Question: Dying babies

Dipsy66 · Jan 20, 2014

Am so sad

....came home tonight to find another of my 6 remaining babies dead and 3 not looking that happy......looks like my first attempt at raising my first clutch of little axies is about to come to an abrupt end :'( .

Yesterday they all were happily swimming around with little full bellies....tonight DISASTER.

Have been changing the water daily and ensuring dead food removed. I am at a total loss as to why!!?? And they are only 6 days off of being a month old. They're gills were large and well formed and they're heads were really starting to take on the axie shape.

I really could cry.

auntiejude · Jan 20, 2014

I really feel for you Dispy :-(.
What have you been feeding them? And how big are they?
I've been told that water quality is the number one issue with babies, and underfeeding a close second. I would imagine temperature fluctuations might be an issue too.

Dipsy66 · Jan 20, 2014

Here's the baby...have lost another in the last hour too so down to 4....the red thing near him is from the turkey baster....I'd not long cleaned up from the adults and hadn't rinsed it properly..I moved him from the tub to a shallow dish so I could take a pic....they've been getting a mixture of brine shimp and grated blood worm. I know they've been eating coz you can see it in their little tummies.

He's not showing any obvious signs of stress.....

And about an inch long in size auntiejude.

Alkylhalide · Jan 20, 2014

How often do you feed them by chance? Mine are 15days old and about that size/maybe a bit bigger. They dont look big enough yet to be eating bloodworms very well. Do they have back leg buds or front limbs yet?

this a few of my guys at 10days old. But 4weeks i would say back legs buds should be obvious and front limbs fully developed. I sell mine at 6weeks and normally have fully developed back limbs.

Alkylhalide · Jan 20, 2014

I pressed send to quick. I am so sorry to hear about your babies

hopefully the remaining do well.

Dipsy66 · Jan 20, 2014

I can't see any limb buds on them.....and they are nearly 4 weeks old.....I just think I'm going to keep plodding with the remaining survivors....am another one down since posting this thread.....3 babies left. Am not holding out much hope, although two look quite strong one is surface hogging and only swam when I gently touched it to see if it was still with me.

Alkylhalide · Jan 20, 2014

How often do you feed them? And are you feeding them live baby brine shrimp still? If not you need to start again. I say they dont get off live food until their back legs come in. And feed them literally as much as they can possibly eat. Until they have large round bellies. With their size and age and food source I may say they are underfed. Its my only guess right now with the information I have

usafaux2004 · Jan 20, 2014

At 4 weeks I saw leg buds on all of mine. By now (1mos+5 days) all have toes forming. Pushing 1.75-2" on most. 3 smaller ones at 1-1.5", but all have legs. I fed BBS only for ~30 days. Started bloodworms at day 30 and alternated bloodworms and bloodworms/BBS for last 6 days until BBS ran out last night. I'm real sorry for your losses, but I think it's probably natural, as it sounds like you did everything like I did. I had lots of BBS left over as I tried to make sure they got to eat all they wanted. Same with bloodworms now. If there was dead food left, means you fed them plenty. The temperature and water source may be your only other factor then.

Dipsy66 · Jan 20, 2014

Alkylhalide said:
How often do you feed them? And are you feeding them live baby brine shrimp still? If not you need to start again. I say they dont get off live food until their back legs come in. And feed them literally as much as they can possibly eat. Until they have large round bellies. With their size and age and food source I may say they are underfed. Its my only guess right now with the information I have

Thanks for the advice...I have been feeding them once a day. I've seen food in their tummies so know they have been eating....but I did cut down on the brine shrimp and used Daphnia instead....do you think this could have killed them off???

This has been a huge learning curve....I hate seeing them go so much I dont' think I want to repeat the experience.

The thought that I have been to blame has finished me on the breeding front. Will see how the surviving 3 get on and if I lose them will stick with my adults.

Alkylhalide · Jan 20, 2014

Well if you were feeding them as much as they would eat I would say it would not be your fault as you were doing everything right.

I am not experienced in daphnia so I am not sure, when did you switch them over to the daphnia?

I dont think you should give up on breeding, but i think it would be a good idea to just figure out as best as we can on what happened to try to avoid it in the future, but of course if it was a genetic disposition that caused them to die off then You could not of done anything.

I hope all goes well with the last three. Good luck

but if you were feeding them and they were eating then that kind of ruins my only thought..

Kaysie · Jan 21, 2014

If you cut them off brine shrimp cold turkey, they may not have immediately recognized daphnia as food. When I'm using daphnia (or brine shrimp for that matter), hatchlings are literally swimming in a sea of food 24/7. I don't ever want a potential food item to be more than a few millimeters from their lips. I keep that concentration until they start to sprout legs.

Dipsy66 · Jan 22, 2014

Thank you all for your advice...I have invested in some BBS and some Banana worms.....am hoping these will help the babies keeps going.....I still have 3 left and feel less disheartened now.

I have attached some pics and you can see that two of them have eaten from the red in their bellies...I apologise for the quality of the pics....I don't have a great camera for close ups of such tiny beings.

Pic 1 - Dark baby
Pic 2 - Lighter baby
Pic 3 - Very light baby

smiley1996 · Jan 22, 2014

They are adorable! I had the same situation as you now 2 of my babies are left (but not eating :-( ) tell me how banana worms turn out I havent tried them

Every animal has the right to be loved...

Dipsy66 · Jan 22, 2014

smiley1996 said:
They are adorable! I had the same situation as you now 2 of my babies are left (but not eating :-( ) tell me how banana worms turn out I havent tried them

Every animal has the right to be loved...

It's upsetting finding them dead....I hate it....but will keep trying anything and everything for the final few.....I just would love to be successful with at LEAST one of them.

Good luck with your 2 little ones...I hope they start eating again real soon.

smiley1996 · Jan 22, 2014

Thankyou! And yeah I know what you mean especially when you have no one else to blame but yourself :-/ .... I would love to bw successful with atleast one of them! But my bbs isnt successful :-( so I probably will have to order them.alive offline :-/ or go to a LFS :-/ fingers crossed for both of us haha

Every animal has the right to be loved...

Dipsy66 · Jan 22, 2014

smiley1996 said:
Thankyou! And yeah I know what you mean especially when you have no one else to blame but yourself :-/ .... I would love to bw successful with atleast one of them! But my bbs isnt successful :-( so I probably will have to order them.alive offline :-/ or go to a LFS :-/ fingers crossed for both of us haha

Every animal has the right to be loved...

I ordered mine (live BBS) from ebay.....I needed to do something VERY quickly.....was desperate. It's not the cheapest option but have sourced a local aquatic shop that will be stocking them shortly and isn't far from where I work.....I just want my babies to grow.

smiley1996 · Jan 22, 2014

Yeah me too! And I agree not the cheapest but in situations similar I guess it probably was the most wise

Every animal has the right to be loved...

Question: Dying babies

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