Most Desirable Axie Color

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bruiser1

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Deborah Haney
I've bred fish before, and salamanders before, but not axies. I have everything in order and am up to my eyeballs in research so don't worry about that. I intend to breed and sell them but first I'd like to know which color is most desirable to the average buyer. Personally, i like the wild type ones but I'm not the average buyer. Thoughts?
 
It's kinda just up to the individual I suppose. I personally like golden albinos the best ( wild types do nothing for me) and I've seen breeders sell out of melanoids fast. Leucisics are pretty desired from what I've seen because well... They're pink haha.

So that really wasn't a good answer but everyone has their preferences xD
 
I personally like the golds as well.

I also hope to breed and sell them (along with a couple of varieties of fish and shrimp), and have also wondered what is most desirable to buyers.

While I like the wild types there are more interesting colors to be had.

The thing I've noticed is that the wild types are more aggressive, active and in my case much larger than the "colors" (just my experience, individual results may vary, etc).

This could be due to in/line breeding in pursuit of the desired color.

My hope is to put a color across a wild in the hope of injecting some vigor back into the line, then putting the best colored offspring back across the colored parent to lock in both the color and the size/type. (Line breedng, as used in chickens/fish/shrimp/etc).

All sounds good in theory...

I hope to start trying this with "Fingers", my beautiful, full figured, fast growing and larger than the rest wild type lady across "Whitey", my beautiful type, almost perfectly formed and voraciously predatory leucistic male.

They should really come of age in the next 4-8 months and will be my first deliberate and dedicated breeding/genetics attempt.

If breeding to sell, we'd need to have a solid understanding of genetics and the genetic makeup of our breeding stock, which is something I've had trouble grasping so far.
 
I want a lime green one with purple and turquoise spots. Thats not going to happen unless I can get a white albino and tattoo it - but I'm not an evil scientist bent on creating weird and unnatural colourings (and anyone who would actually do that should be shot anyway).

You should be breeding for health and for the love of axies, not to produce 'popular' colours. And if you think you can make any serious money breeding and selling axies you are mistaken, you'll be lucky to cover your costs unless you plan a huge axie farm that takes over your house.

Whats the obsession with 'popular' colours anyway? I love them all, each colour type has it's own beauty, each axie has it's own personality. I don't care what colour babies my adults produce as long as they are healthy, it's the enjoyment of raising the babies that I like.

The most 'desirable' axie is one that has been looked after properly and is healthy.
 
I personally prefer leucistic. I love being able to see those cute dark dot eyes on that pale shade of pink skin and those beautiful pink/red gills.
 
I actually like the wild types best. Though all are cute, except for the yellow one on the axolotl.org genetics page, which looks like it's made of compressed earwax. :sick:
 
bugdozer said:
I actually like the wild types best. Though all are cute, except for the yellow one on the axolotl.org genetics page, which looks like it's made of compressed earwax. :sick:
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Aw well that's mean! :lol:.

I like wildtypes, since they can be so different I.e. Black, brown, green, yellow tinged with gold iridophores. Although I have been pining for a melanoid (preferably a light one).

In pet shops I've noticed a lot of people rather melanoids or leucistics. I think it's the melanoids complete black eye that's so appealing. It's like big black puppy dog eyes.

And I've noticed with breeders sell out of melanoid pretty fast.
 
auntiejude said:
I want a lime green one with purple and turquoise spots. Thats not going to happen unless I can get a white albino and tattoo it - but I'm not an evil scientist bent on creating weird and unnatural colourings (and anyone who would actually do that should be shot anyway).

You should be breeding for health and for the love of axies, not to produce 'popular' colours. And if you think you can make any serious money breeding and selling axies you are mistaken, you'll be lucky to cover your costs unless you plan a huge axie farm that takes over your house.

Whats the obsession with 'popular' colours anyway? I love them all, each colour type has it's own beauty, each axie has it's own personality. I don't care what colour babies my adults produce as long as they are healthy, it's the enjoyment of raising the babies that I like.

The most 'desirable' axie is one that has been looked after properly and is healthy.
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Of course,

And then there's no harm in being a little tolerant of other peoples opinions either, even if they may differ from your own.

Just to be clear...

My ABSOLUTELY primary reason for owning axolotls is that I love the animal and enjoy caring for them.

Mine also have their own individual personalities, which are noticed and appreciated. Did you not notice their names and my detailed familiarity of their individual traits?

