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Seasonality:

In their natural habitat, axolotls spawns in February. However, in captivity it is common for them to spawn year round, only experiencing a slight decrease in spawning success from August through October (Duhon).

Distinguishing male and female:

Axolotls tend to be sexually mature and ready for breeding at approximately a year. At this time males can be identified by their large gland surrounding their cloaca. Females will have a much rounder body because they are full of eggs and will lack a protruding cloaca gland.

Video timelapse of natural mating

https://youtu.be/w8q026JeRHY

Step by step guide to natural mating process (with video timestamps):

  1. Choose two healthy, mature animals and isolate them in either a large plastic tub or glass tank and fill the container to fully cover the axolotls. The bottom of the container must have either large rocks or some other textured objects that the axolotls can grasp onto with their legs and lay on. Once the tank is set up leave the animals alone. If possible covering the tank is helpful as the axolotls prefer to lay in the dark.
  2. Both animals will nudge each other’s cloaca with their snout as a mating dance. The female nudging the male near the cloaca with her snout is pictured in the video above. (Timestamp 0:45)
  3. The male will lay spermatophores that will stick to the substrate. Spermatophores are small cone shaped jelly pieces with a cap that contains sperm. (Timestamp 1:37 and 2:25)

image.png

Spermatophore laid by a male axolotl during natural mating. Caudata.org

  1. The male deposits the spermatophore and moves forward to the female can position her cloaca over the top if it and retrieve the sperm cap. This behavior looks extremely similar to the depositing of the spermatophore by the male.
  2. The female continues to follow the male and subsequent nudging and spermatophore collection can occur multiple times in a single mating encounter (Eisthen 1989)
  3. A few hours later or up to a day check for remaining spermatophores and if you see them, return the male to his home because the female has likely picked up enough of them for her eggs to be fertilized.