Question: When to start feeding the larvae

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firefly

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When all my FBN eggs have hatched (hopefully) I understand I have to wait a day or two before feeding ??

Do I then simply drop the live daphnia in with them (after rinsing them in bottle water) & leave them to it so to speak :uhoh: ??
 
Yes, you can leave the live daphnia in with them. Be sure that you use the smallest daphnia you have, and don't overload the tank. They will only eat a few daphnia/day to start with, and extras may be irritating to the larvae.

The larvae will start to eat when their yolk reserves run out. How long this takes can vary from 0-7 days. The yolk is a yellow material along the underside of the larvae; if you can get a close-up look, you can tell if it's there or not. The photos in this series show the yolk clearly:
Caudata Culture Photo Series - Tylototriton verrucosus development
 
Those pics are fantastic, thanks for that. I can't see any yolk in the tiny larvae that came out this morning, but its only like a small eyelash. I can't imagine it eating even the smallest daphnia.
 
Further to my last post - I can see the yolk reserve now - its on the hatchling (which has grown slightly thank goodness) and I can see it much more clearly on the ones that are still in their egg sacs. Thanks for your help.
 
That's good to hear. I've been reading this thread and wondering if the little one that has hatched was going to be OK>
 
It looks fine, it wriggles occasionally sort of turns into a full stop, then lies motionless for hours. I'll be relieved when the others hatch and all start eating.

When I bought a bag of live daphnia the other day, I put half in a plant pot of rainwater that had been in the garden for ages (just to see what would happen) and put the other half in the fridge.

The pot iced over for about 4 days, & I thought I had lost them. Today I took off the 1inch ice-cap and lo and behold the daphnia are ok. They are so tough! I have transferred them to plastic tumbler and added about 50% bottled water and some fertiliser (teeny bit).

I use a turkey baster to gently blow bubbles into this water now and again. I hope they will stay ok for when the babies need food (FEED ME lol)
 
My first larvae was Newty, so named by my boys. The breeding wasn't supposed to happen, etc, and I was lucky to find this site. Anyway, there were many days that I aggitated poor Newty beyond belief. He'd be so still, I was certain he had perished. But, today, he's the largest morph I have of nearly 60! I've lost very few - a couple of larvae and four morphs (two escaped - no idea if I let them during cleaning, two died in the tanks.)

Good luck - glad you're prepared w/ Daphnia. White and blackworms could be on the horizon for your larvae.

Dana
 
Thx Vistajpdf. I accidentally sucked up the little baby in my turkey baster when I was doing a partial water change today - bless it. It certainly wriggled. I was gentle tho, and made sure I squirted him back into the container really slowly (I felt awful !).

The experimental daphnia are still doing great. I broke the ice on my pond this morning and added a bit of the water to them. Maybe they'll find some things to nibble on altho the water look clean.
 
I, too, have accidentally sucked up larvae from time to time - never any damage done. I once did it to a zebra fish and he didn't make it, so I was quite paranoid when it happened to a larva, but it was also a much longer and more forceful hose that the fish had to go through. Don't worry about the baster - I think some use it to remove larvae and it does no damage.

You're on the brink of witnessing a wonderful chain of events w/ these little ones. I'm amazed - take pictures on a regular basis as it is very interesting to see the metamorphosis.

Dana
 
You can try baby brine shrimp in the early going as well! Mine eat them like they were cake...
 
Thanks for that. The little guy is still ok, still has a white stripe. I have put it into it's own container as it'll probably want feeding in a day or too and the others haven't hatched yet. Do I have to put quite a few daphnia in with it, or say 4-5 and how will I know it's hungry? Do I just go by the eventual lack of it's little white stripe?
 
Just as I was taking pics of the baby it started swimming properly, just like a little fish !! I think it's ready for some baby daphnia. I'll pop a few in & see what happens This is so exciting :) .
 
I don't know much about newt larvae, but with my axolotl larvae I would put loads of daphnia in with them as the daphnia will survive in the water without causing any problems with waste accumilation (sp?), like brineshrimp.

Can't wait to see pictures! ;)
 
I'm not sure how to upload pics onto here. Do most people go through photobucket?? My little guy doesn't seem interested in the tiny daph even when one actually swam into him and hung around him for a bit.
 
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