Why has Axel been banished??

Axel came to us at 11 months old and was 12cm. He was the result of an accidental clutch and was not in the best shape, he had no feet, only two legs and a bite out of his tail. The breeder had been feeding him beef and bloodworms and was keeping him with way too many siblings.

A week later we bought Toothless who was 7 months old and was also 12cm. Toothless was much healthier and obviously much bigger for her age than Axel. She had all her limbs and had been fed the correct diet of earthworms.

We always knew there was a possibility of them being male and female, but when Axel was 17 months old and Toothless was 13 months old, we thought there was little chance that either was a male. They both had the rounded bodies that females have and neither had an enlarged cloaca. They had both grown to be 21cm and were looking healthy and strong.

So, why has Axel been banished??

At 18 months old, overnight, Axel presented as a male. His cloaca was obviously enlarged from what it had been the day before.

Initially I thought it couldn’t be possible because his body shape was that of a female and its very late to present as male.

Sometimes when a female needs to poop, she will appear to have an enlarged cloaca, but it will pass once they drop that poop.

The big difference is the shape of the cloaca, but it’s sometimes difficult to get a clear picture and angle exactly when you want to.

Tubbing Axel

I decided to take Axel out of the main tank and put him into a tub. He was not happy about it, but I knew if he was male, I needed to get him away from Toothless ASAP.

Over the next 24hours I lowered his temperature a little and fed him salmon. Doing this will help an axolotl poop if they are struggling.

I also tried to get a better look at him to see if we could see the shape and size of his cloaca.

The first image is Axel, the second is toothless.

You can see that the area behind the legs, under the tale, looks very different.

The male cloaca is bigger and also looks a bit like and L. whereas the female cloaca is smaller and looks a bit like a U.

No, these are not his testicles

Some people think this bulge is the Axolotl’s testicles, but it’s not, they are inside. This area is called the cloaca and it is larger in males than females.

What now?

Thankfully I had a backup plan in case this happened. I already had a100 liter tank ready to go that was home to cherry shrimp and pigmy Corydoras. As well as having a two filters in the axolotl tank.

I spent the next day moving all my shrimp and pigmy Corydoras into a smaller tank and created a new home for Axel in the 100 liter tank along with some of his hardscape, his filter and 75 liters of water from his old tank.

Doing it this way means that his new tank is almost immediately cycled. The pump is rated for 200 – 250 liters of water, which is perfect for his 100 liter tank (always remember to double up when deciding on filtration for an axolotl). His hard scape had additional beneficial bacteria and bringing in over half a tank of water that was already at the correct level etc means that we won’t shock the live beneficial bacteria in the move process.

What about Toothless?

At this stage, toothless is still presenting as female, so we are leaving her where she is. I initially left her in the 200 liter tank with her 200 – 250 liter filter, but I left the water at only half full. The following day, I tubbed her and rearranged her tank the include a divider and a home on the other side for our two juveniles who were ready to come out of quarantine. I added the two smaller filters and filled the tank.

I then added Toothless to the one side and Bubbles and Buttercup to the other. We are hoping both juveniles are female and that all three can stay in this tank together once they are bigger, but only time will tell.