Hatchling Mortality Rate

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Oddish

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Does anybody have some idea of what the usual success rate is with a batch of hatchlings?

I had 20 hatch and am down to 14

They are approaching 2 - 3 week old and I have lost both sets of twins. I put it down to them being twins. Then I lost another and today another.

Is this to be expected? Or could I be getting something wrong?


They have a few small daphnia adlib and every other night I am feeding defrosted cyclops and leavings them in overnight. By morning the hatchlings have orange bellies and I Hoover out what was uneaten. So every other day this doubles up as a 50% water change. Then I do 100% water changes weekly in an effort to keep the stress down.
 
I don't know what type of eggs you have. I have N.V . Louisiana and C oriental larvae i change water every day and suck up wast in between. I lost most larvae when i changed water every 3 or 4 days. Most i go now is 3 larvae each in one gallon of water. When i leave town but i haven't left for more than 3 nights. Plus don't forget to use water conditioner.
 
I have decided that just incase the water quality is getting too poor too fast in the little 7x4cm pods I will transfer them into a 12cm diameter tub each.

Maybe some died because I was feeding daphnia with a pipette and at the same time unavoidably adding dirty daphnia water into my hatchlings.
 

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The babies have been in their tubs for 5 days but two more died overnight ?

Down to 12
 
My axy's recently surprised us with 244 eggs approx 7-8 days old now and I only have 133 viable and growing. 2 maybes and a set of twins that now appears to be one - frustrating bit is that the dead twin was white (majority grey colour). There are about 80 eggs that haven't changed and appear non-viable :( but that said I have some that lol cloudy and have perfectly healthy wriggler inside ? go figure

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Mine laid 325 eggs and 311 hatched. I lost a total of 6 larvae.

Could be water quality, could be too much heat or direct sun as well. Do they have any physical signs or do they look otherwise normal? What are you using for water? Dechlorinated tap? Cycled tank? Fresh tap?
 
I prefer to keep them in large food containers rather than small containers. Water changes aren't needed as often when using Daphnia as they will survive until eaten, and I use a syringe to add the Daphnia minimizing the amount of additional water I add.

There is always mortality's, even if the hatchling looks healthy it may not be. I wouldn't even bother worrying about it, the strongest survive and thats what you want, natural selection. Just make sure you give proper water conditions and environment and what survives survives.

Also, don't hatch hundreds unless your experienced, equipped and have the ability to sell them. Otherwise its just selfish, creating a much higher chance of mortality because of not culling majority of the eggs at the start and only raising a sensible amount.

axolotlchris-albums-axolotl-picture37844-larvae-feeding.jpg



axolotlchris-albums-axolotl-picture38275-basic-setup.jpg
 
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