The Nahuatl Lotl is an axolotl breeder local to northern Maryland.
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Here are two beautiful babies that we chose for a customer as part of our "breeder's choice" lucies. They will be headed to their new home very soon!! We still have a few available, check them out on our website! 🤗
https://nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun/shop
So... at what point do we decide to just keep the entire clutch? 🤣
Do your friends think axolotls are weird? Do you want something that will freak out your family? Yes??
Spooks is your man! Some of his favorite things include true crime documentaries and classic serial killer films. Sometimes, we even catch him taking notes (which is remarkable considering that he's a fully-aquatic neotenic amphibian.. 🤔).
https://nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun/product-page/spooks-melanoid-albino-copper-male
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We will be posting our holdback releases later today! These babies are absolutely gorgeous and carry pied potential. They will be listed as breeders choice on our website later today. Keep an eye out!
Spotty babes 🐄
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Yay! We just added a variety of new axolotls to our website 🤗 Go check 'em out!
Nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun
Overnight/ Express shipping is required while temperatures are still high in MD. Orders will be fulfilled on Tuesday following the date of purchase (to give the animals time to fast prior to shipment). Message me with any questions!!
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Our Pink Princess Philodendron gave us a split mosaic! 🤪😉
I can't get enough of these babies. 🤗 nfs.
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😌😴
Important. 🩵
Thank you to everyone who came out to the .atlantic.reptile.expo in Carlisle, PA yesterday!! We had a blast getting to meet some new faces and spend the day talking talking about our favorite subject! We appreciate your support, thank you all for a great show!!
I've been experimenting with Chaol's clutch to determine if raising axolotls in dark tubs impacts how "dirty" they look.. here's what I've found. The first two images are of axolotls that have been consistently kept in dark tubs, while the third picture shows the comparison between the "dark tub" lucies and the "clear tub" lucies, and finally the fourth picture is just a close-up of the one from the clear tub.
This entire clutch was raised in dark tubs, and then half of them were moved to clear tubs roughly 2 weeks ago. I'm going to move some of the "clear tub" lucies back into dark tubs and then do another comparison.
I'm curious, what are your thoughts?
Here is a more detailed list of what we have available. Again, we will update the website after this weekend, but we are taking orders this week. DM for inquiries. Thanks!
We have made the decision to significantly downsize our breeding program. As much as we would like to expand, realistically, we're better suited for something smaller. So, we've decided to set our focus on our leucistic line and let go of everything else. I have a long list subadults, breeders, and a few pets. All with phenomenonal lineage from excellent breeders. I will update the website after this weekend, but in the meantime- if you're looking for something, reach out to me and see if I can't help you out. Thanks 💚
Stoaked to be back at the .atlantic.reptile.expo in Carlisle, PA this upcoming Saturday!! We will have a variety of axolotls (babies and adults), starter kits, supplies, and a few axolotl-related surprises! Come say hello!!
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Good morning everyone!
We received an email from SYA advising against shipping today due to delays from the holiday; therefore, to minimize the risk of your babies getting stuck in the mail, all shipments originally scheduled for today will go out NEXT Tuesday (06/06) instead.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please message us with any questions! ❤️
CB Axolotls is raising some of our babies and they are looking beautiful!! 🙌
WHOLESALE opportunity for breeders & vendors!!
We have a limited number of wholesale lots available from our current two clutches. These guys are growing FAST, and we are quickly running out of space 😅 (these pictures are from two weeks ago. They're getting their back legs now).
We're offering a lot of 5 axolotls for a special presale price of $100, plus shipping. I plan to ship 05/30.
All genetics are listed on the website. Neo's clutch will include GFP.
Grab your before they're gone!!
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Meet Orange Juice 🍊 He is a 6 month old high- iridophore golden albino baby. He's got quite the personality already and is a shameless beggar when it comes to mealtimes. He is available on our website! Free shipping from now through mother's day!!
