Food Choices For Hatchlings

I know this is a common question, but I'm scared of using Brine Shrimp (I haven't been successful with rinsing them in the past + I can't really get my head round the thought of trying a hatchery - do they have to be in a 2l bottle, or can I just use a food grade plastic tub? If using a bottle, how the hell do you get them out, or do you have to do a whole new batch every feed?! e.t.c.)
I haven't been able to fins any daphnia cultures online either (which is what I used last time), so can I just start a culture using daphnia found in a LFS (not that I've found any yet!), because after sharing my daphnia culture with people who rehomed some of the eggs last time, I had to add some more daphnia + that caused the culture to crash (wondering if it was the water they were transported in?)
What I have been able to get is a Banana Worm culture eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace which seems great, because they are a "Live food, less likely to foul the water, since live creatures will stay alive until consumed instead of starting to decompose.
Banana Worms are the smallest of the 'micro' worm cultures, less than half the size of Micro Worms and smaller than Walter Worms. They ideal alternative to newly hatched brine shrimp, but with the added bonus of an endless supply. Once you buy just one starter culture, you will have them for life!
Banana Worms are extremely prolific and easy to grow at home. Since they are much smaller than newly hatched brine shrimp or microworms, they are ideal for even the smallest fry. Small fry can be given banana worms as their first food. Banana Worms are the perfect live food for newly hatched betta fry.
Baby Brine Shrimp are such a hassle (getting the water/salt correct, separating the shell from BBS, washing and rinsing BBS because some fry are intolerant to salt, and finally the expense of BBS production in general). Add to this the fact that the fry can take the Banana Worm even if they are too small for BBS and Walter Worm/Micro Worm."
I can't find anything about their nutritional worth from axies though, apart from the seller handily including a little chart in their listing -
"Protein
48%
Lipids
21%
Glycogen
7%
Organic Acids
1%
Nucleic Acids
1%"
which looks good to me, but wasn't sure if there was anything there to avoid, or even if it meets the requirements of hatchlings.
I set up my culture yesterday + can now see the Banana Worms moving on the surface of the "goo" they arrived in (can't see them individually, but can see the movement)

I'll still be looking for daphnia + to set up a decent culture of them, to use the babies alongside the Banana Worm + breed the adults until they're needed as food too, but does anyone have any other suggestions? Preferably nothing salt water! And, does my plan sound good so far?

Can't really help with alternatives to bbs. As I can't get any locally at the moment.
But have found that culturing bbs easy, also using decapsulated eggs so there is no separating needed. I did ask if you could start a daphnia culture from the bags and the answere was yes ( I have just to to find some now)

Bbs are really nutricious for young axie larvae and when it comes to bbs its trial and era. Try different sized containers, bowls, cups, anything see through and leave them be. bbs hatch quicker in warmer water and you can easily
remove them with a torch and a turkey baster. It would be a better food supply for the axies then microworms, I found them only good for the first week or so then there too small for the larvae(and they smell). So i wouldn't reccommend trying anything smaller then them. Daphnia are great, I can. Ever get my hands on enough when I. We'd them. And in an emergency you can use egg yolk!

I found a bit of a mention on microworms (+ figured that would be their catagory) in the Caudata Culture link. I might give the BBS a try, if I can use any clear tub, though I'm not confident about the aeration either
From what I've read, empty shells float to the top, "dud" eggs sink to the bottom + the BBS will mill around in the water in between?
I'm thinking of trying to rinse them using kitchen towel, so when they're rinsed, do I dip the kitchen towel into a tub of clean water, to remove the BBS from the kitchen towel?
Also, how often do I need to do a new batch of BBS? I'll aim to have 2 cultures going, started at different times (how far apart? 1 day? 2 days?) Presumably if I'm aiming to get BABY brine shrimp, I'll need to keep doing new batches? Or does their growth rate kind of tally will axie growth rates, so by the time the BBS aren't counted as babies any more, the axies should still be able to cope with the size of them anyway?
Sorry of all the questions - I'm very nervous about it all, as you can probably tell

Thats why I tried microworms because I found them from either this site or axolotl.org but I wont use them again messy and a waste of time.
I Start a new lot of bbs every two days so I've usually got about 3 going when I have larvae. The best way to remove them I find is to put a light on the top shining in from the side and the bbs being attracted to light should smim to the light (like seaguls to a chip). then using a turkey baster suck out however many required and put them into coffee filters you have prepared before hand sitting ontop of a cup so that you dont end up with water every where, you can then was it in freshwater if you like (I dont) and put them straight in with your axies. I dont have mine aerated, I leave mine sitting on a high bench for more warmth I find mine even get large enough and start reproducing I've got a culture going from September that is still reproducing and I have never even changed the water but I did use fresh sea water.

