Daily deaths

I'm losing quite a lot of babies every day. I had 28 golden albino's and I'm now down to 11. Only 6 of them have grown a lot. The other remaining ones are still quite small and turned from yellow to white. I've been feeding them lot's of small daphnia and changing the water daily. Some of them don't seem to be eating at all. The 5 biggest ones are all in a plastic takeaway container and are about 1 inch long and roughly 5 weeks old. I've had a desk lamp near them to keep the water warm and boost their appetite. Could the light be stressing them out? I also have a lot of eggs my own axolotls laid and there are quite a lot of deaths with them too. By the way this is my first time raising babies but I always make sure they have food and clean water. Thanks.

Have you been washing out the containers daily with a bicarbonate/salt mix? It's essential to keep the slime off the containers. Cleanliness & fresh water changes as well as a steady supply of good foods are the basic necessities for little ones.

Have you tried raising BBS to supplement the daphnia... Maybe that could entice them to eat more.



<3 >o_o< <3

I've just been using hot water and a scourer to scrub the tubs out. I have attempted to hatch BBS but the first time nothing had happened after 48 hours and the second time the entire mix had for some reason all risen to the top and stuck to the sides of the bottleso the only thing there was clear water.

There's a BBS hatching guide which is a simple set up

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...rine-shrimp-hatching-harvesting-tutorial.html

Follow the directions & make sure the eggs you have aren't out of date or old stock.

Washing containers with the Bicarb(2 parts) Salt (1 part) will ensure all bacteria are killed & the plastic totally clean. Plastic unlike glass is very rough & that surface area can hold a lot of slime. Scrubbing really well will make sure they're clean & not carrying anything over into the clean water.

Good luck - keep us updated in the little ones



<3 >o_o< <3

Yeah followed that tutorial as closely as I could. Will give it another go later on and will post some pics up of the little ones.

When you are hatching the BBS the trick is to stay near the hatchery for at least 2 hours so that you can push the eggs down into the water. I used a plastic spoon. Actually I think it was more like 4 hours from memory. This helps the eggs absorb some water so they have some weight. Hope that made sense. This is just my experience anyhow.
I didn't use a lamp when I had babies. It was about 18 degrees where they were during the day. Have you measured the water temp? I also agree with Nikki that the containers should be scrubbed and well rinsed. Every couple of days. That worked for me so it may help you.
Do pursue using the BBS. I tried about 4 brands and there was one that worked better than the others. I had two hatcheries going with different brands at times. I also found that the stronger light was more successful out of my two lamps. I also put an attachment on the hose to maintain a good level of aeration. However this may have been needed because the air pump was very strong. Adjusting it helped the eggs stay closer to the waterline.
Sorry if any of that was confusing. It's been a long long day
Good luck with the little ones, let us know how it all goes.

And a BBS net worked better for me than the coffee filter paper. I had a few issues getting that to work, probably clumsy hands. And the net was good for blackworm rinsing later on as it prevents many falling into the sink.

I have been in a guess and check mode with my boyfriend and BBS. He can get it to hatch then a few hours after they hatch they all die. I use no light for mine and still get some hatched with in 24 hours. As soon as I take out my bubbler I pour them into a bigger tupperware with a larger surface area. I can get them to live like 4-5 days in that, and by that point I am sure my hatchlings are ending the cycle! I ordered my BBS off ebay. If you would like the name I could find it for you!

I start out mine in tupperware containers (5L) and leave them there-two stacked on top of each other with a light on 24/7, in front of the back of the chiller (Nice and waaaarrrrrmmmmm) and an air hose pumping water- I can get a few days' really good harvest out of it before I swap one over so there's always one ready to be harvested.
Hope all these ideas give you a way to get some eggs going!