My babies are STILL dying

F

frank

Guest
What on earth am I doing wrong????
I really am not having any luck with my baby axolotls....
I have been feeding them liquifry, taking them out of their tank to do it, so it doesn't poison them. They are only 2 1/2 weeks old, and seemed to be doing fine, although we'd had a couple of deaths. Then last week I got some daphnia at the local pet shop, which they loved, I left some in the tank over the weekend, so I didn't have to come in and feed them, and when I arrived this morning most of the axolotls were dead! Only three are alive, and one of those is only barely alive, but the daphnia appeared to be thriving. I've tested the water and the nitrite and ammonia levels are zero and I made sure that I put hardly any of the water in from the daphnia. Most of the dead ones looked like they had decomposed quite a bit, so they must have died a while ago.
Any ideas?????? I don't want to lose my last three, then my class will really be upset...
 
Did you rinse the daphnia?

I rinse mine and use an ear dropper to sift out the daphnia from any empty shells, eating empty shells can kill them, I syphon out all debris every morning and feed fresh.

They can decompose very quickly once dead, so may not have been dead that long.

Until they are more advanced I would feed daily, this may be a pain travel wise but until they are larger is the best way to ensure they are healthy.

I have Waltl larvae and Verrucosus larvae in 8 separate tubs/containers.

Jeff

(Message edited by jeff_gandy on October 18, 2004)
 
Sorry to hear it.
sad.gif
Either the water was bad (for unknown reasons) or else an infection is wiping them out. Move the remaining ones to a clean container of clean water and daphnia. Don't use the liquifry.
 
Yeah, liquifry probably isn't good for the axxies. It probably polluted the water. Note that on pipidae.net the person there was unable to raise ADF tadpoles on liquifry(which is mean't for baby fish...and even then things such as infusoria, microworms, and brine shrimp are much better)
 
I don't think it could have been the liquifry because they didn't die until I gave them the daphnia and it had been a while since the liquifry, which I was giving in a different container anyway.
I got the daphnia out of their container with a eye dropper, then put them into a container with water from the axies tank, then repeated the process to put them in with the axies. Is that enough of a rinse?? That way I made sure I only got ones that were swimming around too.
What can you do to prevent infection?
Thanks for all your help....
 
If it was a rampant disease die-off, those last 3 would be dead by today. If they are alive, I wouldn't worry much about preventing infection.
 
Well, two of them did die, so we only have one left. He looks pretty healthy though.
I was wondering if anyone knows of any containers we could float in the tank that are watertight, the ones I've got them in now have little slits in the bottom, so water flows through, which I guess would mean that infection would get passed around too.
My problem is that it gets really cold at nights, so if they're not in the tank they would get really cold. Plus if they are in the tank then sticky fingers can't get to them.....
Sigh. Maybe I should just get some adults....
 
What do you mean by really cold? Axies are OK down to 10C, maybe lower. What temp is their tank?
 
I've got their tank at 20c. It was getting down to almost freezing at nights, although now we're into spring it might get down to 5c at the coldest.
Doesn't the cold slow their growth though?
 
just an idea... makes it hard to feed him/her, but try putting him in a large volume of water so any time you feed him or change water, the concentrations of dissolved solutes will not drastically change.
 
That would also make finding food quite difficult.

Dunno bout axxies, but if that was a fish...the way them temp bounces would definetly be a stressor.
 
Hello there!I have just had about fifty hatchlings and have never done this before! just wondering if you could tell me what liquifry is and what is best to feed them and how often? oxox
 
melanie - make sure you are doing daily - every other day water changes or the water quality will get bad and will kill your babies. if you are going to use newly hatched brineshrimp as their main food source then make sure u take out any uneaten brineshrimp as it will start to spoil the water. good luck with your babies
happy.gif
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