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First foods will not include daphnia...

K

kara

Guest
The supplier I have found (Canadian Feeders, the only one I have found here!) Has non-blooming daphnia at the moment, but has offered cyclops, micro-worms, vinegar eels and white worms.I have read that vinegar eels are too large for young larvae's mouths. What would be the optimum food to offer to newly hatched axolotls?
 
K

kaysie

Guest
White worms are probably the food that's going to be the most versatile for you. They're easy to grow and culture, and fairly easy to harvest. They're also at a size where they can be eaten as the animals get bigger.
 
K

kara

Guest
Thanks a lot for all your input Kaysie. You, among others have really helped me out.

I will be getting the whiteworms Thursday. How many should I get? And what do I need to culture/care for them?
 
J

joseph

Guest
vinegar eels are tiny. They are the smallest livefood you mentioned on that list(microworms may be able to compete). I think they would work for young larvae as I know microworms do. They are a bit tricky to harvest and it is tough getting all the vinegar out of them. They have an advantage(?) over microworms in that they swim around in the water. Great for fish, not so sure if that is good for newts.

I have a culture, but have never used it. They are easy to set up and can be neglected for months and months and still have worms in them.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
I think microworms are a bit too small, so if vinegar eels are smaller, I wouldn't bother. A whiteworm culture produces all different sizes of worms, which is handy. I have a mini-caresheet for them here:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/whiteworms.html

Another option is to hatch out brine shrimp eggs.
 
P

peterj

Guest
If you harvest mosquito eggs the hatchling wrigglers are tiny and you can grow them on to suit the size of your larvae.
 
K

kara

Guest
Peter-I don't think I would like to have mosquito's, we have west nile around where I live (a bad people killing virus)and that sounds too risky.

Jenn-I think white worms will do it, but when the eggs hatch, and that first feeding period, would the be too big? I am getting mine live from a supplier, and do not care to grow them myself, however, I am checking out the link you have given me (thanks again)
 
J

jennifer

Guest
The thing about whiteworms is that, in order to keep them alive and harvest them, you pretty much end up "culturing" them whether you want to or not. The supplier will probably send them in dirt(?). To separate worms from dirt, you have to put a piece of bread there overnight until it's swarming with worms and easy to harvest. At that point, you have FED the worms, they reproduce, etc... I don't know of a way to keep them alive and harvest w/o them reproducing. I suppose you could keep them in the fridge or starve them.

Whiteworms produce a mixture of sizes. If you are really anal, you can put a clump of them into shallow water and use an eyedropper to pick out just the smallest ones. These are certainly small enough for hatchlings.
 
K

kaysie

Guest
Kara, whiteworms come in a variety of sizes in a culture. And they live in the water for a fairly long time. Just dump in a chunk and they'll pick out the small ones.
 
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  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
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  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
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  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
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  • Clareclare:
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