Lotsa questions!

I want to breed my axolotls but I was wondering what the most likely out come would be if I breed a white male and a wild type female. What would the most likely colour be?

Also I don't plan to keep all the eggs. I here people talking about culling eggs. What is this and what does it mean?

Do many people want wild type axolotls? Sorry I have never bred axolotls and I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing.

Thanks!

Read this page

http://www.axolotl.org/genetics.htm

Hi Lisa

Our axies bred and they were male wild type and female leucistic (white with dark eyes). The offspring were about 70% leucistic and 30% wild type. Not sure if this helps but we definitely didn't have half of each.

Culling means deliberately destroying eggs you don't want. Either leave them in the tank with the parents who will eat them, or destroy them yourself. Think carefully about how many you want to breed. We have 40 5 week-old juveniles from approx 80 eggs and we never imagined so many would survive. It's hard to think about culling healthy young axies. Can I just mention that feeding newly hatched larvae is a huge job. Be sure you have shrimp hatching apparatus and at least an hour a day you can devote to their maintenance. All the best.

Ok. How do you cull eggs apart from letting the parents eat them? I only wanted to keep about 50 eggs because Ive never done this before. My white axolotl is leucistic but he has blue eyes? Hes not pink like another one I have. I thought he was an albino when I got him but then he got a few spots on him, could it be possible hes got albino blood in him? Also how long does brine shrimp take to hatch?
Thanks!

Everyone probably has their own way of culling - I put dead larvae down the garbage disposal because it seems fast and efficient.

Brine shrimp take from 1 - 3 days to hatch depending on the temperature (hotter = faster). Check out the page on feeding larvae at http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/microfoods.shtml

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Lisa Preston on Monday 11 September 2006 - 08:57 (#POST105762):</font>

My white axolotl is leucistic but he has blue eyes? Hes not pink like another one I have. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Hi Lisa, how old are your axies (both are leucistics if they have darkish eyes). One of our leucs is very white (apart from gills) and looked like it had dark blue eyes but as its gotten older the eyes have definitely darkened. It's just another colour variation of leuc. Our others tend to have more speckly bits round their faces (they look like chimney sweeps), doesn't help with them snuffling in the sand.

If you keep 50 eggs, be prepared to raise 50 offspring. In captivity, the survival rate of fertilized eggs reaches upwards of 100%.

I am constantly trying to talk people out of breeding their animals, and you'll be no exception.

You need a fair bit of money to provide live, healthy food for 50 axolotl babies. You will also need LOTS of tanks, as they are cannibalistic.

You'll need to devote a lot of time to feeding and cleaning. Baby axolotls need to eat two or three times a day. If you feed brine shrimp, you have to monitor the feedings and remove any leftovers before they rot and spoil the water.

Then you have to clean up poop. This usually happens 2 or three times a day.

In addition, you'll need to do daily water changes on your larvae tubs. You'll need aged and treated water, and you'll have to change the water without too much stress to the larvae.

There is no good reason for the average person to breed axolotls. There is no demand for them, and it is very hard to get rid of the babies. I had 6 and it took me 6 months of begging and pleading and asking everyone I knew if they wanted an axolotl before I got rid of mine. How do you think you'll do with 50?

If u can house them breed them. If not DON'T!

I've been saving up my money for ages now to pay for everything and I promise I'll look after them really well. I have quite alot of time on my hands after school so I think I should be able to manage ok. I went to the pet shop today and talked to the guy I bought my axies off. He said that he would take as many as I wanted to sell because they sell quite fast at his shop.

Do you think maybe I should keep only about 10 or 20 then?

I've had my axies since march this year and when I got them they were about 10 cms to 12 cms. But I don't know how old they were.

I'll try post a picture of them but we don't have a digital camera so I don't know if I can. One has got speckles all over his/her face and she/hes got blue eyes and the one I was telling you about has blue eyes and a few lines of speckles. He has very white skin.

Thanks for all your advice!

<font color="119911">All I can say is get everything prepared before getting them to mate. EVERYTHING.....</font>

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Lisa Preston on Tuesday 12 September 2006 - 07:41 (#POST105840):</font>

I'll try post a picture of them but we don't have a digital camera so I don't know if I can. One has got speckles all over his/her face and she/hes got blue eyes and the one I was telling you about has blue eyes and a few lines of speckles. He has very white skin.
<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Lisa, they are leucistics. Albinos don't have dark/blue eyes, they are more reddish. Also, very hard to get albinos in NZ, I know of one or 2 breeders but they sell golden albinos. Most albino breeders tend to sell direct for quite a lot - cos they are rare here, look at the ads on Trademe for the goldens. Petshops in NZ mainly sell the wildtypes/dark ones as well as the leucistics (varying from pinkish white to very white no speckles).

Your petshop may very well sell them, but have you really thought about it. When you bought yours, were they on gravel, or no substrate or sand? Did they pass on the right or wrong information to you concerning care of your axie? And after raising the babies, if they didn't know/have the right info, do you really want to pass them back to a shop that is just interested in selling them off, for $40 or thereabouts with no thought to passing on correct info.

All petshops I now visit, when I see axies, I tell them if they are doing anything wrong (some listen/some don't) and also pass on the www.axolotl.org and this website to be passed onto prospective buyers (as well as for their information).

yes it is a lot of work to care for the new borns- my hubbie was up at midnite feeding them! We only had one shrimpery going ( sitting on a wee oven)- the brine hatched faster but i think you def need two going so you don't run out of food. The axie babies are just so fragile. If i had lots of time i would like to raise a few but i wouldn't do it otherwise!