Pictures and questions!

Here are some pictures of my axy Elizabeth. Can someone tell me if the tank is to small for her? i have a feeling it is from what i have read but wont be able to get a bigger fish tank for a couple of weeks so will she be overly miserable in this tank for a couple more weeks? she seems ok and is eating fine. Also, not sure how old she is but is about 6-7 inches, can anyone confirm that she is actually a she from the picture because ive never seen two different sex axolotls to be able to tell the difference.

Thanks,

Jen

Hi Jenny, Cute Axo!

I can't comment on the size of your tank because I am only new to Axos myself, but I would assume s/he will be fine until you can acquire a larger tank.

As for gender, there is a post with very good photos. Just do a search for 'gender' , choose the options 'look in subject line' and then select the photo forum.

Hi again Jenny,

If your tank is the size i think it is i would say yes it is too small.

My axos are in a 24" long by about 12" wide and 15" tall. That is the smallest i would put 2 axos in but ive have seen them smaller ones, my axos at the moment are about 5inches long. I also have made the tank about 3inches smaller so that i cant breed guppies to feed them with(they love to chase them around the tank!)

But bigger the better really. I have a close friend that has 2 adult axo's they live the life as there tank is around 5 ft long!

Has anyone else got ideas about size of tanks for axo's, like the way they messure for fish eg 1 gold fish per five gallons.

Tank looks small - hard to say from photos. For a temporary alternative try a couple of plastic matress boxes. You can buy from 'swag' shops for 3-4 quid. They typically measure 600x400x250mm.
I am keeping a couple of 300mm long males seperate in this size at moment. That's 1 per tub!
One lab reports thay keep specimens in 6l of water in flat dishes. Seems miserly to me.

what is a matress box?

just a box that you store things in under your bed. A Flatish rectangular box with plastic lid.
take care

oh right yeah, thanks i know what you mean..



ok well i just found the pictures of the different sexed axolotls but still feelin a bit confuzzled. on the male one..is it like a long jelly puffy thing all down his tail? im kinda thinkin then that elizabeth is a girl then. but once i have my bigger tank i might just get a few axys and see which ones make babies.

when they have babies are they usually the colour of the parents or is it possible (altho i know rare) that blue and green ones could pop out or even just pure albino ones even though elizabeth isnt PURE albino

ok shes floating half way in the water so had a proper look underneath and shes DEF a girl and shes getting black toenails...im so proud! lol

males have a swollen cloaca (the lumpy thing with a split down the middle) compared with females.

This is only visible on sexually mature animals.

To a novice you really need a couple of beasties so you can compare one against the other.

Colour and genetics are whole other question one that depends on a number of factors. I am interested in colour genetics and have been studying towards a better understanding and improving/collating information. Short answer is if both your animals (though mottled wildtype) carry the recessive albino gene then it is possible you will get some albinos. If only one carries the recessive gene then all offspring will be dark. This is ignoring the effect of one or two other genes that will determine if your animals offspring may be black or leucistic. It isn't easy to describe in text and I don't think current publications make it much easier to understand.

Hope this scant bit of info helps your understanding.

Q. what do you mean Elizabeth isn't pure albino? Do you mean she is leucistic (white/black eyes or even golden)?

yeah shes white with black eyes (pic above)

i have sort of browsed through messages from ppl saying bout their axys having spots on their heads etc. ive just noticed she has brown spots on hers. pretty sure they have been there since i got her ..not sure though..but is this just her colouring or is it some kind of fungusy thing? is it damaging to her?

ok was reading more previous topics and read about the brown spots and that theyre normal!

Ok Jenny, your axies is leucistic it basically means she is normally white with black eyes. Leucistics quite often have 'dusty' faces.

If your interested it means that she does possess all the usual colour genes but she also has a pair of genes that overrule the others and prevents the colouring from being dispersed about the body. Hence she has black eyes not clear or pink like an albino would.

Occaisionally life throws up something weird and wonderful but typical albinos are mottled green/yellow/black or leucistic or albino or black. I am lucky enough to have examples of all these types.

