Axolotl hatchlings not eating

[Moofy]

They starting hatching a couple of days ago, I couldnt get hold of any live food until today, but they seemed to be doing okay, gave them bloodworm mashed up...i got some brineshrimp today and put some in the tank, they are actually swimming away from them and not eating at all? they arent freshly hatched but they are super small, they are even chasing and bullying the axolotl! i have some frozen bloodworm, would that be better for now?

 

[Bellabelloo]

Live brine shrimp and daphnia are good first foods. The new larvae will tend to only eat live food at first.

 

[Moofy]

yeah, I got them some live brineshrimp, they aren't touching them at all, they kinda seem scared of them!
I got some cut up bloodworm and put that in, I really can't tell if they're eating that either.... There might be a few less shrimp in there, so either they've eaten some, or the shrimp died and they are too little to see.

 

[melfly]

Brine shrimp wont live long in freshwater. You should do a water change to remove dead ones. Keep tryin with them though. You'll know they''re eating because you'll see them do a little jump and their bellies will be full and orange. I've never known a hatchling refuse brine shrimp they'll take to it if you keep tryin. Mel

 

[Moofy]

hey, thanks, yeah i took out the dead shrimp and the tank crud, i put about 10 or so shrimp in today, (there are around 40 axolotls) if they eat them in a few hours I'll put in some more, if not I'll try with the bloodworm again...I cant see inside them so I dunno if they're eating, they look kind of the same, maybe a little bigger then when they first hatched.

 

[melfly]

Ok i'm assuming these are adult brine shrimp. The best for larvae is baby brine shrimp. I hatch my own. You may be best getting some live daphnia. Your larvae will probably die while you try to source baby brine shrimp, or try to find eggs and hatch some successfully. You could of course still go down the baby brine route but you will need something else ie daphnia in the meantime. Mel

 

[Kyryah]

I know that most say microworms are not ideal, but if you can get your hands on some it may help start the eating response. The microworms sink to the bottom, and wriggle a lot, and they live about three days in the water. It is worth a shot to get them to eat.

Kristina

 

[Moofy]

I have no idea how old they are, they just came live in this packet thing...I don't know how to hatch my own, i assume its a bit late to start now. I'm using the very smallest ones, but that was the only thing I could get, I've tried every pet shop and aquatics place in my city...one place said they could get freshly hatched ones on friday, I dunno if thats too late or what. Someone said I could use something called liquifry, its for baby fish, its a liquid food, I dunno if that would do the trick, but I can't get that until friday either! Bah.

 

[Moofy]

I know that most say microworms are not ideal, but if you can get your hands on some it may help start the eating response. The microworms sink to the bottom, and wriggle a lot, and they live about three days in the water. It is worth a shot to get them to eat.

Kristina

thanks, I'll see if I can get some and give that a shot, cheers.

 

[melfly]

You can get starter cultures of micro worms on ebay. They are better than nothing. Mel

 

[Moofy]

update: they are alive and doing pretty well, theres about 40 or so, they still only seem interested in the bloodworm though. Also they act pretty much blind, they don't react if anything goes past their face, only if the water moves...which is pretty weird, but some are nearly a week old and getting more and more active, so they can't be doing too badly. thanks for eveyones advice!

 

[shoegal]

Through my research I learned that live daphnia are the ideal food for brand new baby axies. You can buy them on the web at various sites. I am raising about 60 baby axies, and they are responding well to the daphnia. I can actually see the babies snapping at the daphnia and eating them.

Best of luck with your babies!

 

[shoegal]

Also, daphnia will stay alive in your baby axie tank (unlike the brine shrimp which will die and foul the water).