when to feed them food other than brine shrimp?

i have some eggs ready to hatch in the next 5 days give or take. i have set up a brine shrimp hatchery and have got brine shrimp eggs. few questions:

1. do i start the brine shrimp as soon as the axies hatch? or before they hatch?

2. after feeding them brine shrimp, at what age or size should they go on to something bigger such as blood worms or chopped earth worms?

3. i currently have them in a net hatchery on the side of the tank that the adults are in. the tank is usually on 20 - 21 degrees celcius and ammonia on 0.25 or 0 is this water alright for the babies when they hatch? how long can they stay in the net hatchery?

just want to be prepared!

Hi mate,

mcr said:

1. do i start the brine shrimp as soon as the axies hatch? or before they hatch?

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As it's brine shrimp - I'd introduce it a day or so after they hatch. Don't put too much in, as it'll die with a couple of hours - and too many dead will soil the water.

Personally, I prefer Daphnia - in the case of Daphnia - get it in the water ASAP so it starts to culture.

mcr said:

2. after feeding them brine shrimp, at what age or size should they go on to something bigger such as blood worms or chopped earth worms?

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Depends on how quick they grow, soon as you feel they can take something a little larger try them. Introduce new food slowly, with their usual meal - giving them chance to develop a taste for it.

mcr said:

3. i currently have them in a net hatchery on the side of the tank that the adults are in. the tank is usually on 20 - 21 degrees celcius and ammonia on 0.25 or 0 is this water alright for the babies when they hatch? how long can they stay in the net hatchery?

Click to expand...

I'd put them in a new tank, I'm not up on water conditions - so can't advise there, but it'll be a long time before they'll be big enough to go in with the adult.

Don't try and raise too many to start with - say 20-30 until you get the hang of it.

Hope this helps. Cheers, Phil

Thanks, many readers but very few with answers so i appreciate it philbaker76.

They hatched 2 days ago and I have had them in a small plastic tub in the net hatchery on the side of the adult tank.

I have tried to feed them brine shrimp that were no more than 24hrs old. Drained the brine shrimp into a hanky and rinsed in a bowl of tank water. Since then I have lost about 50 or so larvae and none of them have the orange bellies. Are they eating or starving to death? I put the brine shrimp in, wait 3 - 4 hours and than do a 90% water change. This is done morning and night.

Now today, 4 of them had orange bellies but they were dead. I put the dead and suspect dead in a jar with tank water and observe for at least half an hour just to be sure.

I dont have access to daphnia so i have to go with the brine shrimp and hatchery.

Also, many of them seem to be very still or lying on their side. Is this normal?

Any comments and advise it greatly appreciated.

The young remain still most of the time, as in nature, at this size they are the prey rather than the predators. Many predators are visually stimulated, hence the motionless survival strategy. As far as the shrimp goes, that is what I feed them and have had good success. I also will feed microworms as they live in the water for days without any danger of dying and fouling the water. As soon as I set up the raising container I throw in a bunch of snails ( they can't compete with the young for food ) to consume any excess food, and also add some fast-growing plants like hornwort to help with the excess nutrients. When introducing larger food items I like to handfeed using a pair of tweezers initially to ensure that the food offered is of suitable size and that all young can consume the given food.

Im lookin for something else ( not brin shrimp ) to feed my catchlings when the hatch what is Daphnia????
smilez

4 days old and they all have orange bellies and they are zipping around!

None dead today!

blodworms

I fed my young axies with small chopped blodworms. they dont actualy eat the worms but they sive the blod and let the rest that I can easlly remove with a net.