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My pond: oddly white "wild type" axie

J

jennifer

Guest
Here are photos of the axolotls that I'm raising in a semi-indoor pond. For photos of the pond itself, see my website.

In early January, I put 8 wild-type axolotl hatchlings into the pond. I now have 5 I think - I'm not sure if any are hiding, but I never see more than 5 at once. All the hatchlings were the expected brown color for wildtypes. Here they are now:

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B

brian

Guest
I want to do an indoor pond, once I have the space. It solves all sorts of problems we have with outdoor ponds here (you know, what with all the water freezing and all. Damn physics!) I think axolotls would be a good animal to have in it. I'm already addicted, can you tell? Whats your website so I can take a look at yours?
 
C

cynthia

Guest
Very cool. I read your website a few weeks ago and saw the indoor pond project, I wondered what you were going to keep in there.

The white one was as dark as the others when you put them in the pond??

(Message edited by cynorita on April 22, 2005)
 
C

claire

Guest
my larvae were all dark when they were in their eggs and when they 1st hatched.each day you could tell the difference between the two colours and i ended up with wildtypes and leucys in the end! cute axies
happy.gif
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Brian - My website is accessible from the home page of caudata.org.

Kim - They are now about 3 inches. The smallest in the photos is probably a less than that. The largest may be slightly more.

Cynthia - Yep, they were all the same brown color when they hatched.

Claire - I hadn't heard that it was possible for leucistics (from a dark colored mother I assume) to still be brown at hatching. Interesting But I still think this one is just a really unusually-light wild type. I think the genotypes of the parents make it impossible, but I'll double check with the person I got them from.

I raised another group of 16 of the same batch of eggs in my basement... none of them turned out white, they were the normal range of wild-type colors. I really think the white ones are an environmental effect of some sort.

Since taking those photos, I spotted two additional axies (I think), one of which is a smaller white colored one. (The pond has a lot of hiding places, so I never see all of them at once.)
 

cody

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I seen an 45000l out door pond the other day an it was about 1ft to 3ft deep an the axies thriving in it there was about 30 axies in this thing He recons he had nearly 20 axie litters a year
 
N

natasha

Guest
I didn't think it was a good idea to keep axies in outdoor ponds?
 
J

jennifer

Guest
There would be some risks with an outdoor pond. The climate would have to be right, and some axies could be lost to predators. But if the conditions were right, there would also be some benefits to raising them in an outdoor pond. My pond is indoors in an unheated room, so no worries.
 
B

brian

Guest
I'd like to put axies ina an outdoor pond, but there are big problems with raccoons around here, so I'm going with an indoor pond, once I get space.
 
C

claire

Guest
Jennifer - Yeah the mother was a very dark wildtype and all eggs were black in colour. But as the axies developed you could clearly tell the difference between the leucistics and the wildtypes colourations. They are definately leucistics and not very light wildtypes.

My leucistics seem to be the more weak axies and my wildtypes are the strongest. Does anyone else ever have this problem? could it be that my male leucistic is quite weak and the female wildtype is a very strong axie and this has passed onto the same colours in the genes maybe?
 
C

claire

Guest
ps. the ones that were leucistic were kept in the same tubs as some wildtypes so my colour differences were not due to environmental factors. weird huh?
 
C

claire

Guest
pps. the leucistic babies could have been mistaken for wildtypes as the ones that turned out leucistic in my batches had dark marking on their head and tail. But the way i recognised which colour was which was because the leucistic axies had clear gills and the wildtypes had brown shaded gills.
 
P

pamela

Guest
Hey Jen,

Nice pond environment. Love that "odd" whitish one. Also they all have nice "head dresses". Mine are bald compared to yours. Must be breeding/oxygen related (?). Anyway, nice babies
happy.gif
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Thanks for the comments, all. It actually turns out that I have 7 of them in the pond. I've decided that this is too many for a 60-gallon enclosure, so I'm going to sell three of them. There will be an ad posted soon.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Anybody want 3 of these axolotls? I put an ad up, but still don't have a home for them. This is a really good deal for 3 really nice animals. I really need to get them shipped before the weather gets too hot.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24563/35233.html?1114859377

By the way, the two very light-colored ones are now more of a light gray color. I'm quite sure they are wild types, genetically.
 
C

cynthia

Guest
I would love to have them (especially one of the weird light ones) but I just got 3 new ones last month. And I still have 50 yearling goldfish I need to find homes for
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G

grant

Guest
I am looking for a tank mate for my axie. I live in california though. The link isn't working for me. If they are still available I would pay shipping and everything for one if at all possible. But I don't have room right now for more than one
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Let me know if that is possible.
 
J

jennifer

Guest
It's too hot to ship them at this point. I'm just going to keep all 7, unless I can find a local taker.

The white ones are now a shade of light gray. Certainly just a variant wild type.
 
G

grant

Guest
Oh ok, I figured that (its been in the 90s over here for the past few days!!). Well thanks anyways.
PS I saw your indoor pond project on your website and it looks really cool! I would love to build one at my place.
 
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