Question: Axolotl spawning?

Hi everyone and what a fantastic site! I have been reading through some of the breeding posts ob here and they have been a great help.

I have two axolotls that I think are breeding at the moment. The male is a wild type and the female is an albino. :happy: Both are around 20 cm maybe a little shorter. The petshop I got them from had the evolved ones as well. It was the first time I'd ever seen them and they were pretty amazing. Anyways I have quite a few questions.

I have my pair outside in an 80 liter tub with some foxtail plant and have just added heaps of glass shrimp, dragonfly larva, boatman and daphnia that I caught at the local creek. I just did a run down in the dark and it was raining out but it was worth it! lol. I've had the pair for a week and they have been in the tub for about 2 days. Before that they were inside in separate tanks until the tub was set up. When i bought them at the petshop they were in with about another 20 axies, some with missing limbs etc but most looked pretty good I also went to another petshop and one of the males in there was wild type but had a large black spot on his tail just behind his leg. Could this be a sign of a piebald?

Also today I lifted the female out of the water and looked at her bits (just to double check she was definitely a female lol) and it seemed very open? Is this a sign that she's receptive at the moment? Or that she is about to lay eggs? I understand that she picks up a Sperm jelly parcel that the male leads her over to. Also will the addition of loads of live food aid in the spawning process? Ie hormones in the live food that stimulates the pair or do they just condition the pair for when they spawn? Are there any tricks that would help to get them to spawn? Maybe I'm just a little eager lol

Its currently 12 degrees and we are going through Winter here in Australia. The forecast for the next 5 days is (In degrees) 17 16 15 15 16 and a low of 7 degrees all days, if this helps at all. Also the PH is at 7. And Ive been feeding them mealworms and raw meat before i added the live food in tonight. :frog:

Any help and advice would be great! Thanks!

These are some pictures of my girl.

She seems to like resting at the top for some reason? Its only been as of today.

My boy, hes a bit shy so the pic isn't the best. I'll take some tomorrow during the day

And the evolved ones in the petshop. They were beautiful.

ok, first of all, please take our tips onboard!

as for diet, please keep in mind that there is a very high risk that you're introducing all sorts of nasties into your axe's home by feeding wild caught foods, especially when they are from a local creek. that being said, the ideal food for axies is nothing other than live earthworms, supplemented with axoltol pellets and bloodworm. things like beef heart and mammal meat (beef, etc) is that it's high in fat and not a complete diet for your animals.

you also risk the same issues as above by keeping your axies outside, as it will be almost impossible to monitor what goes in and out of that tub, be it frogs, etc. they have ways of getting in... even if your tub is covered.

as for breeding them, if I may ask, you do know how to sex them do you? the male will have 2 pronounced bumps just behind the rear legs, one on each side. the female won't have this. females also look rounded in the mid section.


as for the pet shop, avoid buying your "axies" from there (if they really are axies, it's very rare for them to change to a land dwelling salamander) they are breaking 2 of the golden rules when keeping axies. you must not keep axies on gravel. it's a complete no-no. the only options are sand or no substrate at all. axies swallow gravel, in-fact they can swallow objects almost as big as their heads. when they feed and forage for food, they suck water and prey in, and anything else that comes with it. once the gravel in in the axie, chances are it will get stuck and you'll have a constipated animal. this can be fatal very quickly.

second golden rule that's been broken is that in that shop is that they are seriously overcrowded in that display. a retailer that can't take care of their animals is not worthy enough to be in business in my opinion.

Hi Chris, Thanks for your reply.

"as for diet, please keep in mind that there is a very high risk that you're introducing all sorts of nasties into your axe's home by feeding wild caught foods, especially when they are from a local creek. that being said, the ideal food for axies is nothing other than live earthworms, supplemented with axoltol pellets and bloodworm"

The ideal food for an axolotl will always be what it usually would find in the wild, man made foods are simply that, (man made) and are used in substitution of the regular natural diet that an axolotl would usually attain in the wild. I have many years experience in breeding tropical fish and various other aquatic species (including axolotl's) and I have NEVER had a problem with any introduced live food causing any form of problem in my tanks. The plant axolotl's spawn in is called Foxtail and is a cold water plant. When you buy these from various pet shops, they have been grown in dams and ponds outside. In my experience these ponds and dams also harbor the same aquatic "nasties" as the local creeks.

