pete
Active member
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
- Messages
- 550
- Reaction score
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- Location
- CA
- Country
- United States
- Display Name
- Pete
I've been playing around with my tiger's and breeding. I'm well aware that it's nearly impossible, and my hopes are not high, and I'm really just doing this for fun with a lot of skepticism. However, now my experimentation has led me to a question.
Simply put the set up is such.
1. Terrarium containing
2x male A. mavortium
1x female A. mavortium
1x female A. californiense (Note: since this is always controversial... this salamander was collected ~10 years ago for research purposes, and rescued with 50 other larvae slated for destruction and captive raised since then)
2. Aquarium containing
1x male A. mexicanum
3. A covered bridge allowing for safe access between the two tanks. (My first long shot, but surprisingly they use it frequently.)
After playing with lights and moisture levels, I now have my male tigers spending their days in the Terrarium and nights at the water interface and occasionally swimming in the aquarium (If that means anything...), but so far the females seem to not be interested in the water at all, although the female A. mavortium has become quite plump recently. I've seen no changes in the A. californiense daily routine though.
Ok, so the other evening the female A. californiense happened to wander over to the aquarium, and went for a swim. After about 15-45 minutes, to my surprise the axolotl started courting (bumping) the CA tiger and dropping a bunch of spermatophores (I counted 7 that were easily visable), but in excitedly watching the events I spooked my CA tiger and I don't think anything happened (if anything could even happen). The axolotl then continued dropping spermatophores, even after the CA tiger left and returned to the terrarium.
Ok now for my question. First of all, I had no intent to cross axies and tigers. (Mating tigers is enough of a challenge for me). The axie is in there soley because it was the easiest way for me to present the tigers with a large body of water, and they seem to get along fine and I figured that there was little to no chance of mating between them.
So I was wondering how males recognize females. I for a short period had my female mudpuppy with my male axie and never saw spermatophores. Additionally, for about 2 weeks now my axie has had access to male tigers, and has shown no interest in them. I've never seen spermatophores before in my three years with my axie, so clearly he somehow recognized that there was "mating potential" the other night.
So how did he know this? Is it some phermone, or perhaps her hourglass figure and fancy spot pattern she is sporting? Does anyone know? I'd suspect it has little to do do with looks and more to do with smells.
Simply put the set up is such.
1. Terrarium containing
2x male A. mavortium
1x female A. mavortium
1x female A. californiense (Note: since this is always controversial... this salamander was collected ~10 years ago for research purposes, and rescued with 50 other larvae slated for destruction and captive raised since then)
2. Aquarium containing
1x male A. mexicanum
3. A covered bridge allowing for safe access between the two tanks. (My first long shot, but surprisingly they use it frequently.)
After playing with lights and moisture levels, I now have my male tigers spending their days in the Terrarium and nights at the water interface and occasionally swimming in the aquarium (If that means anything...), but so far the females seem to not be interested in the water at all, although the female A. mavortium has become quite plump recently. I've seen no changes in the A. californiense daily routine though.
Ok, so the other evening the female A. californiense happened to wander over to the aquarium, and went for a swim. After about 15-45 minutes, to my surprise the axolotl started courting (bumping) the CA tiger and dropping a bunch of spermatophores (I counted 7 that were easily visable), but in excitedly watching the events I spooked my CA tiger and I don't think anything happened (if anything could even happen). The axolotl then continued dropping spermatophores, even after the CA tiger left and returned to the terrarium.
Ok now for my question. First of all, I had no intent to cross axies and tigers. (Mating tigers is enough of a challenge for me). The axie is in there soley because it was the easiest way for me to present the tigers with a large body of water, and they seem to get along fine and I figured that there was little to no chance of mating between them.
So I was wondering how males recognize females. I for a short period had my female mudpuppy with my male axie and never saw spermatophores. Additionally, for about 2 weeks now my axie has had access to male tigers, and has shown no interest in them. I've never seen spermatophores before in my three years with my axie, so clearly he somehow recognized that there was "mating potential" the other night.
So how did he know this? Is it some phermone, or perhaps her hourglass figure and fancy spot pattern she is sporting? Does anyone know? I'd suspect it has little to do do with looks and more to do with smells.