A little up-side down feeling

hello,
Okay I don't know if this is normal for them,
My 3 week old axolotl larvae are just under the surface of the water and are up-side down is this normal or are they sick?????
thanks guys!!

Are they moving? Because if they aren't, I would say that they have passed away, or if they are alive, I would think something is wrong. Sorry, can't offer any further help.

There's a really high mortality rate with juvenile axies and the upside down is not a good sign. You should be able to see little gas bubbles in their stomaches, making them float. Reduce the water level, increase the food. BTW - what are you feeding?

they swim a way when you touch them and they are not all floating upside down it just off and on I just started to give them brine shrimp and they are on daphnia frozen we don't get the live stuff over here. any other ideas????

Are you changing the water the larvae are in before feeding them & rinsing the food before giving it to them? Also removing uneaten food a short while afterwards? Brine shrimp in particular is very salty & fouls the water shortly afterwards.

i am using a s syringe to suck up little brine shrimp and putting them in to a glass of pure water and tipping that in to the tank and a half hour later i get out the ones that have not been eaten. they have air surply and water changed twice a week.

Kylie they wont eat frozen daphnia at that age. even when they can later on they arent very nutritious as they burst when they are frozen and the nutrients leak out into the water which isnt what the axies eat

(Message edited by clairey_beary on August 17, 2005)

Kaylie - I think you should be changing the water more frequently than that. As Ros mentioned changing it before feeding them is a good idea. I also changed part sometimes all of the water again a few hours after feeding.

Have they had any live food? I was still feeding newly hatched brine shrimp at that age.

yes they are getting live brine shrimp and they are washed in pure water, I will start changing there water more thanks, if I keep changing there water will they get stressed at all and how often do I feed them cause at the pet shop they say three time a day . thank for your help!

Kylie, I'm feeding our babies twice a day & depending on the condition of the water...it is either partially or fully changed. I have plenty of prepared water stored for them.
All fish get stressed when their water is being changed, it's inevitable, however, axolotl larvae are somewhat resilient & our babies are healthy.
You might want to read the following;
Rearing Axolotls
http://www.axolotl.org/rearing.htm
Very young larvae can be kept together without much risk of cannibalism since this really only begins once the front legs develop. When very young they should be fed frequently (once or twice daily). If kept at about 20 °C (68 °F) they should reach about 1.5 cm in length within a week. The larva pictured on the right is four days old and 14 mm in length. It is D/D M/m a/a (see the Genetics Page for more information about colour). If feeding brineshrimp, at least some of the water should be replaced each day because newly hatched brineshrimp die quickly in fresh water and can foul the water in a matter of hours. As mentioned above, Daphnia will live in the tank with the larvae until eaten, so occasional water changes are fine (partial water changes a few times a week).

thanks I bought some blood worm today and tried it on them and they started to suck it up like spagetti and the ones with air bubbles in their tummys they are still finding it hard to get to the bottom if the tank to get the blood worms, I tried to hold it in a pair of tweezers but they keep'ed swimming away, hopfully in time they will take it from the tweezers.

If the larvae are finding it hard to reach the bottom of the tank, then the water level might be too high. What is the water depth in the tank?
I'm sure they'll learn to feed from the tweezers eventually, however, I think they maybe too young to learn to do that yet.
Following is the site re suitable food for axolotls; http://www.axolotl.org/feeding.htm

it is about two -three in from the top to the bottom of the tank i ended up putting the one seperate and put a teaspoon of rock salt to 1 lt of water and it did the trick all back to normal.and they are doing well with the blood worm.