Uh oh...we have spermatophores!

[carriw]

Hi all
Hoping for some advice here.
This morning I checked out the tank to find what I now know (thanks to google image) to be a number of spermatophores over the sand in the tank. Well done Blanco :-s
Tinto is sitting in the log looking pretty chuffed.

So....I figure that pretty soon my suspicions of Tinto being a female may be confirmed with eggs. Not what I had planned!

I would like to ask....how often do people find spermatophores in the tank but no eggs appear? Are females pretty much always interested? I dont think I have seen these in the tank before, certainly not this much of it anyway as surely I would have noticed.

I am incredibly worried about the stress on Tinto if she is a female and keeps laying eggs, and I would be devastated to have to give her up. (I am that sure now that I have started calling him a she). How usual is it for a pair to just breed a little bit (not so stressful on them and I could probably cope with removing eggs a few times) or am I definatley going to need to split them as they will keep at it and its not fair?

Obviously I will keep you posted.
Anxious Carri

 

[Bellabelloo]

In the next few days you may find your tank beautifully decorated with eggs A tank with two males will get the odd deposit, but when you get lots I would suspect you have a female after all. If you post a couple of posts we can have a look and see.

How old do you think your possible female is ?

 

[carriw]

I have removed the deposits now in a vain attempt to stop anything happening but I am probably waaayy to late (why oh why did I lay in bed so long this morning?)

Tinto must be no older than about a year, probably not quite a year yet, but was always very big for her age compared to her siblings . Hence why we didnt really know the sex and I was hoping there was still a bit of time for development. Blanco is about 2 years old. Tinto is actually a bit bigger than Blanco! Hes a bit runty bless him.

 

[carriw]

Yep, shes laying this morning! Let me know if anyone wants some eggs! I am on the Wirral.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Congratulations.

 

[carriw]

So I collected lots of eggs on sunday night (they are suprisingly tough arent they!) and this morning posted them to 3 friends at colleges and universities who are going to raise them as part of their animal collections. One set has gone to a cold-blooded animal cognition researcher, she currently does experiments with salamanders and tortoises to investigate their cognition and learning. Basically, my grandbabies will get to play in mazes and do memory tests. How cool is that?! I have seen her other animals they are well looked after, and I will keep a close eye on them when I visit also. She promises to send me videos if they can do anything clever!

I also would like to say that I was watching tinto laying the last of her eggs on sunday night and I could not help but notice how Blanco seemed to be helping her. He would stand with his front legs on the glass tank side and then she would use him as a ramp to get up to the plant cover up high. has anyone else ever seen this? Could have been fluke but with my anthropromorphic head on it certainly looked like he was giving her a leg up!

 

[Kaysie]

That sounds like a grand experiment! Is there any way you can convince her to join here and share some of her information? That would be awesome!

 

[carriw]

That sounds like a grand experiment! Is there any way you can convince her to join here and share some of her information? That would be awesome!

Yep I have told her about the forum and she will keep me in the loop. Obviously I will keep you all up to date on any findings. But bear in mind that science and research moves very slowly! Just imagine how long the lotls will take even doing the tests....lol

 

[Kaysie]

Lol, don't I know it! I work for the US Govt, and there's a reason we say things move "at the speed of government!"

I imagine it would take them a long time to do tests; their pencils must be very tiny.