Spermatophores ?

[HappySkittles]

Can someone post a picture of one please? I do not mean a close up zoomed in photo. This is where my confusion is. I have found a few pictures but they are extreme close ups. I want to see a picture of one more zoomed out so I know how big these things are and what I am looking for exactly at a more reasonable angle.

I KNOW I have males and females. I always look for spermatophores or something that could be considered one. I do not know what I am looking for EXACTLY because the pictures I find give me a fairly poor reference. I see things that COULD be spermatophores...or it may just be time to clean the tank because its messy. I do not know.

Their finger tips are dark and the finger tips on my black axie are white. I know this is a sign of sexual maturity. I mean I am not expecting to see eggs NOW, I would just like to be able to more effectively keep an eye out for this.
I have white sand...should I change it? I always feel like that is the problem and that is what is making it harder for me to see anything since spermatophores are white too. It is only a thin layer (less than one inch) and very fine sand so it should be easy to replace if this would help me out.

Thank you anyone who posts. Till then, I will continue to explore google for answers.

 

[ted22]

Ive never seen one unfortuantly so cant help there but I was under the impression dark axies start with white toes and they turn black once mature (thats whats happend to mine) and light axies start with dark toes and turn white once mature (my goldie is only a young one and his toes are black and i am expecting them to turn lighter once mature) You may have got that mixed up or I might be completely wrong, or might just be a typo on your part either way not particularly important!

Good luck with your axie spermatophore hunt! Have to admit I wouldnt know what to look for and white sand might make it difficult (white sand is good by the way, you can see all waste nice and clear so you know your tank is nice and clean! cant imagine axie poo would show up very well on dark coloured sand!)

Ed

 

[HappySkittles]

Axolotls - Biology
"Dark toe tips on lightly coloured axolotls indicate sexual maturity."

maybe i'll grab a pic later on. might be hard to tell in a pic though. i have a new light over the tank and its mostly blue. it was on our one saltwater set up. it has regular light (i dont turn this on though. its essentially sunlight), blue or actinic lights (this is the main lighting), and moonlights (on at night). the blue light would make coral glow but what it does to the axies is neat/weird. their gills have a green outer glow when you look real close and you can see very clearly the bones in their feet.

OH that just made me think! actinic lights make certain things REALLY GLOW. im almost positive a spermatophore would glow like a beacon under that light.

 

[ted22]

Ha! maybe my axies are just backwards coz my little gold albino is no way mature and has black toes! Strange creatures! yeah i got a bluemoon actinic light makes the tank look wicked very relaxing!

 

[melfly]

I'm not 100% on this toe business.
I have 3 19 month old axolotls. Finley is leucistic Freddie is gold albino.
At 4 months Finley had dark toes, Freds toes were dark around 7-8 months. This wasn't for long and now neither have dark toes. They have sucessfully had offspring.
I have seen other axies with almost black toes. I'm not sure if mine are freaky.

Spermatophores: if you go down to sand level with your eye you will be able to see them sticking up. They are little jelly volcanoes. I dont think anyone will beable to post a non zoomed shot as they are v small. Probably the size of a little finger fingernail.

Hope this helps!
Mel

 

[HappySkittles]

thank you mel
that actually did help
you mentioned something of the size and that is what i needed to know. i didnt know if they were going to be VERY obvious or VERY hard to find or if i just gave it a little searching i'd find one soon enough.

im really hoping for eggs!