Breeding suggestions?

[IanF]

Hello, I own 2 Axolotls and I'm wonder if anyone has any suggestions about encourging breeding?

 

[ben_tajer]

Generally, keep them in the dark for a couple of weeks, and ideally let the temperature fall. The return them to room temperature. Provide them with plenty of plants, live or fake, to lay eggs on. Just looking at your picture, I can't tell whether your axolotls are old enough or the right genders. How long are they?

 

[IanF]

They're both around 7 inches, the wild type is male, and the white one is female, they're both around 8 months as far as I know, thanks for the advice.

 

[ben_tajer]

They're a bit young to breed yet, wait till they're about a foot. They would be old enough to sex them.

 

[IanF]

Ok, thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

 

[Jake]

They're a bit young to breed yet, wait till they're about a foot. They would be old enough to sex them.

You don't need to wait until an axolotl is 'about a foot' to breed them. If they're over 18 months and have been well cared for, then they're usually ready by that time. At least let them get over 8 inches before you try to get them to breed. If they're always together, they might breed before that, which isn't good for the female.

 

[ben_tajer]

I was just erring on the side of caution.

 

[featherbutt]

i think just keeping them together in good conditions will have them breeding quite soon.

This is said to be stressful on the female.

but it wont stop her..... just take good care of her.

 

[Jake]

i think just keeping them together in good conditions will have them breeding quite soon.

This is said to be stressful on the female.

but it wont stop her..... just take good care of her.

Mitch, breeding her this young isn't just 'said to be stressful' it IS very stressful, and can have long term side effects.

 

[IanF]

Ok, I haven't any plans to 'force' them to breed, at the moment I'm seeing if they'll get on in the tank together but making sure there's room for changes if they don't... so far its working fine.

 

[Kaysie]

My suggestions for breeding are to not do it. If you DO breed them, only raise a few offspring. They're expensive to raise, and incredibly hard to rehome. After 3 months, I've finally gotten rid of the 60 I raised, after sinking a fair amount of money into them.

 

[IanF]

Yes, I've got a fair number of Local Aquariams that I'm quite confident would take quite a few. But I'm just intrested in trying to raise one or two myself for experience. I appreciate the warning.

 

[Jake]

Ian,
You should probably not keep the pair together for another 6 months or so. If you let them reproduce too early, it will stunt the female's growth, and most likely result in smaller, weaker larvae.

 

[IanF]

At the moment I am looking for a suitable divider (already have 3 tanks, no room for more) and I wasn't planning on more than a month but with school there hasn't been much time to look for one. But I was unaware this could stunt growth, geuss you learn something every day.

 

[Jake]

It won't stunt the grown entirely, but it will make her rate of growth slow way down (even with heavy feedings afterwards). It's like if people started normally having children at the age of 10-12 years.

 

[IanF]

Ok, thanks for the information, I'll go out this weekend and find a divider.

 

[IanF]

I've found out something intresting (well to me at least). The Leuistic is actually 14 months old (the owner had her for about a year) and the wild type is 10 months old. So they are slightly older than I first presumed.