Question: when larvae start eating?

[Salamander 4]

Are you attempting to feed other foods? How often are you feeding? When you feed moina are you removing the moina when you feel the larvae are not eating or are you leaving them in there? What is the size of the container?

No, 2 attempts , change water when moina dead. replace moina, leaving in , 25 litres. 9 larvae.

 

[stanleyc]

If they are still alive right now, they're most likely eating the moina when you're not looking. Do you see visible growth in the larvae? Do they look emaciated? If they look fine and are growing, you probably don't actually have anything to worry about.

You can also put them into smaller containers with smaller water volume to increase the food density around them. I used just tupperware, with maybe 3 or 4 small larvae in each. You can transfer them back into the 25 liter when they are larger and you get a better idea of how they are feeding. Especially with a food like moina. If I remember correctly with the larvae I raised, in the early stages, if the moina (daphnia in my case) don't swim right up to their heads, they won't eat it. They don't really actvely prowl and hunt for food that early.

You can also see if you can find live black worms or tubifex worms. You can chop these up and drop them right in front of the larvae's faces. The worms will still move and should catch the attention of the larvae. But with these, you will need to remove what's left uneaten quickly or water quality will drop quick. I would say, after 15 minutes, remove what's left uneaten.

 

[Salamander 4]

Thanks, that's what I've read.
Question is - how do they get on in the wild?

 

[stanleyc]

Thanks, that's what I've read.
Question is - how do they get on in the wild?

My guess is in the wild there’s a huge amount of microfauna on and in the substrate, as well as in the water column. So they get enough. And the ones that don’t get enough die. But you have to remember they lay so many eggs, so evolution has calculated that in.

If you have an established tank, especially with substrate and plants, look closely and you’ll probably see little cyclops and worms, etc, smaller than the moina. There’s probably stuff that’s even smaller and can’t be seen with the naked eye. I’ve left some eggs that I didn’t notice in the parents’ tank before. And later I find larvae that’s almost ready to morph. I didn’t even know they were there and never fed them directly. I’m assuming there were a couple other ones that I didn’t know were there, but did not make it.

 

[Salamander 4]

My guess is in the wild there’s a huge amount of microfauna on and in the substrate, as well as in the water column. So they get enough. And the ones that don’t get enough die. But you have to remember they lay so many eggs, so evolution has calculated that in.

If you have an established tank, especially with substrate and plants, look closely and you’ll probably see little cyclops and worms, etc, smaller than the moina. There’s probably stuff that’s even smaller and can’t be seen with the naked eye. I’ve left some eggs that I didn’t notice in the parents’ tank before. And later I find larvae that’s almost ready to morph. I didn’t even know they were there and never fed them directly. I’m assuming there were a couple other ones that I didn’t know were there, but did not make it.

Tft, we live in hope, and patience.