C.orientalis larva help

C

cole

Guest
Hi there my larva are all still alive. Hatched between Mid Jan to mid feb. I have been feeding 25 of them individually from tweezers everyday. They look really fat to me. I was wondering if feeding every day is too much and if I could cut back to every second or third day. I would post pics , but dont think I can get good quality from the containers they are in.
 
Hey Cole - good job with the larva. I am rearing my first batch of larva this year. I have had good success with feeding mine finely chopped blackworms, in large enough amounts to last about 3 days. When I don't see any more worms, I do a water change and add more food. It has worked well for me - I have not hand fed any of my larvae. I have about 20 or so in containers separate from their parents, and about 15 (maybe more) in with the adults, and just keep the adult tank stocked with blackworms all the time. Several of mine are looking close to metamorphoses, and they hatched from late December to mid/late January.
Good luck,
Heather
 
Thank you Heather. I have been feeding them frozen blood worms because I can't get any kind of live food for them here. Shipping of live blackworms is kind of expensive for me. I find if I don't wiggle them in front of there face they dont try to eat them. I might try dropping some and leaving it , but the frozen bloodworms seem to foul the water pretty quick. So what I do is feed everyday and then use a turkey baster to get most of the water , food and newt poop out. i didn't feed them today though. I feel real bad though because they always look up at me in anticipation of food. I was just wondering if it is harmful not to feed them everyday.
 
Congrats man. I decided to put all my larvae back in the parent´s tank as i saw the ones in there were growing a lot bigger. Now all i do is feeding the adults with frozen bloodworms. The larvae will go and pick one for them. They already have 4 legs and are growing nicely. It´s such a pleasure to breed this animals...
I don´t feed mine every day...actually about every 3 or 4 days. But i guess they find enough food in the tank between feedings.
 
Feeding everyday at that time is good and also important. Soon, after they metamorphed onto land, they will starve for sometime and they will need all the fat reserve they will need now.
 
I agree, larvae need to eat every day. There is no risk of overfeeding. Getting them good and large before metamorphosis will increase their chances of success afterward. Congratulations on your success so far, hand feeding is a challenge. What did you feed them for the first few weeks?
 
For the first couple of weeks I fed them brine shrimp. I used your hatchery info Jennifer, and it worked wonderfully. Alot more work involved though. I was really happy when they started to eat the blood worms. Here is a little fatty . Sorry about the quality Ive got them in rubber maid containers
81865.jpg
 
I've just started feeding my 4 larvae frozen bloodworms with a toothpick and it works just fine except that one of them has a large air bubble in it's belly and floats. It's been this way for a couple of days, it still eats but it tends to float upside down. It hides in the leaves sometimes but I worried that the bubble won't go away. The bubble wasn't there when it was feeding on brine shrimp. Any suggestions or advice?
 
I had one that had an air bubble. I just provided it with some java moss to crawl in and hold onto and it went away after about a week. I kept feeding everyday and it ate without problems.
 
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