Axolotl Spawn Chronicles (HELP!)

Hello everyone, I have three wonderful axolotl, about a year old each that share a 40 gallon tank.
although some feel three axolotl raised together in the same tank could be risky, It has worked out very well for my axies.
Anyways now on to the story. They spawned, and i now have around 70 axolotl fry.
I have read several articles on what they should be eating, but its all a lot harder than it sounds.
Firstly i couldn't find any live food such as daphnia in any local pet stores. The eggs began to hatch and i had no food to offer them. I began getting very worried the youngsters were going to starve, and luckily i finally found a brine shrimp kit.(well maybe not so luckily) Many websites warn that Brine Shrimp are not the best route to go, but i had no other options. after 28 hours, the darn things finally began to hatch in the 2 liter bottle with the top cut off as instructed in the kit. So im thinkin YES! the little guys can finally eat. So i used the fine holed net to scoop the axolotl into various 20 gallon tanks around the house.( better food to tank size ratio). So i take the so called brine shrimp net and begin scoopin the brine shrimp out of the bottle. i look at the net after i scoop and see the damn sea monkies slippin through the holes!!!!!!!!!!! ****. AT this point im very fed up with the whole damn thing, so i take off my shirt, rinse it off, and start pouring the shrimp hatchery through it and collecting the water that falls through my shirt in a tupperware container, so i could pour it back into the hatchery when i finished. Surprisingly this actually worked, and caught many sea monkies. So i dipped the shirt into the axie encllosures, and around 150 brine shrimp landed in each tank. It is now the next day, and im not sure if the hatchlings ate. (several axolotl seem to have gotten caught in the small amounts of algea around the tank, and died there. I NEED HELP SOMONE PLEASE RESPOND haha
-signed
tryin my best to get the little buggers to make it

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

Were you careful to separate out the empty egg cases or un-hatched brine shrimp? The cases or un-hatched eggs will kill larvae if ingested.

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

i tried really hard but there so small that it is possible i missed a few, is it possible for them to get tangled, and die in the algae, and any advice on the food

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

Order daphnia online.

The best way I've found to harvest brine shrimp is to take a piece of black construction paper and cut a 1 inch hole in the middle. Put this against your hatchery (bottle, milk jug, whatever), and put a lamp behind it. The brine shrimp will swim toward the light, which shines through the hole in the middle of their hatchery (eggs float on top, egg cases sink to the bottom, but only live brine shrimp swim). Then suck them out with a turkey baster, and rinse them in a net.

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

That is an incredibly good idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
actually the issue with ordering daphnia is that my axolotl are hungry now, and haven't eaten in several days. today i went to a specialty pet shop and picked up black worms so we'll see how it works out
thanks for the reply
-dan

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

Why is there algae in your tank? Surely you've been doing daily water changes?

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

Hey I also fed my baby axies on black and white worms.. When they are very young it is important to try and cut the worms up as small as possible to make eating easy...

Also another handy hint make sure you dont try and keep to many young axies that you cant keep, give away or sell. I have had to buy another 4 foot tank because I have so many young axies that I cant get ride of lol.

Re: Axolotl Spawn Chronicles(HELP!)PLEASE RESPOND haha

Actually, I would say that fresh-hatched brine shrimp are a good starter food, just as good as daphnia. When the larvae are a few weeks old, it is important that they be switched to larger food, like chopped bloodworm, whiteworm, etc.

If you don't have a brine shrimp net, here is a quick fix (nylon stocking inside a strainer):

thank you very much for all the helpful posts, im using the black construction paper trick, and iv even seen the little guys sucking down the black worms

Here's what I do:

Of course, the brine shrimp need to be hatched in salt water. As we know, shining a light on the hatchery helps the eggs to hatch more quickly. All I do is mix my salt water up, put it in a bowl, put the brine shrimp eggs in the bowl, put my air stone in the bowl, turn the light on (I use a desk lamp and put it REALLY close to the bowl), and after 24 hours, the eggs have hatched!

Now, the great thing about brine shrimp is that they're always attracted to light and they will always swim toward it. So you just turn the air stone off, and wait about 10-20 minutes and you'll see that all the brine shrimp are congregating on one side of the bowl.... the side closest to the light!

At this point, it's very easy to suck hundreds of them them out of the water at a time with a small plastic pipette. Pipettes are generally used as lab equipment, but they're useful for so many things. I get mine at www.elementsbathandbody.com. They do have a $15.00 minimum on that site, however, so you may want to look on ebay instead. Pipettes are very useful for rearing axolotls. You can use them to suck up debris from the tank as well.

So I suck the baby brine shrimp up with the pipette, and then I squirt them into a bowl of dechlorinated tap water which has NO SALT. Suck up as many as you think you'll need to feed your axies, and squirt them in the bowl of unsalted water. This "rinses" the salt water off of them.

Now wait another 10-20 minutes so the brine shrimp can swim toward the light and congregate in the bowl again, and now, all you have to do is suck them up into the pipette again and squirt them into your axolotl's container for the axies to eat