Question: Drosophila (fruit fly) larvae for young axies?

I have 4 young axolotls (around 4cm long, not certain of the exact age). So far I've been feeding them live daphnia and artemia (brine shrimp) which they like very much, but these can be hard to find where I live and sometimes die off quickly, so I also keep frozen daphnia in stock for between orders. When defrosted this is a bit like red mush, so as they're so young I have to feed it to them from the end of a pipette as they're not very stimulated to eat it if it doesn't move. It's fine as a filler between live food orders but they occasionally spit it out and don't seem as keen as on the live stuff.

Well, I work in a biology institute where one of the insects kept is fruit flies, and I have heard that adult axies can be given fishing maggots, so yesterday I brought home some fruit fly larvae. Being so tiny, they are the perfect size for my axies, and because they are alive and wiggly they were snapping them up! Obviously I have a ready (and free!) supply of these from work so it would be great to keep using them on a fairly regular basis.

I'm just wondering what, if any, nutritional differences I should be wary of to keep their diet balanced. I know in general maggots are much higher in fat than aquatic microorganisms like daphnia/artemia are, so does this mean I should stick to them as a 'once in a while' food rather than a staple? But then being fattier means they're higher in calories so maybe this is good for growing babies too? :dizzy: They also contain more calcium than daphnia, which I know is beneficial. I wouldn't give them adult fruit flies as I think the chitinous exoskeleton might not do them much good (at the very least it would reduce the nutritional value) but maggots are soft and harmless... any thoughts/advice?

:wacko:

I can't see a problem with fruit fly larvae - as part of a varied diet they should be fine. Axies in the wild would eat almost anything that wiggles, and if your nutritional stats come up favourable then give it a go.

I thingk I remember reading somehwere that babies and breeding females benefit from a slightly higher fat diet - don't remember where and please don't shoot me down if I've remembered incorrectly!

While they're tiny, I think a higher fat diet would be beneficial in their growth. As they get bigger, you'll want to introduce a variety of foods.

Way to be resourceful!