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Finished doing my axelotl lore thing sorry if it is a bit long.
Axelotl Life Cycle notes~
~Appearance~
Adult Axelotls have spiky gills,3 tails,and a tie. Their spiky gills are normally yellowish orange and their body is normally black with yellow stripes on their tails. Axelolts can have differences in color palette and markings but it is very rare to deviate from black and yellow as other palettes increase the risk of predation during infacy.
~Reproduction~
Axelotls breed once every 3 years. When it comes time to breed all Axelotls in the area will gather at the largest body of water and split in to 2 groups depending on their gender. Once sorted the females engage in fierce battle to determine the strongest female, The strongest female earns her choice in male who will mate with her exclusively during the season. Once the strongest female is paired up the males proceed to battle this battle is to determine the order in which these males get to choose which females to mate with. Stronger males get first chose with a max of 5 females per male. This continues until all males or all females are have mates. Remaining axelotls who did not receive mates proceed to guard the breeding ground with their lives. It seems there is no bitter feelings for not receiving mates. In situations where there are enough Axelotls where they all can find mates some choose to not mate in order to protect the breeding ground. Axelotls seem to care not which young they are caring for. Young get swapped around all the time even before the young hatch. After a few months families are established and the young can safely live the water so the families split off to different water sources. Meanwhile the unmated stay as a group at the breeding pond.
~Infancy~
Newborn Axelotls are blind and rely on adults to guide them. Do to being blind they can't tell which adults are their parents luckily the adults will care for whatever baby is near them without caring who's baby it is. When the Axelotl gains the ability to see it assumes the first adult is sees is it's parent and will follow them as such. Doesn't matter if the Axelolt looks completely different from them they cant care. Baby Axelotls lack ties.
~Childhood to Adulthood~
Once the babies can handle being out of water their family will leave the breading pond to a different water source. The reason for this is to prevent the young from predating each other as they are very competitive and will go as far as killing and eating their competition. They don't act violent to those who are considered it's siblings rather the engaging in far more friendly rivalry. Axelotls are fierce predators and they start hunting pretty much right away. An Axelotl is considered an adult when the kill a prey item 3 times their size on their own. Upon doing this their parents provide them a tie before saying farewell as the newly adult axelotl leaves to seek stronger foes to fight. They spend their time wandering between life in water and on land fighting anyone willing to fight them until breeding season arrives again in which the cycle repeats.