I also believe that they should be cared for properly, and absolutely cringe when I see pics of emaciated animals with burnt off gills etc.

I never used the term "popular", but mentioned that I "like" the gold ones (which I do), despite them looking like a lump of compressed ear wax (!?).

The breeding plan I described explicitly mentioned trying to encourage vigor rather than inbreeding to chase one color, but then locking in the traits that I like through line breeding, which is nothing new.

As for selling, I won't be quitting the day job, but I want to breed them and when I do I'll need to sell some of the offspring, and hopefully that will contribute to the expenses of my hobby as well as offer some people a nice axie to enjoy.

That's where I'm coming from, nowhere else.
 
I have almost all the colors except golden and white albino, and a few of those rare ones in the US. I have to say that its not so much the color that I like but the personalities they all have.
 
I agree on the making money side. My paid time is worth $40+ / hour. The time I spend daily, not including hatcheries, food, tanks, other supplies, etc, I'm already in the hole on my 26 axies, of which I may keep 3-4.
 
auntiejude said:
I want a lime green one with purple and turquoise spots. Thats not going to happen unless I can get a white albino and tattoo it - but I'm not an evil scientist bent on creating weird and unnatural colourings (and anyone who would actually do that should be shot anyway).

You should be breeding for health and for the love of axies, not to produce 'popular' colours. And if you think you can make any serious money breeding and selling axies you are mistaken, you'll be lucky to cover your costs unless you plan a huge axie farm that takes over your house.

Whats the obsession with 'popular' colours anyway? I love them all, each colour type has it's own beauty, each axie has it's own personality. I don't care what colour babies my adults produce as long as they are healthy, it's the enjoyment of raising the babies that I like.

The most 'desirable' axie is one that has been looked after properly and is healthy.
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I'm not breeding to produce a popular color, I'm primarily breeding to make axies more common because I love seeing them around :p but there's nothing wrong with preferring one style or color over another and I know that the general public has opinions like that. It would suck to have a batch of wild types and then find out that people only like leucistic. Of course the axies will be looked after properly and healthy. That's a given. I know what I'm doing. I just want to know which variety people would like to see more of. People love mixed breed animals of all types for pets. Almost all of my animals are mixed breeds. But if someone wants to buy a racehorse, they aren't going to go to someone who breeds jumpers. If someone wants to start breeding poodles, they aren't gonna go to someone who just posted on Craigslist that they need to get rid of a litter of mutts. See what I'm saying?
 
I thought golds were rare based on local lack of availability. But given their genetics they shouldn't be.
 
usafaux2004 said:
I thought golds were rare based on local lack of availability. But given their genetics they shouldn't be.
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They're actually pretty common in Australia.

It seems that melanoids are a little harder to come by down here these days.
 
usafaux2004 said:
I thought golds were rare based on local lack of availability. But given their genetics they shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

They are not uncommon, all my albino babies have been golds. Its just a popular colour because its pretty.
 
Rarity and desirability are linked. People desire because it's rare.

Although this information will be fairly useless, what people find desirable/popular in one area will be different in another.

Just my 2 cents. In New Zealand, goldys seem popular (they're not too hard to find) and melanoids are desirable, cause they're rare (as far as I can see).

Personally, I like wildtypes, although I wouldn't mind a dark melanoid ^^

Best of luck breeding no matter what you chose :)
 
I say just have fun with it. There's always that chance that out of the hundreds of eggs they lay one of them will be a little different in a new unique way. Just don't forget to post pictures of your experience :)
 
Round our way (Yorkshire), most pet stores will charge that bit extra for goldens and albinos. I don't know if this is due to availability or popularity though. I have heard that wilds are tougher and more tolerant of changes to conditions than their paler relatives, but how much truth there is in that I wouldn't know.

I have a golden, an albino and three pale wilds with crazy iridophores...they're sort of leopard print with sparkles, and their babies are every colour under the sun. I have no preference myself, but I will be interested to see which colourations go most quickly from the hatchlings. So far, it's half and half wilds and golden that people have expressed interest in.
 
I love the black (melanoid I think their referred to as - being in my first year of owning please correct me if I'm wrong) axies...like Toothless in "How to train your Dragon"....but have two leucistics and a wild type.....and love them all. :D
 
The aquatic salamander market is flooded.
 
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