Oh no..she's off again!

[Bellabelloo]

This is a cry for help! This morning Jeffrey had laid spermataphore , Maude (aka Princess) was seperated by a divider 3 weeks ago, but it looks like one of the seels gave way and they met. This afternoon she is busy laying eggs ( 2nd batch, first layed middle July), whilst its intersting for all to see this in action ( have taken a few pics) I would like to know if I should return her to her side of the tank or will it cause more stress?
At the moment she is busily swimming all over the tank laying her eggs, and has been very active the last 2 hours, in constant motion. Whilst it is too late to stop this happening I fear 'confining ' her may be more stressfull, she seems to need to be in motion for the eggs to 'flow'.
I'll be posting later, so any suggestions will be much appreciated!

 

[kclinton]

I might be wromg but I think you should leave her let her do her thing. Than maybe when she calm put the divider back in. If you put it back in now and give her a little space she might freak out and hurt herself.

 

[Daniel]

Just leave her be, now that its "too late". Why do you want to seperate her again?

 

[Bellabelloo]

She is possibly under a year old, she showed first visable signs of maturity start of July( grey finger tips). I was unable to age her as she was second hand and supposedly about 6 months old at the time, she had also grown a lot in length. We went away not long after for the week and returned to something that resembled a snow storm. She had been seperated from the male with the intention that she would not reproduce for a good 6 month or so, so as to allow her self time to fully develope.

 

[Kaysie]

Daniel, Maude and Jeffrey are excellent candidates for axolotl birth control. When they're not separated, they can't seem to control their amorous intentions. So separating them is the best for at least Maude, as she's the one continuously laying eggs.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Maude Laying eggs

Action pics.
I have decided to leave her be,I've covered the tank and in the in the morning I'll remove the eggs and seperate the two once again. It seems I'll need to be more creative with attaching the divider!

 

[Kaysie]

Why remove the eggs? Are you a glutton for punishment? You REALLY like raising babies? lol

 

[kclinton]

She looks vary happy and healthy. Is that a bird toy? Do you have any pic. of the hole tank it looks realy neat.

 

[mudvayne42]

wow what a beautiful lookin girl nice setup aswel

 

[Bellabelloo]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! I could not raise more, I can just cope with the last batch. I have just been imformed that my living room ceiling is going to have to come down , and while they are at it they would like to plaster the walls .I live in a 'box' and the living room is the centre of the house, So at the moment it looks like I'm moving in with the axolotl.
The bird is on a place mat that one of the children ( human) used to use. Jimmy thought the axolotl would like to look at them, since thats been there they have learnt to 'fly and breed.
Thanks for the comments, I feel much happier now..going to peek at the old girl and see how she's doing.

 

[damien]

Maybe our axies are telepathic somehow..
When I checked the tank today I saw a spermatophore from Duo.. and Wooper is sitting in a weird position.. I'll keep an eye on her and see what happens.
The difference is that I don't have a devider yet.

edit:
the tank was full of spermatophores and the first eggs are sighted.
I don't know what I'll do with them, since I'm still working with the previous batch. They are ready for teh bigger tank, but the tank itself isn't ready yet.
Most importantly, I don't know where to bring them when they're ready to leave. I don't have the room to keep them all

But they're sooo cute :'(

 

[Daniel]

Hi Kaysie,

I understand the reason for seperating both of them in the first place as some kind of birth control (I do it the same way for controlled matings or with younger or weaker females, but in seperate tanks - I prefer this method for so they can't get in contact with the pheromones from one another).

My question was meant: Why do you want to seperate them now that she already took in the spermatophore and is laying eggs. As far as I could see the males loose their interest when the females are already laying eggs.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I hadn't thought about the pheromone issue, that may explain why she ended up in his side of the tank. One end of the divider isn't correctly attached as I have an inconvenient ledge at the top of the tank, I had it supported iether side by plants in pots and a couple of big stones, but these were pushed / pulled out of the way and off they went to be united. Unfortunately I can't put them in seperate tanks as there is just not the space. The point about seperating them then was that i returned them to their sides befor leaving the house, but when I saw she was laying ( and she still is) eggs it seemed to me that she really needs more space. Appologies for not making it clearer.
In the ideal world I would have had single sex axolotl as I had no intention of breeding them, all my pets are chosen with this in mind but having said that I am no longer suprised to find they are the opposites.
Damien, as soon as I saw the spermataphores ( it was actually one of the shrimp gang I saw toodling off with one) I removed them, with the vain hope it wasn't too late! I really didn't want to have more eggs, but now its too late and she is still laying and on just about anything possible . I suspect there are a lot more than last time, its going to be a nuisance to get them all out. Anyway, good luck with yours ( wonder if they are influenced by the moon cycles?)

 

[damien]

When I looked for eggs, I saw what looked like a white egg If that's true I just háve to let it hatch.. A white larvae from 2 wildtypes.. would be very cool.
I don't see that many eggs at the moment, so maybe it'll be a small batch, just like last time.
I want to separate them b/c the mother isn't a year old yet. When she's full grown she can lay as much eggs as she wants.. as long as she doesn't suffer because of it. I'll just leave the eggs in the tank then.. but for now I just want her to mature in a healthy state.