memojo1979 said:

I found a bit of a mention on microworms (+ figured that would be their catagory) in the Caudata Culture link. I might give the BBS a try, if I can use any clear tub, though I'm not confident about the aeration either
From what I've read, empty shells float to the top, "dud" eggs sink to the bottom + the BBS will mill around in the water in between?
I'm thinking of trying to rinse them using kitchen towel, so when they're rinsed, do I dip the kitchen towel into a tub of clean water, to remove the BBS from the kitchen towel?
Also, how often do I need to do a new batch of BBS? I'll aim to have 2 cultures going, started at different times (how far apart? 1 day? 2 days?) Presumably if I'm aiming to get BABY brine shrimp, I'll need to keep doing new batches? Or does their growth rate kind of tally will axie growth rates, so by the time the BBS aren't counted as babies any more, the axies should still be able to cope with the size of them anyway?
Sorry of all the questions - I'm very nervous about it all, as you can probably tell

Click to expand...

I found this method of making a hatchery on youtube Tutorial: Brine Shrimp Hatchery - YouTube and have 2 pretty much identical ones set up to hatch alternate days.
I used empty 2 litre bottles and use 1 litre of water each time. When it comes to harvesting I found the whole thing difficult also so to combat this I switched to waterlife shell-less artemia. When they have hatched I simply pour all the water into plastic juice containers (I got these from poundland) and to collect I have a net with a piece of j cloth stitched on (the blue white check stuff) which I use to pipette the bbs onto. I can then rinse the net without fear of losing any bbs and dip it into the larvaes containers. As the shrimp are decapsulated I dont have to worry about any unhatched eggs getting through.:happy:

My BBS havent hatched, not impressed at all However I can get daphnia from 4 or 5 shops near to me, so its not really that much of a problem.

I got 6 bags today of the tiniest daphnia ever, I could only just see them! The little hatchlings went mad for them I also keep a daphnia culture going just in case of disasters, but tend to use that for the newts when its in its boom phase.

Lollypop, do you want me to post you a bag of daphnia?

I have just managed to get 1 bag, and some live bloodworm so gonna try them on that, the place hubby took me today seems to have a good supply (I just didn't know what half of it was). So I'm gonna try them out and then workout how to grow daphnia and see if that's as successfull as my bbs (have even got my bbs growing a little bigger and being fed, there a backup plan, and so far so good)

I seem to be speeding more and more time turning my kitchen into a lab for growing critters ans fauna. If things go pear shaped then I will pm u for some daphnia. :happy: thanks

I just put the daphnia in a little tank with some water and something to make the water go green. This time I used a piece of fig. I chuck some liquifry in every now and again as well. I've also got some spirulina (sp?) pellets, and I crush them up and sprinkle a bit in. The tank sits on a windowsill and seems to do ok. It builds up slowly and then booms. If I'm not careful just after it booms it goes bust and they all die off.

Just an update - looks like only 4 of the eggs are actually doing anything at all! So, I think I'm going to do banana worm to begin with, then move on to daphnia. If I need to keep redoing BBS cultures, it's going to get VERY expensive + wasteful for just 4 axies (if all 4 hatch!)

I studied Daphnia in the ecotox lab here at my university. They do different studies on them, and blood worms. I wish I had my axies while I still had access to the lab...they give away all kinds of things that they think are overly wasteful. To animal owners...they are amazing gifts for our babies. lol

I've had no luck raising live food for my hatchlings: My batches of daphnia never took off (although I did raise some short-lived and fast-growing triops and fairy shrimp, lol), and I think my microworms polluted the water, killing off all the axolotl larvae in the tank overnight.

However, I am having some success feeding the last remaining and late-hatching larvae crushed/powdered axolotl pellets. They're in a 1.5 gallon tank with a sponge filter/wand, which circulates the powdered pellets down and across the bottom. At feeding time, the little guys lunge at the granules. The lunging turbulence stirs up the granules and causes more lunging/feeding activity.

It's probably not the most nutritious diet: They're not growing very fast, but they are growing. It's reassuring to see that they're eating, getting fatter, and growing limbs. Maintenance is also very easy: the old food gets vacuumed daily with a turkey baster and the water is topped off before feeding.

Brine shrimp appear to be the best food (I haven't tried raising them, given my sorry record), but if you have problems raising live food, the pellets may keep your babies from starving!


(This guy has full front arms and rear leg nubs, but they aren't visible in the pic.)

Only just seen your reply jb1 - thank you :happy: