Urgent help required!

SuperSteve · Jan 12, 2013

I bought some eggs a couple of weeks ago and 8 have hatched so far. I change the water 40-50% twice a day and have been making sure there is food in their container. Last night in 1 of the containers I noticed that 1 of them had stopped moving and wasn't reacting at all when I lightly nudged it (they usually swim away) a little while later the same happened to another. I carried on changing the water and left it overnight in case they were playing dead or something. When I woke up today all 5 out of the same container were dead. These were the first ones to hatch and it doesn't make any sense to me, they were swimming around quite a lot yesterday. The other 3 are fine at the minute but I need to find out whats going wrong before the rest of them die. Has anyone got any ideas?

AxieMama · Jan 12, 2013

. When raising my hatchlings, I was doing 100% water changes daily, with aerated, dechlorinated water. Only lost a few out of over 130. What water are you using? Is the water temp stable / as close to that in the tubs? What are you feeding them?

layna · Jan 12, 2013

Hi, i got a batch of 17 eggs, lost 5 when they were 1-2 weeks old in around 4 days then they were fine for a few weeks, recently the littler ones (who havent got their front legs yet) have been refusing to eat and so out of those ive lost another two. i think really i expected around half of them to survive and ive still got 10 so far.

Mine are in two tubs that each have two dividers, so 6 sections, two in each section. I do 80% water change everyday and feed them once on a night. They dont have any air pumps or filters just the daily water change.

Sometimes if your doing a lot of water changes, it can shock them, especially if the water is a different temp to what they are in, and they die.

I think if the water parameters are good then it really is just a case of they weren't meant to live.

What are you feeding them?

I wouldn't worry too much because you cant change it.
Good luck :wacko:

SuperSteve · Jan 12, 2013

Water temperature is fine and I'm using water left out to dechlorinate. I'm feeding them Daphnia and started on microworms yesterday (which just seem to float to the bottom and die) I've now noticed a transparent bubble around their heads...

FX1C · Jan 12, 2013

SuperSteve said:
Water temperature is fine and I'm using water left out to dechlorinate. I'm feeding them Daphnia and started on microworms yesterday (which just seem to float to the bottom and die) I've now noticed a transparent bubble around their heads...

Just leaving water out does not remove the chlorine & chloramines! You have to dechlorinated the water with a proper water conditioner - without that you may as well be using pool water (depending on how strong the additions are in your water supply).

100% changes are essential when they are in tubs & washing out the tub walls is also important as it can build up with bacteria.

<3 >o_o< <3

esn · Jan 12, 2013

Nikki71 said:
Just leaving water out does not remove the chlorine & chloramines! You have to dechlorinated the water with a proper water conditioner - without that you may as well be using pool water (depending on how strong the additions are in your water supply).

100% changes are essential when they are in tubs & washing out the tub walls is also important as it can build up with bacteria.

<3 >o_o< <3

This is not entirely accurate. Leaving water out does not get rid of chloramines, but chlorine does evaporate out. Some places do not have chlorine or chloramines in their water supply, so dechlorinator is not always necessary.

The question is, does he know for sure that his water does not contain these chemicals, or is this an entirely different issue?

Neil C · Jan 13, 2013

I'm thinking it's not a water quality issue because if your water wasn't safe the babies would have died almost straight away after hatching, if not before. My guess is that your babies are not feeding. Have you seen them eating or noticed their full bellies? As the ones that hatched first unfortunately died then it sounds like they have starved as they have used up their reserves. Newly hatched babies can usually live about a week without food, how long ago did the first ones hatch? I would guess that your Daphnia may be too large and they are not taking the microworms.

Good luck with your remaining babies.

Regards Neil

SuperSteve · Jan 13, 2013

Neil C said:
I'm thinking it's not a water quality issue because if your water wasn't safe the babies would have died almost straight away after hatching, if not before. My guess is that your babies are not feeding. Have you seen them eating or noticed their full bellies? As the ones that hatched first unfortunately died then it sounds like they have starved as they have used up their reserves. Newly hatched babies can usually live about a week without food, how long ago did the first ones hatch? I would guess that your Daphnia may be too large and they are not taking the microworms.

Good luck with your remaining babies.

Regards Neil

No I've never seen them eat. The bigger daphnia are definitely too big but not really seen them eat the baby ones either. Is there any way I can encourage them to eat or will I have no control and have to watch them die one by one?

Neil C · Jan 13, 2013

How many Daphnia do you put in the water? They may be eating the baby ones but there may not be enough of them. They really do eat a surprisingly large number of small prey. Another option is to try and hatch baby brine shrimp...is this an option?

Regards Neil

SuperSteve · Jan 13, 2013

I might not have fed them enough then. I was told to feed them a very small amount. (About 2 each per day) I've just ordered some decapsulated brine shrimp eggs from ebay which will be here in a couple of days. Not sure if they're eating the microworms I can hardly see them myself.

Bellabelloo · Jan 13, 2013

They are hopefully eating the microworms. I feed larvae twice daily and 100% clean out every day.

layna · Jan 13, 2013

Im loosing another baby.

They are around 7 weeks and this one is just refusing to eat.I mean not even moving when food is in front of it.
Ive offered him tiny blood worm, bits of daphnia jelly stuff and baby live daphnia, my most recent attempt was bbs and brine shrimp, he still isnt taking any. Today it has got too much for him and i can see him dying as the time goes on.

Its sad as i feel ive exhausted most options of food over the last week and he has not once attempted to eat it

The others are all fine and happily eat whatever i give them.

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