"you also risk the same issues as above by keeping your axies outside, as it will be almost impossible to monitor what goes in and out of that tub, be it frogs, etc. they have ways of getting in... even if your tub is covered."

My tub is covered and I am well aware that any holes even if they are insignificant, can introduce frogs and other creatures. I have the "breathing/evaporation holes" covered with fly screen wire so there is zero percent chance of anything entering or escaping for that matter.

"as for the pet shop, avoid buying your "axies" from there (if they really are axies, it's very rare for them to change to a land dwelling salamander) they are breaking 2 of the golden rules when keeping axies. you must not keep axies on gravel. it's a complete no-no. the only options are sand or no substrate at all. axies swallow gravel, in-fact they can swallow objects almost as big as their heads. when they feed and forage for food, they suck water and prey in, and anything else that comes with it. once the gravel in in the axie, chances are it will get stuck and you'll have a constipated animal. this can be fatal very quickly."

We only have the Axolotl in Australia

"second golden rule that's been broken is that in that shop is that they are seriously overcrowded in that display. a retailer that can't take care of their animals is not worthy enough to be in business in my opinion"

Salamanders and evolved axolotl are terrestrial, only returning to the water to bathe or breed, The animals you see pictured, therefore are not crowded as they had quite a large terrarium, albeit the water dish was small....

Thanks for the advice though

If anyone can help me answer the questions in my previous post instead of pulling it apart please respond!

Thanks!

Hello!
Congrats on your 'lotls breeding, the parents are beautiful. :happy:

I agree with Chris. Although you may have had a lot of success catching live food from the creek for many years, there is always a risk you COULD introduce disease/parasites. Also, dragonfly larvae are known to bite and even eat axie larvae, so I would stay away from them anyway.

May I ask, where are you located?
I'm in Sydney myself.

you come here asking for advice and I gave it to you.

I'm sorry you think that I picked your post to bits but it's valuable knowledge I have gained though keeping axies. Take it or leave it.

as for those terrestrial axies, I'm well aware that the axoltol is the only salamander we can get in australia (legally), but it's extremely rare for them to change into the land dwelling form and to see that many land dwelling axoltols in one place makes me think they aren't axies at all.

either that or the retailer has "tortured" them to induce changing to a land dwelling salamander.

First of all, welcome to the site! And great looking axies! Close up pics of their genital areas would help us to confirm their sexes for you.

Having them outside is a good idea in my opinion, as long as it's covered like you said, being in the natural temperature in winter would be quite nice for them.. they LOVE the cold! A bit like me

The wild-type with the spot in the pet store sounds quite interesting. A picture would help to say whether its pie-bald or not.. it could just be a rare wild-type.

I'm not sure what you mean by the females cloaca (genitals) being open.. a picture would help. As far as I know, the males genitals become slightly larger when about to breed, and the female will get a larger rounder belly, as it is filling with eggs.

As far as enticing them to spawn goes, I've heard of people who've had luck with this by slightly altering the temperature they are kept at. I think I read it on Axolotls - Breeding Axolotls Successfully, maybe give that site a read.

The evolved axolotls in the pet store are VERY interesting. They are gorgeous yes but It's VERY rare for an axie to actually metamorphosis so I too wonder how the pet store caused so many to change? I hope they didn't suffer..

Sorry I can't be of more help, I'm only a beginner myself.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll stick with what I know but its always good to get other opinions and ways of doing things

@ aimzs, I definitely have a male and female. When I say her cloaca was open it looked like a cut/like not usually what you would see, if that makes sense? I thought perhaps while female axolotls are not receptive to spawning maybe their cloaca is closed/sealed only opening around the time when she is ready to collect spermatophores from the male? I will try and get pics but I'm worried to disturb her and put her off spawning.

I ended up going back into the petshop and buy the suspected piebald LOL. I've uploaded pictures onto another thread on this site, under axolotl spawning/breeding (not sure if i'm allowed to upload again here or not) so now I have 2 males and two females they are amazing creatures!

I really hope the ones in the petshop were not artificially evolved as I now suspect after reading so much stuff on the web about it. They looked fantastic but it seems a real shame to half their life and make them suffer in bad water conditions just to have them become something else. poor things.

I'll keep everyone updated! Thanks again to all for their help

Saw the other thread, that other axie is a REAL cutie! I love all the random colour spots! Are they spots on its tummy or just reflections from the gravel? GORGEOUS!!!

Great axolotls !!!