Our Axies are frantically utting their heads above water

Help,

All our axies have gone nuts this arvo, swimming around the top of the tank with their heads poking out, no obvious changes in their tank.... i used treated bore water instead of rainwater at water change (i dont treat our rain water and they find it fine....) ammonia 3 nitrate nitrite 0 ph 6.4 temp steady 18ish what could be casuing this?

It seems to me that that is the problem, they are clearly stressed about something in the water. I would remove them from the tank and put them in dechlorinated water ( or what ever youusually use) cover athem and leave them somewhere cool. I would then test the tank water and compare the results to your rain water and bore water ( is this well water ? ..if so there will be a marked difference in the water chemicals). I suspect something in the well water ..maybe its harder or even something has leeched into the water.

If you have an ammonia reading of 3, you should change a part of the water because ammonia is toxic (although this level is not very critical).
Do you know the parameters of the rain water you usually use? A rapid change of water parameters stresses axolotl, too.

we have been doing 20-30% water changes for a week now till the cycling has been done, so that isnt really an issue, we are getting a custom made tank this week.. 4ft by 30 cm by 30 cm, my hubby is making it for me.

we have removed a major part of the water due to a test my hubby made me do, we put one of the axies in a container of bore water and the others in rainwater, lets just say the borewater one got removed pretty bwoody quickly!
We have replaced the tank water with rain water, 3 of them are doing better and the last is taking a bit longer to recover. we know we have too many for the tank but we have a love that transcends all fishtanks..they are our babbies, sorry 2 are my sons 1 is mine and the other is my daughters.. he is more shaken up about this than anyone...i was worried i had killed them.... he sat in front of the tank crying,
right now they are back in their tank, in rainwater, with pumps going (they like their two pumps, not just the one.. bwoody fussy babies they are) light off, I shall check params in the morning and let u know, hopefully molly wont hurt hurself and calms down...(snape, weasley and longbottom[the vacuum] are all doing better)
Thanks for the quick replies though guys, muchly appreciated!!!

Hey, hope your axolotls continue to do better

Major water changes are generally not a good idea so perhaps avoid doing major water changes. As kapo has said, big changes in their water will stress out axolotls.

Anyway, another thing to note, your PH is a tad low... should be between 6.5-8 really (with a bit over 7 being the best). And as PH can often lower over time you should keep an eye on it. My PH is about 6.5 normally but I raised it to 7 by putting in a stocking full of shell grit (about a cup and a half). That has kept it steady at 7 for a few months now. You can get shell grit at petstores, it is basically the stuff budgies eat to keep their beaks ok I think. Avoid using any PH powders as too rapid changes in PH will also stress out axolotls.

Ah, you seem to have the axie bug, just like most of us do! One just never seems to be enough!

our babies seem to be doing better today... molly isnt continuously trying to be a dolphin, she is still occasionally doing her impersonation but it looks like shes playing now... the water change was for the best, we left an amount of old water in the tank so they had that.... our ammonia is at 1 this morning (lots of poos in the tank too !!!) ph6.5 both N's are still 0 temp 18.5 which they seem to love.. it doesnt move.... they are not hungry but i dont blame them, they ate well yesterday morning.

our littlest one is about half the size of the others but yet it has the black fingernail thing going on....will it increase in size do you think? its head gear doesnt seem fully developed yet so maybe/hopefully so.....

The black toe tips are a sign that it's maturing but not yet sexually mature. They start to appear round 12cm size in juveniles. This one will probably still need daily feeding and yes will definitely grow -it'll soon catch up. The older ones/adults can be fed every two days or more.