Aren't axies fascinating! Enjoy yours.

about that shop in manchester that sells albino axolotls for £30..is that a normal price for albinos? is it worth getting one for breeding? say you mix a brown or leucistic one with an albino is there a chance that ANY albino ones come out? Does it rely purely on how parent genes mix? because i thought albino animals in any case whether its snakes, humans or rabbits..an albino could just happen even if say you had two black rabbits even though tis unlikely??

in UK I have found it is about right for albinos. Sometimes you might get lucky and find one for less.

If you are interested in genetics take a look at this site but on this page.
http://www.caudata.org/axolotl/genetics.htm. John C has put a lot of good information on here.

Basically 2 genes are required for the colour one is supplied by the male and the other by the female. However genes come in dominant and recessive versions. If an an animal has both dominant genes say for melanoid (M/M)(black condition) then it will be normal coloured. If it carries one dominant and one recessive (M/m) it will be normal coloured. However if it recieves two recessive genes (m/m)then their combined effect is to make the animal black. It's easy to plot the options in whats called a punnet square. Try a search on it you'll find loads of examples.

However, there are 4 basic sets of genes controlling colour of your axie. (Some work cumulatively others appear to overule others) So therefore a lot more possible combinations. So you can see it can be quite difficult to determine all the genes your parents would donate and you sometimes have to extrapolate them from breeding results. e.g a parent animal that was A/A or A/a would look exactly the same. If none of the hatchlings in a batch displayed the a/a result (albino) then you would be quite certain that both parents were A/A or one as A/A and the other A/a. That would be the best you could do in such a situation.

Ok thats a potted summary. Happy to answer any more questions but have a look at the page aboe.

Forgot:- let me know if you need directions but it is within 100 metres of the Apollo Theatre. I bought a golden albino and white albino from there a couple of weeks ago. I haggled and got for 25 quid each. They ar eating like there's no tomorrow and are growing very rapidly now.

ok i think i kind of get it but think i will be better lookin at it tomorrow when i can try and understand fully what words like 'melanosphores' mean.

Ive decided also that tomorrow i am gonna go to the pet shop where i bought elizabeth from and buy henrietta( i have already named her), the other axolotl they had. i think she will still be there cos they had both of them since they were babies and i bought elizabeth at like 6-7 inches so im guessing no body really wanted them and i feel quite mean leaving the other one there as they seemed quite cute huddled up together. plus she is pure black and i wanted to get 3 from bolton on saturday but the bloke who works there said they are all brown with black spots so i would rather have a variety. mainly so i can also tell them apart!


there were 3 guppies in my tank now there are 2 plus she has eaten 2/3 earthworms plus a small piece of bacon from my bacon sandwich earlier all in one day. should she be eating this much?

one of my triops ate my other one over night as well! just thought id mention that...wasnt to pleased about that but oh well

LOL bacon...never tried that one.

Axies are opportunistic eaters. They'll generally go for anything put in front of them. Adults should have no problem eating a couple of eathworms (30-50mm long)...and would probably eat more given half a chance.

Axies like eating guppies so be prepared to lose them if you let them share the tank.

ok just phoned the pet shop and the axolotl is still there! yay! even though they were ok in the tank when i bought elizabeth, if i were to put them back together now is there a chance they wont be ok together???

decided to call her harriet instead of henrietta! hope she turns out to be a harry though!

when shes in the bag of water when i buy her ill try take a pic of her <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font> so someone can confirm for me whether she is a boy or girl.

you're not going to put 2 axolotls in that little tank are you? it really is too small for elizabeth, let alone another one. they'll almost definitely fight if they're in such an enclosed space together. you'll probably be able to ask the petshop to keep the other one for you until you can get a bigger tank with hiding spaces for them!

they did live together in a small tank i the pet shop though since they werebabies. ut i have another tank same size i will put the other one in that til i get a new tank. think i might get one this weekend actually.

i picked up harriet just now from the pet shop and i held her when i got home ive never held one before she felt well weird, all squiggy. itd be so cool if they could breathe out of water. i have her in with elizabeth at the mo cos just put her in before i read your message. harrriet seems ok but elizabeth is a bit edgy. will sort it now. will post some pix soon.