Question: Axolotl eggs hatched in post! Help!!

Hello, I am new to axolotls and posting on here but I need help! My axolotl eggs were due to hatch around this weekend. I have read extensively on the subject of rearing axolotls and have all the live food cultures set up. However, when my eggs arrived on Wednesday they had already hatched and none of my cultures are ready yet! I have some adult daphnia in their tub with them but have not yet seen any baby daphnia small enough for them to eat. My micorworms (which I have cultured for my fish many times) are not crawling up the sides of their tub yet so not possible to harvest them without introducing porridge to the axolotls. My baby brineshrimp haven't hatched in either of my 2 hatcheries as they only arrived yesterday.

I am well aware that axolotl larvae need tiny live food but am wondering if there's anything I can give them as an emergency measure. I have just crushed a bloodworm pellet very finely and sprinkled a tiny amount into their tub. I also have frozen bloodworm but obviously they are too tiny to eat these yet. I read someone's post on here saying they were giving their larvae mashed up frozen bloodworm and egg. Is this a really bad idea?

I also have some Artemia Shelless eggs in suspension which I currently have some of in a hatchery. Could the larvae possibly eat these?

I am taking the day off work to care for them as am really worried they might starve and I am already in love!

axolotl newbie said:

Hello, I am new to axolotls and posting on here but I need help! My axolotl eggs were due to hatch around this weekend. I have read extensively on the subject of rearing axolotls and have all the live food cultures set up. However, when my eggs arrived on Wednesday they had already hatched and none of my cultures are ready yet! I have some adult daphnia in their tub with them but have not yet seen any baby daphnia small enough for them to eat. My micorworms (which I have cultured for my fish many times) are not crawling up the sides of their tub yet so not possible to harvest them without introducing porridge to the axolotls. My baby brineshrimp haven't hatched in either of my 2 hatcheries as they only arrived yesterday.

I am well aware that axolotl larvae need tiny live food but am wondering if there's anything I can give them as an emergency measure. I have just crushed a bloodworm pellet very finely and sprinkled a tiny amount into their tub. I also have frozen bloodworm but obviously they are too tiny to eat these yet. I read someone's post on here saying they were giving their larvae mashed up frozen bloodworm and egg. Is this a really bad idea?

I also have some Artemia Shelless eggs in suspension which I currently have some of in a hatchery. Could the larvae possibly eat these?

I am taking the day off work to care for them as am really worried they might starve and I am already in love!

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you do urgently need to get them some live food, they will not eat dead food for at least a month. either try and get hold of some live BBS or some daphnia from a shop, it might be a case of phoning about and then going and getting some.
Without live food they will die and you dont want that. They sense food by movement so has to be living as dead stuff dont move so they will have no idea where to find it

where abouts are you based as some may know local shops near you

I have live daphnia but they are too big, microworms but are not yet crawling up the sides of their tub, and brine shrimp which are not yet hatched! I had everything covered but the eggs hatched much earlier than expected so none of it is ready. I spent the whole of yesterday phoning round the shops and the live daphnia was all that was available. The eggs hatched on Wednesday.

I am in Brighton

just pour what daphnia you have in with them, you may find there is small ones you cant see
dont worry too much about the water the daphnia is in, just pour half bag in and use a big tub so it mixes with the axy water. it should be fine. as they will be starving by now.

i have poured the whole bag into my containers and had no bad effects. think uk farmed daphnia is more sterlile than other countries. but you should stick to bbs and get that up and running quickly, depending on light and heat it should hatch today!

also, is the Artemia Shelless eggs you have the ones you are trying to hatch??, as most of those they sell like that are non-hatchable.

I am storing my daphnia outside in a container filled with water from my fish tank (as advised by the shop). Don't want to introduce water from my fish tank into the tub in case the fish have any bugs they could pass on. I have managed to find a few microworms on the sides of their culture container but not nearly enough. Have put them in the tub with the babies and hope they find them!
What do you mean depending on height of the BBS hatchery? If I move it somewhere warmer will it speed things up? They won't have natural light if I put them in a warmer place.

axolotl newbie said:

I am storing my daphnia outside in a container filled with water from my fish tank (as advised by the shop). Don't want to introduce water from my fish tank into the tub in case the fish have any bugs they could pass on. I have managed to find a few microworms on the sides of their culture container but not nearly enough. Have put them in the tub with the babies and hope they find them!
What do you mean depending on height of the BBS hatchery? If I move it somewhere warmer will it speed things up? They won't have natural light if I put them in a warmer place.

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why did they tell you to use fish water? strange (never trust a petshop, 99% of time they totally wrong about things and just want your money so tell you anything so you buy more stuff. . daphnia live in fresh water, so all you needed was cold water out of tap and some declorinator and they would survive fine.
if you had done that not an issue. now technically you have contaminated daphnia.

easy way to filter daphnia is use a shirt/ blouse, tights or coffee filter, anything that alows water to pass through. then put some fresh water on it then pout whole lot in with your babies...
bbs hatcheries need heat and light, so depending on what your set up is shine a light at it use a table light or place next to radiator and turn it on.
the more light and heat the better and quicker they hatch. bbs dont need natural light, just shine a bright light at them and thats all you need.

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this.

I only have ten babies so they are in a small tub. I bought 3 bags of daphnia- should I really put all of them in?? Also I had already rinsed them well, as advised on many forums, so wondering if any babies may already have ben rinsed away, although my net is very fine.

