I have to breed axies for a uni project

T

teesha

Guest
How would one go about breeding them. I firstly need to buy some really large axies, i need them mature. I have see them selling at around 20cm with black toes, so all is good!! I need to be able to tell the sex of the axie spot on.....Can anyone give me fool proof measures....? ( the swelling of the "tail" region) Also, what are the ideal conditions one has found thay they will mate. Any breeding tricks or secrets??? What are the optimal tempuratures to breed them? And conditioning food that will prime them for a mateing and egg laying session? Any other pointers i should know, size of tank, lower current than normal. ect. What substrate should i use (bare tank) is it better to move the parents or eggs?
Could someone just walk me through how to breed axies and how to raise the eggs???
thanx!
 
I think theres a rumer going around that when you do a sudden drop in temrature, say from 20-18C to 14-16C you trigger them to mate. Not sure it works but many claim that it works. Another is the seperation of a male and female (so they dont know of each others presence) then plop them into the same tank (i mean carfuly place them, lol) and hopfully in the next couple of days, WHAM, eggs, lol. Oh make sure you have plants, makes it easyer.

Raising; evolves puting them in bare tanks with air stone (if you can afford 100 airstones and 50 pumps, lol) Most people put in a ball of Japanese java moss, but i think tha jsut traps dirt. You will need daily water changes unless you have a huge tank with a sump/trickle filter or garded filter. You need to seperate them according to size so no canabalizm occures. I suggest moving the eggs, so then they hatch they are in there home straight away.

Feeding envolves live brine shrimp, chopped up black worms, miro worms, daphnie etc.

Hope you have succes, ive been tring to breed mine for about 5 months, jsut not happening, im not forcing them since i relise they arnt mature yet, lol.
 
Teesha, if your project solely relies on you being able to breed some axolotls I'd advise you to have something else as a back up project, if that is possible. Sometimes axolotls just don't breed. Having mature male and female axies in a tank together doesn't guarantee anything, I've had definite females and males together for over a year with no breeding activity at all. Also, Teesha, you can identify male axolotls by their swollen cloaca, two bumps between their hind legs.

Stipe, I've read about using a drop in temperature to trigger mating too. However, on axolotl.org it says that this will only trigger the male to drop spermatophores and does not affect the female.
 
Teesha, if I recall, you've had LOTS of posts in the recent past asking how to care for axolotls, and now you want to breed them? Can I ask the nature of this project? It seems rather suspicious that you all the sudden HAVE to breed them for a school project.
 
Thanx for all ur info.
Joan, i love animals so if u are assumeing i'm gunna do experiments on them i am so not!!
I havent yet purchased an axie, but i intend to do so shortly ( i went today but they sold out!!!)
For one of my classes we have to successfully breed or raise an animal. I chose an axolotl, becuase it's different, and i want a challenge. i'm a sponge right now, i want to be preparred before i do anything. I realise what effort goes into raising babies 9 i have a pond FULL of daphnia that i can get for free which rox!)I have fish and i know how to water change and all....
I don't have to breed them but i hate mice!!! and thats pretty much my only other option.....unless i want to pick cocatiels....but i think axies will be something fun and challenging....trust me joan, i love axies, i'm so obsessed, i've been thinkin that i know almost as much as you !!!( apart from the fact that i have never owned one before!!!! )
U've helped me alot, so i thank u for always posting the answers to my questions!!!
Thanx ( i wouldnt dream of hurting an axie!!!! )
 
good luck, ive had 3 definate males and 1 definate female together for a year or so and nothings happening, theyre not really animals you can just put together and have babies like convict cichlids, mice etc. i would look into breeding something else, its more luck with axies. if you did go ahead with em id get a proven pair but even then theres no guarentees.

convict cichlids are great, and they have great parenting skills which would be cool to talk about (i joke that convicts that dont breed on the way home in the bag are slow lol) siamese fighting fish are also pretty easy but youd have to care for the fry more.
 
The problem is timing. They most often breed in springtime. If you got suitable animals now, they would need some time to fatten up and become fully mature and acclimated. There is a good chance they could breed in the spring, but that's 6 months from now on your side of the world. And as Sharn points out, there's no guarantee it would happen at all. If you need this to happen sooner, may I suggest something like fruit flies?

"Breed something" is a weird college assignment, if you ask me!
 
Hi Teesha,
That is an ambitious project. A more realistic approach might be to get an adult pair and purchase some eggs. If the pair breeds that would be great. If they do not breed in your time frame perhaps raising some eggs from another source would meet the requirements for your project.
 
Do convict chilchids need a heater? Coz i don't have one and my mum is against them!!!
Ah i see, it's going to be harder than i thought ( but i love axies so i'm gunna get em anyways!!! )
I might breed some finches, theyre like mice- but cuter!
Sharn, ur joke about the chilchids is HILARIOUS!!!
Jen, i have the whole year to produce fry, (babies) so i hope it happens!
Michael- I never thought of purchasing the eggs myself! i think i will, i'll get some leucistic ones because they are unherd of here, which guarentees people will buy them right???
lol
ok thanx guys for ur input!
 
cons are banned in some states and yes they do need a heater. cons are the rabbits of the fish world, a friend got a male and female put them in the tank and an hour later had eggs!

wicked that youve got a year, id try get a pair if you could and see if they lay but that could be cutting it fine. it would probably be easier raising some eggs but then thats not really breeding is it lol. if not have a back up plan (your finches). OHOH what about live bearers? very cool to watch indeed.
 
