Question: Larvae & Brine Shrimp - How do u clean up??

[zoezakella]

Hi All,

Well this must be my 100th post this week in this section - can you tell I am new to raising larvae??? :blush:

So on trying daphnia and not being overly impressed due to them fouling the water a lot and being a pain with all the different sizes I decided to try brine shrimp as had heard these were better for the larvae and came in one size lol!

Now I have not been so brave as to culture my own but have been cheating by buying them off ebay! They have been a hit to say the least but again being new to this thought they would live in the water with the larvae until I realised they would not as came in salt water doh!!! (dont panic they were all thoroughly washed through 4 times before being added)

SO BIG QUESTION after the axies have a full orange belly you are then left with a load of dead brine shrimp fouling your water so how i the easiest way to clear this up? Am i being thick as the only way I have come up with is to move all 25 axie into a new tub which is by no means easy and guessing stressful for my babies.

IDEAS WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED

 

[lea]

I had never raised babies so this isnt from experience... but I think I would feed them and then do their water changes so Im not upseting them to much.

 

[Cheylee]

I have a sponge filter in my tank and most of the brine shrimp die or get sucked up by the tiny current and end up right in front of the filter. I just use a gravel vaccum and suck them out.

 

[caseeybrown]

I used a syringe to suck them up and then do half water change, a pipette or turkey baster would do the trick

 

[hypno monkey]

I'm the same as casey I use a pipette which works fine then a turkey basted for bigger tank.

 

[callina]

I suck the waste and the dead BBS out with a syringe. It works fine.

 

[Jennewt]

First off, try to adjust the amount of BS you put in to roughly match what the larvae will eat. The fewer the leftovers, the less the risk of fouling the water.

What kind of container are you using? Depending on the setup, it might help be easier to remove the larvae to a clean container, then clean out the previous container.

 

[zoezakella]

First off, try to adjust the amount of BS you put in to roughly match what the larvae will eat. The fewer the leftovers, the less the risk of fouling the water.

What kind of container are you using? Depending on the setup, it might help be easier to remove the larvae to a clean container, then clean out the previous container.

Thanks to all of you for your ideas

Have moved back to daphnia for the time being as moving so many axolotl babies from old tub to new cant be good for their stress levels and they are so hard to catch :happy:

Jennewt - thanks for this I did cut the last lot down and there was not as much but my new problem with my babies is they are pooing machines :rofl: so are now fouling the water in other ways. And yes I do move them to a new container is better for them just wish they were not so quick. As for setup they are just in a tub at the moment as so tiny still