INTRODUCTION
Due to the relentless pace of events, it has taken quite a while for this letter to resurface. Currently we are in the process of anxiously preparing ourselves for a trip to the Appalachians (hopefully the situation in the middle East will not bring trouble for this trip). Secondly due to my job, I will need to visit Prague quite frequently for the rest of the year; if anybody has contacts over there, feel free to inform me.
We again have access to a laptop (so we’re indeed writing again) and plan to step over into the age of digital photography. The first reconnaissance trip with a low-budget 4 megapixel camera opened up a fascinating world of opportunities. Now we wait for the appearance of a good quality ‘starter’ model…
I wish all of you keepers a good breeding season out there… enjoy your animals.
1. PLEURODELES
Pleurodeles in North Africa
It looks as if the species Pleurodeles poireti could in fact be more then just that one species. Currently DNA tests are being performed on 3 distinct forms of these salamanders. There are some expectations that it might turn out to be 2 actual species with one subspecies.
2. HYNOBIUS
During the last 2 months my urodele set-ups have been transformed. In the greenhouse, 3 new large wooden boxes of 100x80x60 cm were constructed. Two of them were created as wood setups with lots of rotten wood, branches and forest leaf-litter. Both of them also hold an aquarium of 60x40x30 cm as an aquatic area. One of them houses my adult Ambystoma maculatum; I still keep a group of 6 adult animals and would be seriously interested to see if I can breed them. Last year a friend of mine bred them for the first time: these animals were housed in an outdoor enclosure. I have received and still keep 5 of those juveniles, which are growing well. My adult group are animals with an orange spotted head. The second box is still empty, but will most likely hold my 12 adult Taricha granulosa. Currently, the males are looking quite impressive. The forelimbs are extremely developed, and the tail has tripled its size. I have seen quite a lot of clasping going on and can only hope they reproduce again (they did so last year for the first time). The third box currently only holds sand and stones. It was built to mimic a streamside. I currently have no real plans as to which animals I will put there since it is not yet finished.
After this I have remodelled most of my Hynobius tanks. Most of these species are now in large separate tanks. For raising offspring in larger numbers, I have made 4 new flat wooden boxes of 110 x70 x 20 cm. They are filled with stones, moss and some wood. All of it sits in several mm of water. I still keep large numbers of Hynobius leechii quelpartensis and H. dunni, which were all set up in this way, with success. For the other genetically-distinct groups of juveniles (H. dunni, H. nebulosus, H. tokyoensis and H. retardatus), smaller rearing setups were made, similar to the large tanks.
After a somewhat warmer period, the week of February 14-21 was quite cold, with weather constantly below freezing. Then it got warmer so that February 22-28 had daytime temperatures ranging 12-14°C. On February 19 and 20 I accomplished the rearrangment of the Hynobius setups. The necessary water changes were performed. It is a habit to change the water in the urodariums when the first days of sunlight are peaking through. Again this worked well. The warmer water is sprinkled over the land areas, kind of awaking the animals. The transparent plastic plate in the greenhouse lets the animals follow a natural photoperiod. On February 26, twigs and branches were included in most of my “Hynobidariums”.
On March 1st, I found 2 egg sacs of H. retardatus. The water temperature was 10°C. To my surprise and in contradiction with former years, the eggs were attached to stones instead of twigs. They were deposited in one of the most shaded areas, just in front of the front glass. That same day a little egg sac in the Hynobius nebulosus tank was found attached to a little twig. So far I have not found the second sac …
While cleaning up the H. leechii quelpartensis tank I already discovered 3 pairs of egg sacs among the stones which I moved. There may be some more hidden among the rest. I have very good experience with leaving Hynobius eggs in the parental tank: the adults do not seem to touch the eggs, and the larvae are quick compared to their parents. Also Hynobius egg sacs seem to be fragile when it comes to changing the water conditions. Placing an egg sac of both H. leechii quelpartensis & H. dunni from the indoor tank to an outdoor pool killed the entire egg sacs in both species. Indoors the eggs developed.
