Two week hatchling won't eat

[Annalotl]

I have 22 axolotl hatchlings that are almost two weeks old. I am feeding them newly hatched brine shrimp ... but one is not eating. At first i thought maybe she was the youngest so just not hungry. Then after a week I thought maybe she was being picked on, so i isolated her in a small mason jar so she'd get plenty of shrimp ... but she almost seems annoyed when i put them in, heading to the other side of the jar or even to the water surface to get away from them. Her stomach is empty except for a red dot. Could it be that she swallowed a shell? Is there anything I can do to help her? Should I put her back in with her siblings? Their water is approx 18C. I use a turkey baster to lower the water to about 2 in before feeding them. Then about 1-3 hrs later i'll raise it back to about 4 in. the next morning i'll suck out the dead shrimp which lowers the water again to about 2.5 in. could it be stress from the water movement? I use the basters and try to go slowly so that there's not too much current, but they all seem to cyclone around anyway when i do it

 

[auntiejude]

Sometimes babies don't make it. If 1 out of 20+ isn't doing well the best you can do is offer it food and hope for the best. The red spot on your larva's side it it's liver - you may be able to see 2 spots of colour on the left side of larger larvae - liver and heart.

Keep the little one separate for ow - it will either be eating and you're not seeing it or it will not survive. There is not much you can do about it unfortunately.

You should be changing the water completely every day as well as removing dead BBS. And I have found there is no need to change the water levels for feeding as long as you don't have an overhead light - BBS will be attracted to light, and you want them to be at the bottom where the larvae are.

 

[Smoxolotl]

Yeah, turkey bastering takes some practice for sure! By the time that you have it down, they'll be on to worms! I'm not sure what kind yours are, but with mine I was able to tell when they ate the unhatched eggs because I could see them in their tummies.I don't know what can be done if they eat them, but mine all survived that did. As far as the runt goes, if its hanging in and surviving its probably eating. Separating it so it won't get eaten, attacked, etc. is definitely going to help it. Baby brineshrimp are annoying, maybe drop less in the axols water than you have been. Should see the orange belly in no time! Best of Luck!:yin-yang:

 

[Annalotl]

You should be changing the water completely every day as well as removing dead BBS. And I have found there is no need to change the water levels for feeding as long as you don't have an overhead light - BBS will be attracted to light, and you want them to be at the bottom where the larvae are.

Do you use a net for this? I'm having a hard time with mine so haven't done a complete water change but once. It was the smallest at Walmart ... But its still like 3 or 4 inches long. Tempted to just grab em but don't want to injure their gills

 

[auntiejude]

Yes, I pour the whole contents of a tub gently through a net - the poop and dead BBS go through, the larvae stay in the net. I keep the net actually in the water so as not to stress the larvae.