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL AXOLOTLS THROUGH 05/14! We're offering a special Mother's Day sale from now through Sunday. Use promo code MOMSROCK to receive FREE 2- 3 day shipping on any axolotl when you order from our website. Happy Mother's Day!
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Thinking about buying an axolotl, but not sure what you need? Good news! On our website, under the "FAQ" tab, we have uploaded links to several Amazon lists with everything you'll need to get started. Check it out here!
https://nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun/faq
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Meet Nimue 🩷 She is a 2- 3 year old bluegill lucy, and she is sweet as pie. Before she came to live with us, she was rescued and rehabbed by another friend & breeder. She is missing her left front leg (permanently), but it doesn't hold her back. We are offering her to a special, pet-only home where she will be spoiled and loved on forever. For that reason, she is not listed on our website (we want to make sure she goes to the right person). Please message us with questions/ inquiries.
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We just added some beautiful axolotls to our website, juveniles & adults! Go take a look 🫶
https://nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun
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You never know what you'll find on tank cleaning day! 😅 These are two of Winona's babies. Somehow, they survived two weeks in a tank with 3 adults! They are thriving!!
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The Nahuatl Lotl was recently featured in Carroll Magazine! Check it out!
Hobbies are good for us. They are a labor of love and help us with stress, nurture creativity, improve our cognitive skills, and help build our social skills, among other advantages.
I am so proud of these Chaol x Winona hatchlings. Only two weeks old and they're already gorgeous. I can't wait to see them grow up. 🤗❤️
Getting ready to release some holdbacks and mature adults soon!! Stay tuned. We'll make another post when we have them on the website 🤗
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Hmm.. bit of an oddball. 🤔 This little guy caught my attention yesterday. Perhaps a haploid/diploid? He looks much better today than he did yesterday. We'll be keeping an eye on him.
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These babies are 🤌💋
We can't wait to watch them grow up!! 🙌
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💯 The most important aspect of responsible breeding- knowing your lines, keeping good records, and taking action when you need to w**d out the bad ones. If you want to get into breeding axolotls, you need to understand how shallow the gene pool is and you must be committed to culling the bad ones. It's not an easy job, but its extremely important to the future of the species. Great article by Lloyd Strohl.
I know some people won’t like hearing this, but….
ALL HYPOMELANISTICS CURRENLTY ON THE MARKET ARE CLOSELY RELATED!
I hope I stated that clearly enough.
I have been contacted several times over the last few months by breeders (and sorta-breeders) who want unrelated hypomelanistics. They have the best of intentions, and are trying to avoid inbreeding as much as possible (which is sincerely appreciated). When I explain to them that any two hypos are related within three generations, and most likely two, they often just look elsewhere. The problem is that there is NO ELSEWHERE yet.
Hypomelanistics produced in the last three years were the result of very close inbreeding, as in sibling pairings or parent-offspring pairings. Sibling pairings are more likely, as we know that many casual breeders are not very cautious or well informed about the sources of their animals. At BEST, any hypo clutches produced in the last two years are the result of first-cousin inbreeding (or closer), as I suspect my two clutches are. I have it from more than one other breeder that they got their first hypos after pairing animals for which they have absolutely no genetic information, ie; from a pet shop or the guy down the road with an accidental clutch..
Here’s the problem:
Best evidence suggests that the gene for hypomelanism has existed for, AT MOST, seven or eight years. The mutation likely occurred around 2015. Almost all hypos currently in the pet trade can be traced back to animals produced recently by Roofus Aquatics, with a few other, scattered sources that are harder to confirm (like me). The other sources are harder to confirm because hypos produced before 2020 were generally not recognized as such. I, for example, embarrassingly, produced a couple of clutches with “light melanoid coppers” and “light coppers” in 2018 without realizing what I had, and distributed those all over the country.
I'll put a link to the first posting when I noticed something odd about the “light coppers” in September of 2017 in the comments.
