Hard Boiled Egg Yolk??

[t_summ]

Has anyone tried to feed larvae hard boiled egg yolk before? I have used this method for fish fry in the past with great success. I'm curious if it will work for newts as well without any serious harm. Thanks!

 

[Jennewt]

It's difficult to get any early-stage larvae to eat any non-live food. I won't say it's absolutely impossible, but it has a very low probability of working, in my opinion.

 

[gar4016]

I remember trying this with fish fry and it did work a little. My newt larvae at the start seem to respond more to movement of food than smell(live food advantage). The other problem I had was egg would foul the water quckly which put the young ones at risk(live food advantage). With newt larvae, at least in my plastic tub method of rearing, I've found water quality to be of great importance.

 

[t_summ]

I ran a small group through a test using small quantities of the mashed yolk distributed on the smooth end of a toothpick. When I first introduced the yolk into the water I noticed a small hop (eating) toward the cloud of yolk particles. However, once it settled to the bottom the interest was totally lost. So, i think scrapping this idea is best for all of my larvae as they will only end up with a small taste of the food and a foul living space. Daphnia and microworms seem to be working just fine though. Hopefully soon they can move up to live blackworms!