Are wild larvae eating?

Hi all,

so it's my second attempt at raising axies from eggs. this morning 2 of the larva have hatched and are sitting on the bottom of the tank with the newly hatched daphnia around them.

my question is...how do i know if they are eating? all the books and resources I have read say about watching for them suddenly jumping or being able to see the food in their stomachs.

BUT...so far they all look like wild-types so I cant see their stomachs through their skin, and after sitting watching them for ages, hte only movement they're doing is suddenyl swimming an inch or so to a different part of the tank, not the sucking/jumping behaviour my adults exhibit when they suck in their food :s

anyone have any advice for me? or am i expecting them to eat too quickly?

thanks, ember

hey.

chances are if they have just hatched they are not hungry yet. It usually takes a day or two to finnish their yolk sacks they are born with in their tummies. After then, they will start to eat and you will notice them jumping or moving forward a little. Also their tummies will become VERY fat with food, so no matter what colour they are, if you notice their tummies swelling they are eating.

Be paitent. The larvae can survive over a week without initial food, so waiting a few days with the daphnia will be fine.

good luck!

thanks rachel,
another day and 5 more have hatched, i'm up to 8 now

just one question tho...i'm planning to feed them on daphnia of which i have a colony going at the moment with plenty of young there. but how many daphnia should i pipette into the fry's container to give them the best chance of eating?

i guess as they're so young they'll be relying on food just swimming in front of their faces, so is it best to have them swimming in daphnia?

thanks, ember

congrats on more larvae

i have never used daphnia before, only baby brine shrimp. I know with brine shrimp it is important to regulate feeding because they will all die in a few hours and make the water go yucky. With daphnia i dont think it maters much at all because they will satay alive in the water until they get eaten. You could probably put quite a lot in. The larvae will not chase the food but wait for it to swim past their face, so there needs to be enough for them to have a chance to swim past in the right spot. Keeping the water level low will up the chances too.

you will need to keep up water changes because of the ammonia caused by the babies pooping, so unless you strain the daphnia out again you would be wasting whatever was left over.

I would start out with whatever you are comfortable with by estimation, and keep an eye on how much they are eating. If there is too much left over when its time to change the water, i'd put less in. If there is no more left, i would up the daphnia a little.

let us know how they get on!