You do nto want live bearers! My guppies are not normal, they breed evey couple of days! I started with 20 and now have over a hundred. DOnt get me wrong i love selling them for extra cash for my axies to live off, lol! Live bearers are harder then egg born IMO.
 
White clouds are good, they breed all the time. They're egg scatterers
 
oh go for the live bearers - easy - fairly inexpensive - and most petshops will take the juveniles. (here in my podunk town anyway)

Mice colors are interesting - I'm always fascinated with what color combos come out next. The bright red/orange ones are really neat!

I think that if you want the axolotls buy them - but don't count on them mating. Better have something else on standby - lol just went through something like this last month!

Um guppies and finches - everyone complains about winding up with to many - why can't I have that problem?? I've got lovebirds coming out of my ears but my 6 finches have done nothing but toss eggs from their nests.

Fancy guppies rarely last a week here - but those CHEAP feeder guppies multiply as if it were their duty to repopulate the earth! or waters

Sharon
 
to raise young you just have to feed them alot, and there are heaps of them, and they are pigs!!! i haven't done it myself but i have been told....i'm waiting for cooler months, otherwise my axies will be spending days in the fridge! It's 37 degrees celcius here, so i think not this month prob.....maybe in april, the weather would have cooled down by then-i hope! I was also wondering is it a wise choice to buy a big fat otherwise healthy axie from a store if it has tearing on the tail and whitness around it and its eyes.....it is a parasitic condition or just due to bad living conditions, for which if i take it home and house it properly it would otherwise recover...?
 
Teecha you ahve no idea haw hard it is to raise axolotl babies, countless brine shrimp hacheries, microworm culture,daphnie cultures, water changes, hundreds of buckets, no LIFE. Lol,i dont knwo this personly but my aunti, man i feel sorry, lol. Um breeding axies is the biggest mystery, you can never get them to do it like you want, they are egg layers and they choose who to fertilize there eggs with, not like live bearers they jsut want to have sex, look at dogs, lol. I suggest buying eggs.

Sharon, did your birds evey lay any eggs? And did you touch them, is so BIG MISTAKE. When i had quails adn coketiels i always used to touch the eggs becasue they fasinate me but when i put them back in the bird house the female will EAT IT, thats becasue she smalls it and knows its not heres. IF you touch it be prepared to incubate it.
 
Stipe, birds have a poor sense of smell. The female probably ate the egg because you disturbed her, not because she smelled you on it. This would allow her to move to another nest (in the wild), and to reabsorb the nutrients and use them to create another egg.
 
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Stipe wrote on Tuesday, 14 March, 2006 - 11:15 :</font>

"Sharon, did your birds evey lay any eggs? And did you touch them, is so BIG MISTAKE. When i had quails adn coketiels i always used to touch the eggs becasue they fasinate me but when i put them back in the bird house the female will EAT IT, thats becasue she smalls it and knows its not heres. IF you touch it be prepared to incubate it."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

Aw no my lovies are very accepting of me poking around in their nests. I've moved eggs while retrieving debris or things I think they shouldn't have in the nest (left a spool with thread dangling once...)

I order my quail eggs from other breeders - hatch them out in my incubator and then sell the birds.

Although I do try to make sure my hands are clean and not perfumey.

Eggs, eggs and more eggs. Axolotl eggs (which I'm loving every second of), brine shrimp eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs - and the lovey eggs hatched a couple of days ago.

Busy busy busy!
 
If you want to raise axolotls, see if you can get a few eggs, not too many and make sure you have the space for them. Plastic storage bins work great. If you can't get brineshrimp to hatch, use black worms and cut them up really small. There are usually places open on the foresale section of this site selling eggs.

If the babies have a hard time eating the cut up black worms and get air in their bellies, take them out and put them in a really shallow container so that they will find their way to the food easier. once they eat the bubbles will leave their tummies and they can rejoin their siblings. this might happen once so just keep repeating. It works great for me when this happen, but doesn't happen too often luckily
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Make sure to have plenty of space on hand lol. I have 207 babies to look after. most of them are eggs right now and all of them are on my kitchen table - soon to be moved also into the livingroom lol.

Here's a good section on axolotl babies and rearing - http://axolotls.org/rearing.htm

Just make sure to be well prepared and it would be a good idea to get some frozen food like blood worms and brineshrimp on hand. baby axolotls will only eat live food for the first few weeks of their lives. afterwhich frozen foods can be provided.

Mice however I think for the project you are looking to do would probably be a better option as they are cheap and breed very quickly;)

good luck with what ever project you decide to do
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