Hey guys! My girlfriend and I inadvertantly got our axolotls to breed! I'm really excited about it!
They are in the 8-10" range, feeding on massivore and shrimp.
We lowered their temperature by about 6 degrees during a water change, dimmed the lights all week, and viola! The male would 'squirt out' patches of sperm, and nudge her to lead her over. She would then squat on it.
It was interesting to watch her laying the eggs. She would straddle a plant and plop them out onto it.
At 48 hours in, she has finished, and the hatchery is now up and running! I'll post some pictures when mfk allows me to--of both the process and the hatchery!
The hatchery was simple to throw together--we transferred the plants she laid her eggs on to a 25 gallon tank, added 15 gallons of tank water, and an air stone. The water flow isn't terribly strong. We are setting up a daphnia and brine shrimp breeding tank over the weekend. I have two established blackworm colonies in my 180 gar/polypterus tank, and 40g Polypterus grow out tank. When they are big enough, I am going to attempt to fish out a large chunk of the colony to add to the (by that point) hatcheries. Could just be easier to buy enough to start another colony That's down the line, at any rate. For now we are focusing on the task at hand.
Now that they have bred once, I suspect future breeding will be much easier! We plan on continuing to breed them, and selling their babies to our lfs and others.
They are in the 8-10" range, feeding on massivore and shrimp.
We lowered their temperature by about 6 degrees during a water change, dimmed the lights all week, and viola! The male would 'squirt out' patches of sperm, and nudge her to lead her over. She would then squat on it.
It was interesting to watch her laying the eggs. She would straddle a plant and plop them out onto it.
At 48 hours in, she has finished, and the hatchery is now up and running! I'll post some pictures when mfk allows me to--of both the process and the hatchery!
The hatchery was simple to throw together--we transferred the plants she laid her eggs on to a 25 gallon tank, added 15 gallons of tank water, and an air stone. The water flow isn't terribly strong. We are setting up a daphnia and brine shrimp breeding tank over the weekend. I have two established blackworm colonies in my 180 gar/polypterus tank, and 40g Polypterus grow out tank. When they are big enough, I am going to attempt to fish out a large chunk of the colony to add to the (by that point) hatcheries. Could just be easier to buy enough to start another colony That's down the line, at any rate. For now we are focusing on the task at hand.
Now that they have bred once, I suspect future breeding will be much easier! We plan on continuing to breed them, and selling their babies to our lfs and others.