This means that the mutation occurred in an animal at least one generation prior to that, and since my records indicate that the mating that produced my first hypos were unrelated through, at minimum, two generations, the mutation must have occurred no later than 2015. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea who was the original source of the male copper from that pairing, and no one I have talked to has any reliable records prior to that, so there is no way to trace the source any further back.
It doesn’t really matter, though: My het-hypo coppers in that first pairing must have shared the same grandparent. Both inherited the same recessive mutation from that common ancestor.
So what should we be doing?
(1) The important thing to do now is to first outbreed your hypos to non-hypomelanistic animals that you KNOW to be as unrelated as possible. That is the step I started last year. I was lucky to have animals from those “light coppers”, so I know they are at least two generations away from hypos obtained from other sources last year.
This has the advantage of producing new genetic combinations with the hypo gene that may be very interesting. Have any breeders considered what happens when you select one of the exceptionally yellow hypos to blend into your gold albinos? How light will a hypo axanthic be? The effect of the hypo gene makes selection for these polygenic traits much easier than it has been in the past!
(2) Ideally, do that one more time, producing a generation of animals with two different genetic lines that carry the hypo gene, but are unrelated through two generations.
(3) In the third generation you can then pair animals from those two genetic lines, producing healthy hypos that are at least as unrelated as the vast majority of axolotls in our domestic stocks.
(4) Along the way, cull or retire any animals that produce offspring with undesirable traits, and CULL those undesirable offspring AND SIBLINGS. Don’t sell them or give them to friends. That is a CRITICAL step in reducing the damage done by inbreeding. If you aren’t willing to do, or capable of doing that don’t breed axolotls (or anything else).
Yes, that is going to take 5-7 years. If you aren’t willing to take the time you may as well keep pretending that you’re doing the right thing by getting your hypos from different breeders (who got theirs from the same very small pool of people) and pretending they aren’t siblings or first cousins.
Am I saying that no one should be producing hypomelanistics? NO. THAT IS NOT WHAT I’m SAYING. Every new mutation is selectively in**ed by breeders who want to produce more. As long as the breeder behaves responsibly, is honest with customers about their pairings, and (ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT) follows step #4 religiously, all is well.
If we are careful and responsible in our breeding practices we will have healthy, beautiful hypos for all in the years to come.
Cahir 😝
WILDS are so underrated. I mean, just look at them! Each one is so unique. We love these sparkly babes. ✨️ not for sale :)
***SOLD OUT***
Eggs are live on our website! 🤗
https://nahuatlotl.wixsite.com/waterchangesarefun/shop
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It's been an exciting weekend for us! After several weeks of waiting, we have not one, but TWO clutches in the works! The first one is the highly-anticipated pairing, Winona X Chaol!
Winona is a first-generation bluegill lucy from our first pairing in 2020. Her mama is Neo, our GFP dirty bluegill lucy from Sandy Green. Chaol is a dirty bluegill lucy produced by Orion's Axolotls from her Aphrodite X Leviathan clutch in March 2020. I expect boldly freckled dirty bluegill lucies from this clutch.
The second clutch is Neo X Bobross. Neo is a GFP dirty bluegill lucy produced by Sandy Green. She has been our tried-and-true mamalotl since the start, and this will likely be her last clutch. Bobross is a pied/ bluegill lucy produced by Microquatics & Nicole Elliot in 2020, rescued and rehabbed by Twin Cities Axolotls. I've attached pictures of him and his siblings. This clutch will have heavily bluegill GFP and non-GFP dirty lucies.
Keep an eye out for eggs! Once these girls are done laying, we'll divide them up and post them on our website when they start to bean. We'll make another post when they're ready!
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Our new business cards are here!! Which color is your favorite?? 🤗
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🥚 👀👀👀
Taga:
A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to the in Carlisle, PA yesterday! It's always a pleasure seeing old friends and meeting new faces. Best wishes to everyone who took a new axolotl home, enjoy your new baby and please send us updates!
We're going to go order more business cards 🤣
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Just some of the kids we've been raising here lately 💕 They're growing beautifully.
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