10 dead babies

SarahandRich · Apr 6, 2008

Ten of my larvae just died! The others are all thiving and eating well. The casualties' tummies look completely empty and they were the tiny ones. Do you think they starved to death/never learned to eat? They were in a HUGE tank with their siblings who, as I say, are doing well. There is no sign of illness in the others, in fact some are monster-big. They hatched on Easter w/end and none of them has grown front legs yet. All munching daphnia happily, except those 10. Is it natural selection? Survival of the fittest? I've lost approx 25%.

Everything else seems good, I'm sucking up debris with a turkey baster and changing about 50% of the water daily. Anyone have any idea what caused this? Poor little babies...

Jennewt · Apr 6, 2008

While a huge tank has some advantages (stable water quality), it has the disadvantage that the food is spread out over a large area. Daphnia tend to congregate in certain areas of the tank (usually the most brightly-lit spots), which makes for an uneven distribution of food. Hatchlings are not too smart about moving toward where the food is. Thus my speculation is that the ones that died simply weren't finding enough food in their immediate vicinity. This would also explain why some of them are monster-big.

I would suggest adding more daphnia and stirring the daphnia around a couple of times every day. And if you have some other kind of food you could add (such as BBS or whiteworms), this would also help.

SarahandRich · Apr 6, 2008

Daphnia - axanthics?

I have been moving the daphnia around - indeed I'm breeding them and made sure there were some TEEEENY ones in there too, so the littlest babise stood a chance. I just looked back at a previous thread where someone kindly worked out the genetic possibilities of mine, given the parenage, and she said that some could be [FONT=&quot]axanthics. Would that explain the deaths perhaps... failure to thrive? there seems nothing else wrong!!!!

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SarahandRich · Apr 6, 2008

Did they die of TWISTED GILLS? Genetic defect

Twisted Gills (t)
Mutant larvae fail to feed and die, on average, seventeen days after hatching. Limb development is also retarded. Deterioration of the gills (responsible for the name) is apparently due to starvation

It was 17 days exactly when mine died! Coincidence or genetic defect?

I found this info on http://bigapple.uky.edu/~axolotl/mutantslist.htm the Ambystoma Genetic Stock Centre

Jennewt · Apr 6, 2008

If the number that die ends up being right at 25% then it's certainly possible that the deaths are due to a recessive genetic trait. Are the parents siblings? The chance that it is exactly the mutation described on the AGSC website seems slim, but it's not impossible.

SarahandRich · Apr 7, 2008

I don't know if the parents are siblings - I just acquired the eggs! However, it IS a strange coincidence sin't it? All the others seem to be thriving - putting on weight and zipping around well. just those tiny ones, who didn't make it...

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