Additional info: whereas most of the H. retardatus eggs are showing sings of development, the eggs of H. nebulosus were probably not fertilised. By now (March 14) the egg sac has turned bad.
The male H. lichenatus is also in the water and swims around quite nervously. I have never seen such nervous behaviour in this otherwise very calm species. So far, this is the only species that, when picked up, plays dead and doesn’t move… The male is currently unusually and uniformly dark. If they weren’t in separate enclosures, I would have a great deal of trouble of telling the difference from the H. retardatus male. Outside of the reproductive season, it is easy to tell the difference.
Active males of H. dunni, H. nebulosus and H. lichenatus sport a remarkable white spot on their throat. The forearms of H. lichenatus and H. retardatus are quite swollen (although to a lesser degree than for Taricha). The animals immediately react with curiosity to any movement in front of the terrarium, and show almost no fear. Outside of the breeding season, the H. lichenatus shy away from movement.
I photographed the eggs of both H. nebulosus and H. retardatus, and I hope to continue shooting pictures as they develop.
For some species I have been able to get new genetic groups: these include H. nebulosus, H. dunni, H. retardatus and H. tokyoensis.
The color difference between the 2 genetic groups of Hynobius retardatus is quite extreme. The new ones (still juveniles) have a breathtaking brassy reddish, sometimes greenish coloration on top of their brown colors. The juveniles from my original group are plain dark brown. In this new group, the animals have grown so quickly that they will probably breed next year at the age of 3. Some of these F-1 females already show a very fat belly, probably due to egg development.
It is possible that in the near future I may obtain a group of 5 Hynobius yiwensis, among which will be 3 juveniles.
LEECHES: Because of offering live food, some of my tanks contain leeches. Until now I had no trouble with this. This year, however, I discovered 2 Hynobius nebulosus carrying up to 5 leeches per animal. The first idea was that they were just on top of the animal, but wanting to remove them I discovered that they were effectively attached to the animals…So far this is the first species that has problems with this. I made some digital images of this…
Additional news: the egg sac of Hynobius nebulosus has deteriorated. Apparently the eggs were not fertilized. While checking the Hynobius leechii quelpartensis terrarium and removing some stones, 3 egg-sacs were discovered on March 12. They were put back in their original position and seem to be developing well. On March 16, 3 more egg sacs were laid. Like the other 3, they were placed in a calmer side-pocket of the streaming water. Whereas the egg sacs of my other Japanese pond-type Hynobius species are laid out in the open, this species seems to prefer hiding the eggs underneath stones and in well shaded holes between stones. The last 3 egg sacs were all attached to the same place, underneath an overhanging piece of moss. I have noticed two more gravid females.
3. NEURERGUS
Due to a combination of less spare time, the re-arrangement of my urodarium setups (resulting in a temporary shortage of stocking tanks) and the expansion of my Hynobius groups, I have made the painful choice to give up the various Neurergus groups I had. Another Belgian keeper will be taking them. He has more or less rearranged his yard in various large setups, some having a roof. The setups consist of large escape proof outside terrariums with plenty of rocks and, specially for the Neurergus, many calcium-rich stones. Most of the tanks are connected through a little stream. These set-ups have already proven worthy, since he has bred a good number of both Ambystoma maculatum and Triturus marmoratus. Some of the eventual Neurergus offspring will return to me. Nonetheless, this was one of the hardest decisions I had to make…
4. PACHYHYNOBIUS
At least 2 of the 5 females have clearly developed eggs. On March 3, I noticed such a female wildly trying to get out of the setup. She was separated on March 5 into the third wooden box, which had a stream-type setup. Also during the night both a male and female were found almost on top of the water filter. It looked as if she tried to get into the filter. As a result, I have set up the filter underneath stones and totally isolated the front side of the tank where this pump is situated. Also…. I have made quite a number of slides and digital images of this species. We’re thus keeping our fingers crossed.
