.

Um temps should be 68F right? LOL I'm going to look this up on the care sheets again.

I'm thinking of using several small tanks 5gls as the hatcheries - is this an adequate size for say 25 newly hatched babies?

I bought 4 2 litre bottles of soda for hubby to drink to have the bottles as hatcheries. I have tons of tubing, silicone, and pumps.

After the babies hatch out I'll lower the water to about 1 1/2inches to concentrate the food nearer to the babies - no filter - I'll siphon off (or user baster) to remove and add water daily? Or every other day?

Um thinking of feeding brine shrimp every other day - so that'll tie in with the water changes?

Ok tanks are cycling now, hubby is drinking his soda ...... lol anyone see something I've missed?

 

[sharn]

1: right

2: right, can happen sooner though ive heard

3: right. blood worms are also good, id hold off on the pellets unless theyre very high quality.

4: cant do F but somewhere around 16-18C would be good im guessing, not enough to stress but enough to keep good growth.

5: newly hatched yip, seperate accordingly as they get larger.

6: right, thats the method most people use for brine shrimp.

7: every day.

8: apparently when theyre very young they should have food available all the time/ feed them very often. at 4cm my baby was getting fed 2-3 times a day.

make sure you have more tanks/containers available for when they get on some size. also a large barrel for aged water (saves on dechlorinator!!) any mistakes feel free to correct me. how many eggs are you getting? exciting stuff!

 

[sharon]

Heeheehee I'm a LUCKY person to live on mineral rich well water. No need for dechlorinators but thanks for reminding us all! I've been an avid tank collector for YEARS and litterally have more tanks than I can possibly use. The 5gls are cycling now, 10gls are sunbaking after thorough cleaning - making plans to move the turtle to a bigger tank to free up a 20 gl... lol

Um 15 I believe. I'm really looking forward to this.

 

[jennifer]

My vote for the absolute best "baby food" is live blackworms. They can be used from day 1 if you chop them. Assuming that you can find a petshop that sells them, they are far simpler to provide than either daphnia or baby brine shrimp. Since you live in a fairly large metropolitan area, I would bet some pet shop in town has them. Good luck with your little ones!

 

[sharon]

HHHHHHMMMMMMMMM time to make some phone calls - if my nearby town doesn't carry them is there somewhere online to order from? (blackworms)

Ok going 'net surfing - we live REALLY rurally - I do most of my shopping by internet.

 

[jeff]

Aquaticfoods.com has them, they were high quality. I feed my babies daphnia and the blackworms now that they are over 2 months, but I still chop the blackworms up, which sometimes is a problem beacuse they band together and one of my axies chomped down a whole mob of them and was spitting and chewing for ten minutes. My daphnia tank really took off recently, and I hate to re-do it for my axies now that they are getting big, mabye its off to the petstore to buy another 10g. Finding space for all these guys is getting hard, my bedroom is starting to look like the backroom of a zoo exibit.

 

[michael]

My vote is for baby brine shrimp every day. I do like the idea of chopped blackworms but think in the long run the baby brine is less expensive. I think I'll do a comparison with a clutch of eggs. I'll start half off on baby brine and half on chopped blackworms. We'll see what happens. For my area I vote against daphnia. It takes a lot of work to raise your own. Collected daphnia often has hydra in it.

 

[sharon]

heeheeheehee be sure to post results here please Michael!

Well Brine shrimp is surely cheap enough and I'll have some going. UGH hubby didn't rinse those liter bottles.

Variety is the spice of life - so daphnia is a good option. I'm hoping to find live black worms over in the next town. LOL cross your fingers for me.

Sharon