Sperm Retention Question

[Matt K]

Hey all! Any wisdom would be much appreciated. I opened up the tub of a girl who had slugged out last season, and she was pink bellied and belly up. I have never seen her fully inverted before, even last season when she was building. She also looked rather "lumpy."

My question is basically if any of you have had experience with a girl taking the season after a slug-out, or any kind of clutch for that matter. I'm not certain that this wasn't just a false-alarm, but it's always better to be prepared for the unexpected. She has been a very picky and fickle eater since she laid last fall, and it would be shocking to me if she had it in her to produce a clutch (especially considering she didn't seem to have it in her last season). I know sperm retention can happen when females don't take one season, but can it also happen when they do take, and allow a female to lay a clutch two seasons in a row without breeding the second season? Like I said before, any wisdom and experience in these regards would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
-Matt

[snakesRkewl]

Her laying inverted could just be cooling herself as she's growing follicles.
I keep finding my big yellowbelly female laying like this building her tiny follicles.
They do tend to lay completely inverted more after they ovulate though, in my experience.

[Matt K]

Thanks for the input Jerry! Has anyone else had a girl lay two clutches in two seasons from a single pairing, or know if it's possible?


Cheers,
-Matt

[m00kfu]

Yes, it's possible, though not very likely. I know someone who bred a lesser to a female one year, and hatched out a clutch of lessers from it. The following year she bred a completely different morph to that same female and hatched out another clutch of lessers.

[Matt K]

Thanks Chris, very interesting stuff. Lol, your friend must have been confused for a couple of seconds.

Cheers,
-Matt

[snakesRkewl]

I would think that retention is fairly rare but it obviously does happen as there's been far too many accounts of it.
Have yet to have it happen to me and thankfully most of my clown breedings are to virgin females

You just have to love how they mess with us while we mess with them

[RandyRemington]

Years ago when pastel het hypo's where a big deal the guy I got my het hypo male from was bummed out after buying a pastel male to breed to his hypo female and hatching all hypos again from the previous year's breeding.