5. CAECILIANS
After the visit of Mark Wilkinson (thanks, Mark) I now know that my animals are not T. compressicauda, but T. natans. During the last month they were extremely active. For the first time I have even been able to observe copulation. The cloacae of both the animals were attached with their heads facing opposite directions, looking more like one very long caecilian. Normally these animals are quite secretive and only come out at the twilight, gliding like vacuum cleaners over the surface. Recently, however, the number of animals with white bite marks on the neck (or upper third of the body) was remarkably high. But I have not seen any aggression; neither did I see biting during copulation….
One day I found curious white remains of an organ on the bottom in the tank. Since it looked like a ‘phallodeum’ I netted it and photographed it. Two days later one of my animals was showing the fearsome process of ‘floating’ in the tank. It really looked bad. The cloaca showed an extrusion: a piece of flesh was sticking out of it. With days, the animal became thicker. Finally I made the decision to take the animal out of the water to investigate it: it bled from this wound. When touching the areas around the wound the animal was acting very wildly. It was quite clear that I could not do much for it. In order not to stress the animal I decided to set it back in the tank and give it a rest. Since this time, I have not seen it back yet; also no animal died. Soon I will investigate all of the animals in order to see how the wound has progressed.
6. AMBYSTOMA
In addition to my interest in Hynobius, the mole salamander family has never ceased to interest me. Some species of these shy but interesting animals are often imported, but so far breeding successes are rare. In the last 3 years, there have been some developments that I wanted to touch on:
- Ambystoma opacum (genetic origin unknown) has been repeatedly bred by a Dutch salamander keeper. They were kept in outdoor enclosures. The eggs were laid between leaves that were place on a metal fence wire above a small water puddle. All went well until rodents found their way into the outdoor enclosure. The breeder has put his efforts with this species on a video.
- Ambystoma macrodactylum macrodactylum (genetic group from Eugene, OR). I have bred the parental group over the last 5 years. The records of these animals and offspring are kept in a studbook. Currently we are up to an F3 generation and the animals are spread over various European keepers including a good group of animals in the French and German urodele circles. So far, the French have been successful in reproducing them too. All the breeding happened in terrariums. Currently breeding has been reported by 2 keepers already.
- Ambystoma maculatum (genetic origin unknown) was bred for the first time in Belgium by a salamander keeping friend of mine. The animals were kept in an outdoor enclosure in which the animals overwintered. The offspring were spread over various German, Dutch, and French keepers. I still keep 5 juveniles of this group.
- Ambystoma tigrinum (genetic origin unknown). Just recently we received an email from a French keeper who found eggs in his Ambystoma tigrinum terrarium (both in and out of the water). His tank also holds metamorphosed axolotls. So we are interested in hearing the final results. Are the eggs fertilised? Is it a cross-breeding?? This will be followed up in the future.
So here’s a mix of breeding results for mole salamanders, both outdoors and indoors, clearly proving that we are heading in the right direction. Now we just have to repeat our efforts… and keep out the rodents.
7. TARICHA
My breeding group of 9 adult Taricha granulosa have been quite active. Some of the males were looking like serious body-builders, their skin being quite slimy too. The 5 females all have quite fat bellies and the males have been clasping ‘round the clock. We hope that we will be able to breed and rear some of these animals too. The 2 inactive males (showing a rougher skin and starting to get thin) have meanwhile been set over in the ‘colder’ greenhouse where they can hide in a big heap of wood and moss. They seem to be doing well since this move and have probably enjoyed the many slugs and worms that we offered them.
8. IMAGES
We have meanwhile set up a webpage where you can see some of the images we made with both digital and traditional photography (http://www.pbase.com/henkw/galleries). The intentions are to further build up this collection of photos. Currently you can already find images of marine life, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. The images are stored in a quite limited size (we retain the larger sized files). We hope to be able to continue more with this type of work. Since the introduction of a laptop with CD-ROM writer, this has become quite interesting. Some of the salamander and caecilian shots will be published in the new edition of the Grizmek animal life encyclopedia. Others will appear in a German CD-ROM project.
Henk Wallays
Ter Goedingen 40
B-9881 Bellem (Aalter)
Belgium