I think my axies are mating!!!!

I came home today, went up to my room, and saw Bowie (my female) swimming up and down really quickly, and her tail was really red. So I said to myself, jokingly, "Haha, Sagan (my male) must've gotten her all riled up!"

I said it jokingly because they've both been sexually mature for a couple of months and have never shown mating behavior. But then I was looking at the tank floor to see if there were any poos to clean, and I saw a spermatophore! And I looked around and saw at least 3 more!

At least I think they are spermatophores. They look like little jelly volcanoes with white tips. Is that what they are?

Anyways, I don't know if Bowie has picked any of them up, but if she has, when will she lay eggs?

I'm so excited!!!

Edit: I wasn't sure what I should do to promote bowie to pick up a spermatophore if she hadn't already, so I just turned off the lights and left. Should I have left the lights on? I turned them of because it was past time that I normally do it.

Just give them some peace and quiet so switching the light off is fine. Most mating and egg laying usually happens at night anyway. Good luck and with any luck you should see plenty of eggs in 1 or 2 days time.


Regards Neil

Neil C said:

Just give them some peace and quiet so switching the light off is fine. Most mating and egg laying usually happens at night anyway. Good luck and with any luck you should see plenty of eggs in 1 or 2 days time.


Regards Neil

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Thanks! If she lays eggs, I know I'm supposed to separate them, but what do I do after that? Do they need filtration and am I supposed to do water changes? How big of a container should I put them in? Would it be good to keep some plants in this container?

Also, I've heard that daphnia is the best thing to feed larvae. Where do I get some and how do I raise those?

They don't need a filter
And don't need water changes as eggs. It's best the change about 50% of the water everyday once they've hatched.
As for the daphnia you will have to source from a local pet store. They feed off bacteria and algae.
If the dont have any in you could try getting brine shrimp eggs for eBay which are very cheap.

Are you keeping them all or giving any away?

Cfigliola said:

They don't need a filter
And don't need water changes as eggs. It's best the change about 50% of the water everyday once they've hatched.
As for the daphnia you will have to source from a local pet store. They feed off bacteria and algae.
If the dont have any in you could try getting brine shrimp eggs for eBay which are very cheap.

Are you keeping them all or giving any away?

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She laid about 110 eggs! I don't know how many will make it but I won't be able to keep them all haha.

I might sell some eggs, and then sell the offspring once they're juveniles. My lfs seemed intereted when I mentioned my axolotls a couple of weeks ago, and I want to see if the bio teacher from my old high school would want any for the classroom. And then see who else I can sell/give to.

If there is a melanoid, I'll keep one. The parents are wild type and melanoid-leucistic so I *MIGHT* get one

I took out all the eggs and did a water change in the tank. Both of my axies were very hungry! I've heard that you should separate the female, but I don't have another tank. Is it really important to separate her? If so, for how long? I'd have to figure something out.

If you don't separate them it's possible it could happen again and she will end up feeling pretty burnt out and her health could suffer. The eggs produced from breeding again would also be a lot weaker than the first batch.
If you can get a tank divider this would probably be the best way to separate her from the male.

Eggs are always so exciting! Congrats on being an axie grandparent Be smart about how many you decide to keep and make sure you can re-home them all because it can be challenging raising too many! I raised 20 and that was stressful enough, haha.

danchristopher said:

If you don't separate them it's possible it could happen again and she will end up feeling pretty burnt out and her health could suffer. The eggs produced from breeding again would also be a lot weaker than the first batch.
If you can get a tank divider this would probably be the best way to separate her from the male.

Eggs are always so exciting! Congrats on being an axie grandparent Be smart about how many you decide to keep and make sure you can re-home them all because it can be challenging raising too many! I raised 20 and that was stressful enough, haha.

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Thanks for the advice. I'll look into a divider. My tank is a 29 gallon, which is big enough for 2 axies, but I feel like it would be too small split in two. I'm probably just being worrisome

How long should I keep them divided?

Probably indefinitely, unless you want to breed them again.

Kaysie said:

Probably indefinitely, unless you want to breed them again.

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Well I wouldn't mind them breeding again in the future... but what would be enough time for her to recover + a little extra?

At least 3 months.

Thanks. I will fashion a divider and do that!

I was setting up the divider in my tank today, and while I was moving around the decorations I found 14 eggs that I had missed! They are a little farther along than the ones I had removed on day one. Probably because the ones I removed before are in the cold basement.

When I took them out, a couple of them started to wiggle! That was pretty cool. I'm surprised my axies didn't eat the eggs. they were scattered across the tank floor.

On another note... Sagan and Bowie seem sad to be divided. They each have enough room, so my concerns were incorrect, but they both are hanging out on either side of the divider. Poor things