They avoid the big adult daphnia so I am worried that they won't be able to to get away from them in such a confined space. I have a larger tub- one of the under bed storage type ones I was planning to move them to when they are a bit bigger, but I am worried they won't be able to catch any food in something so big.

I have moved the BBS hatchery next to a radiator and in the best natural light available (I live in a basement!) I have also moved the microworms closer to a radiator.

I can't believe how stressful this is- especially since I was so well prepared (if they had hatched when expected!)

axolotl newbie said:

Thanks for taking the time to help me with this.

I only have ten babies so they are in a small tub. I bought 3 bags of daphnia- should I really put all of them in?? Also I had already rinsed them well, as advised on many forums, so wondering if any babies may already have ben rinsed away, although my net is very fine.

They avoid the big adult daphnia so I am worried that they won't be able to to get away from them in such a confined space. I have a larger tub- one of the under bed storage type ones I was planning to move them to when they are a bit bigger, but I am worried they won't be able to catch any food in something so big.

I have moved the BBS hatchery next to a radiator and in the best natural light available (I live in a basement!) I have also moved the microworms closer to a radiator.

I can't believe how stressful this is- especially since I was so well prepared (if they had hatched when expected!)

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if your worried just pop half in a seperate tub so you have 5 and 5
if you rinsed the daphnia just put it all in, you nothing to lose in doing that, they will breed fine in there.

if you have a desk light or torch just set it up and shine the light at the bbs bubbling away

you could use the bigger tub if you wanted, just make sure water level is very low, ideally no more than 5cm for new hatched ones. less height means they swim about more and more chance of finding food.

OK, one more thing- if I put all of my daphnia in there how will it affect water changes and how will I remove any dead daphnia which are likely to foul the water? If I strain the water with a fine enough material that any baby daphnia are retained, won't it also retain anything that has died?

The tub they are in is 20x13cm and I currently have it filled with 2.5cm of water.

axolotl newbie said:

OK, one more thing- if I put all of my daphnia in there how will it affect water changes and how will I remove any dead daphnia which are likely to foul the water? If I strain the water with a fine enough material that any baby daphnia are retained, won't it also retain anything that has died?

The tub they are in is 20x13cm and I currently have it filled with 2.5cm of water.

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the wayer will be fine for a few days so no regular changes if you use daphnia only, if bbs is used then daily changes are needed. however just get a syringe or something similar and suck any poo out of the tub.
I would pop another 2.5 water into it, other than that they will be fine.
daphnia will rarely die as they live in water anyway.
but bbs will die in fresh water as they need salt so die quick and mess the water

if you need a syringe, goto a chemist and ask for a clean syringe, say your diabetic and in a panic as you have contaminated your own one. if your convincing enough you will be given a few free of charge. (i am a doctor in private practice and many clients do this)

In which case I'm thinking it's probably better to have two tubs on the go- one with the daphnia in, and one which I can tranfer the axolotls to when feeding brine shrimp. Otherwise I have no idea how to separate dead brine shrimp from living daphnia!

bbs easy to spot as its orange when alive and when it dies turns brown and into a thick fluffy clump so easy to suck out.
but as you have only 10 babies just pour tiny amount of bbs in and then most will be eaten.

Wednesday...so it's Friday morning now? The good news is that axolotl larvae don't need to eat for the first 12-24 hours as they eat their way out of their egg sacks and so are pretty full after that for a little while. They will probably only be starting to get really hungry now.

Yes, you can feed them crushed egg yolk or pellet if need be. I did it for my larvae as I didn't have my live food ready either. While it might be harder because it won't move around, it is possible for them to eat it. You can use an air stone (with the tubing tied off or something so it's bubbling very slowly, too much movement in the water will be bad) which will make the crushed egg/pellet slowly get moved around their tub. If you don't have an air pump you can use, you can try swishing the water gently, I used a straw. You will know if they're eating because they will lunge towards the food in a short burst of speed, it's cute to watch

You will need to change the water everyday if you are raising them in a non-cycled tub. The water will foul quickly, especially if using non-live foods (and like Steven said, BBS will die in a few hours). So it is probably best to feed them and let them eat for a little while and then return to change the water. The easiest way is to have two tubs setup - one with the clean water which you will transfer the larvae into after they're done eating and then you can rinse out the other and setup with fresh water for the next day.

Good luck! Welcome to baby axie parenthood!

Steve thanks so much for your help! I strained half of my daphnia through a kitchen towel and rinsed them. There were lots of quite small ones. I have put them in with the babies and they are definitely snapping at them! Not sure if they have actually caught any yet as they are still not as tiny as I hoped, but fingers crossed they will manage somehow.

Steven, sorry!
And thanks Dan. I think They might manage the small daphnia but when the brine shrimp hatch I will transfer them to another tub with those in, wait a few hours then put them back in with the daphnia, if that seems to be a good idea...?
Would partial water changes with the daphnia tub be adequate?

to be honest if you are using daphnia only then you can get away with water change every 2nd day, but bbs it needs to be daily.

I've now noticed lots of teeny tiny daphnia in there with them too. What a relief! Now I am not so stressed about the brine shrimp and microworms.
They all seem to be eating and some of them are starting to get tiny pot bellies.

I think I'm going to see how the other half of the daphnia do outside where it is cold.

Thanks again for all your advice.

Anna.

Daphnia have babies almost daily. Adults should give you plenty of newborns. The warmer you keep your daphnia, the more productive they'll be. If you keep them in the cold, they'll produce epipphia. Here's a good article on daphnia.

Really? I didn't know that! I will bring them inside then. I had them outside to lessen the need for aeration (which I can't currently provide).

Thanks for the tip