Feeding Time!

Alright - so they've hatched, woo! I can see that one of them is already dead, another is spinning fruitlessly around in circles, and the rest are just chilling on the ground waiting to get big enough to nibble on my fingers.

My sources of live food for them have come down to just brine shrimp, as I couldn't get any daphnia in time and this city had nothing for me, so I'm hoping some brine shrimp feeders out there can give me some tips!

• I've read that people have had better success with baby brine shrimp with a lowered water level, is this true? If I leave it six or so inches like it is now (so the sponge filter can work) will all the shrimp stay at the top and thus make feeding useless?
  • If I do lower the water level water changes will have to be made every day which is something I'd rather not do, hence the filter. But if required I guess I will!
• Until the baby shrimp are ready to go would it be worth trying out alternatives that I read about on these forums?
  • Thawing out frozen baby shrimp, swirling them around to stimulate activity and hope they latch on?
  • Try grounded pellets, the ones I feed my adults? (Cringe, I know. I am too. It's going to be messy!)
  • Try frozen/freeze dried blood worms and swirl them around too?
  • Try another option?

I know I've still got a bit of time due to the yolk feeding them for a few more hours but I don't want to lose these guys!

If this helps at all, the tank is a typical fish 10 gallon tank. Triangular sponge filter with noisy air pump and all. Heater in tank to keep the temperature at a constant 22C.

My tank also has a bit of sand in it since the eggs clung to it and it stayed in the tank. Should I be trying to remove this - will that act like they were eating gravel as adults and cause intestinal blockage?

I have most of this down, but little details like this are killing me.

I fed my few larvae on brine shrimp. I used small shallow individual containers with daily 100% water changes rather than a big tank. The larvae were barely covered with water. About 30 baby brine shrimp per larva seemed enough at first, it is surprising how far they go.

The shrimp seem to congregate mainly at the bottom if not attracted upwards by a bright light so you may be OK with a deeper tank.

Up to 20 mm axolotl larvae often ignore dead food and after a few hours live shrimp become dead food in fresh water so do not overfeed, if using a large tank check your water chemistry and step up water changes if needed. You may trick some of them them with stirring but you will have a lot of waste to remove, and probably poor results.

If all else fails fridging larvae for a day or two while the next batch of brine shrimp hatched worked for me.

Wow, fridging works even on the little ones? It's such a good trick!

Thanks! I'll try the tank as is and if it tails I'll just get some little containers for them. Easier to manage that way I think!

I raise larvae exclusively in little tubs. It's just easier to monitor/feed/clean.

May I ask how you move them around at such a small stage? Is using a net going to be okay for them when I change tubs/water? I have a small fine net that I moved one from the adult tank that was somehow in there and that seemed to work - I just don't want to squish them or hurt them unnecessarily. Or is doing a 90% water change daily just as good? Drain off as much as I can and replace it?

That's what I do. Then usually every week or two, I dump them into another tub and scrub the gunk off the inside of the original tub.

Awesome. Thank you. Good thing the storage area had the perfect size Tupperware tub for this!