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Feeding spotted larva

K

karen

Guest
I recently collected some eggs thinking they were frog eggs only to later find out they are salamander eggs - spotted salamanders I think.
They are hatching now and I am a little unsure what to feed them.
I asked at a good fish store. They seemed to think brine shrimp would be too small for the little 1/2 inch larva and suggested blackworms, which I got. I also bought some frozen bloodworms since if the little larva will eat them they will be easier to feed than the blackworms.
The problem is the larva don't show interest in eating. It's been almost 2 days since the first two hatched and I thought they would be ready to eat by now.
Is it better to put in lots of food so it is easier to find, or just a little to prevent spoilage? I havn't dared put in more than 3 tiny blackworm pieces since they don't seem to be eating yet.
 
P

peter

Guest
Sometimes they may take a few days to start eating, and they'll live off of their yolk sacs.
Some of my larvae have gone as long as four days before eating. Brine shrimp are not too small; I've had spotted salamander larvae as long as 2 inches eat them, but they pose a risk for fouling the water when they die, and apparently if the larvae eat the cysts, it can be fatal. I'd recommend daphnia if you can get them; they won't foul the water and will be readily available in the water for them to eat at any time. Another good way to get food is to use a brine shrimp net to catch small organisms in the water; there's a chance of spreading disease but this is minimal in fishless water.

Did the eggs have a greenish tint to them? That's typically a good indicator of maculatum (spotted salamander) eggs since often times algae will grow on them; otherwise they'd be tigrinum or laterale. Either way, they're raised the same way (excepting tigrinum, which grow bigger and can eat larger food.)

Also, how many eggs hatched? It's a lot of fun to raise a large group, but can get expensive in the later stages (I spent over $100 last year on spotted and blue-spotted salamander larvae, but I went a bit overboard and won't make the same mistake this year). Wisconsin state law also states that you can raise a full clutch, but may only keep 5 of each species after they transform (and as such all remaining animals must be released in the original location or given away).

In any event, I hope you have good luck with your larvae! I'm glad to hear they've started near Milwaukee; I'm going out herping tonight so hopefully they're breeding in the central part of the state too.

(Message edited by onetwentysix on April 01, 2005)
 
E

edward

Guest
I have reared spotted and marbled salamanders from hatching to metamorphosis on nothing but adult brine shrimp.

Ed
 
K

karen

Guest
The egg mass I collected was the smallest I could find - only around 15 eggs or so I'm guessing. Nine have hatched.

I've been trying the smallest blackworms - sucking them up in an eyedropper and putting them in front of the larvae. The larvae ignore them, or just swim away if they touch them.

I went and got the brine shrimp eggs and started them up. Some have hatched now, so now I have to try and separate the shrimp from the eggshells. Supposedly the shells will float and the shrimp will swim to the bottom.
 
K

karen

Guest
I'm glad I left the eggs in because this morning I counted 17 larvae!
Unfortunately, no one seems to be eating. I've tried small blackworms and baby brine shrimp with no luck. I will keep trying of course since most of the new hatchlings are too young to be eating anyway.
 
R

russ

Guest
I've used chopped live blood worms quite successfully on hatchlings. Stinky things to keep though.

RUSS
 
P

peter

Guest
I just wanted to check in and ask how the larvae are doing, Karen.
 
K

karen

Guest
Hi. I just noticed this now. The larvae did not do well. I ended up with 20 larvae which hatched over about 4 days. I gave them brine shrimp and live small blackworms, but never saw them eat...
The brine shrimp didn't live long in the tank so I was siphoning the tank out frequently. But still after a week I wanted to clean the tank so I moved all the larvae to a small spare tank while I cleaned it, then put them back in with aged tap water like I had been using for water changes all along. But it must have been too much stress especially with them not eating much, and a few hours later I noticed a few floating and having truoble swimming. Over the next few days, more and more had trouble swimming and they started dying.
I don't know what was wrong.
I have 2 left. It's been nearly two weeks since the others died, so they must be eating something. But I have yet to see them eat, and considering that they're now 3 weeks old, they've grown very little (the larger one is slightly under an inch long as opposed to a half inch at hatching).
I stopped feeding brine shrimp since most of them died. Blackworms are so much easier (they live for days in the tank and are easy to clean out when dead) and just started feeding frozen bloodworms. The frozen bloodworms seem to be disappearing although I don't know whether it is the larvae or the blackworms that are eating them.
 
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