Needing advice on 6 day old babies

JodeeC · Jul 22, 2014

Hi thanks for such a great site!!! I have accidentally (not intentionally) bread my axolotls and have successfully had over 100 hatch Until today all seemed to be going fantastically - They are eating baby brine shrimp that I hatch myself (something I had to learn to do very quickly!). Anyway today I came home to find a lot of the babies are floating around the top of the water and some are swimming around erratically (kind of thrashing about). - What could be the cause of this?? I tested the water for ammonia PH and both are in the allowable ranges. The temp is 19deg. They are in a container approx 30cm x 20cm and have an air stone to aerate the water...I change part of the water every day and suck up any uneaten food.... Am i missing something??

piaalexa · Jul 24, 2014

Brine shrimp foul the water very quickly so I would do 100% water changes everyday. Also when they are very small they don't need an air stone (in fact it might scare them at that age). Also keep the water level quite low, it helps with oxygenation of the water (increased surface area). I would also break the 100 babies up and put them into smaller groups in separate tubs just so they have some space. I hope that helps :happy:

layna · Jul 26, 2014

With babies in tubs you need to be doing 100% water changes daily.
Its easier to have two tubs and transfer them to a clean tub so you can wipe the scum off the used tub

Have you considered microworms for newly hatched lottles? Theyre far easier to harvest and grow and probably cheaper in the long run.
An airstone is not necessary, however you say ammonia and ph are at an acceptable level, what about nitrIte and nitrAte? And acceptable levels of ammonia for a baby lottle is 0, theyre very sensitive to things before they get their legs

JodeeC · Aug 3, 2014

Thank you for your replies - sorry i haven't been back on the internet since posting original post. All seem to be going GREAT now - things have settled down and the little lotties are now 3 weeks old and starting to get front leg stumps. Ive been feeding baby brine shrimp and have been doing twice daily water changes (to clean up dead brine shrimp and replenish water). I have not lost any since the problem at the start so still have well over 100 babies!!. What age do i start introducing frozen blood worms?? (I'm not on the internet very often so please don't think me rude not to reply quickly)

CultClassic · Aug 12, 2014

Mine started with the blood worms right about when they had legs develop - I couldn't get them to eat frozen at first so I started with live blood worms. Incredibly messy things but after a few feedings of live blood worms mine started to eagerly eat the frozen.

JodeeC · Aug 12, 2014

I found some live black worms over the weekend and bought some of them - I was told to chop them up a little to start with so that they aren't to big for the babies, they have taken to them so quickly and you can easily see which ones have eaten them as their bellies are black! I will slowly change from the live worms to the frozen blood worms as it will be much more economical and easy to come by.

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Needing advice on 6 day old babies

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