Question: mating dance? male or female?

i have 2 axies, a wild and a golden and they get on fine together. i have had them over 2 years and they were both about 8 inches when i got them (nearly 12 inches now) so surely they have both reached maturity...? I was sure they are both males as they are quite slender, have large cloacas, and normal male shaped heads.......... but this morning the golden one "lenny" was wiggling and nuzzling against my wild one "ernie". the cloaca was fully open and the tail nearly vertically up and wagging side to side. lenny did develop black toes a year ago but since has changed back to yellow, he does have a thin black line inside his bottom lip still though. Either way ernie was less than impressed and continued on his early morning swim.

Does anyone have any answers?!? i can probably find a pic somewhere, but there is definitely a cloacal bump....

confused

Hi geodaryl,

They may still both be boys. It is not unheard of for purely male groups to exhibit courtship rituals - they may even lay spermatophores. To be sure, though, you could post pictures (or wait and see if you get eggs). We like pictures!

-Eva

are spermatophores just white? i have found a few tiny white bits on the sunstrate and when picked up with tongs they have a clear blob underneath them. about 1cm in size with a white top of about 2mm.

Sounds like a spermatophore to me! There is a picture of one in the Breeding section of the Axolotl site: http://www.axolotl.org/breeding.htm (Scroll down a bit.)

So either you will have eggs in the next 24 hours, or your boy is just ... um ... a happy camper? Naturally a female may also just be too young or simply disinclined to respond, but you've had your axolotls for quite some time.

I'm still hoping for pictures, of course...

-Eva

yep it looks just like that, there are only a few around the tank though. Ernie is not bothered and is keeping to himself and i am even more sure that he is a male as his cloaca has always been larger. so probably no eggs on their way.
but at least they are friendly towards each other, perhaps a little too friendly now though lol...
I'm just glad he wasn't ill...

Well, it's nothing abnormal. I wouldn't read too much emotion into it either; a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do, and all that. Just be glad that the mating ritual doesn't involve aggressive behavior.

-Eva

do axies do a 'mating dance' or anything or do they just get all smoochy with each other?