Tylototriton yangi successful breeding

Hi all,

Figured i'd share this here since i haven't already. Back in June of this year, i was fortunate enough to successfully breed my Tylototriton yangi. To my knowledge, this is the first captive breeding of this species in the US, and second in North America.

I am working on an article of sorts on my methods and such, which i will probably post here in the next few months. But for now, i'll just give the overview.

All three newts (1 male 2 female) were cooled from mid December til late March. Temperatures were around 45 to 50 F (7 to 10 C). During the cooling period they were only fed approximately 2 times. For another two months after that they were kept in a very dark environment. At this point, they were taken outside and put into a breeding setup. The setup is similar to the style used by Alex Tsukanov - stacked rocks on one side and water on the other. Water depth was around 5 inches, with some plants and sticks. Pieces of maple bark and moss were put on top of the rocks for shelter.
For the first several weeks outdoors they did not breed, but then, in early June, a pressure drop and slight rainfall finally brought success. Temperatures on the day they bred were between 56 and 66F (13 and 19C).
Eggs were laid mostly on land (moss and rocks) above the water. I removed the eggs and put them in tubs of shallow water, however. They began hatching in early July, just under a month after being laid. By early August, larvae had all four limbs. By late November, they were 2 inches, and now, December 6th, they have developed light toes, and are beginning to develop light paratoids and tails. So far so good!

Here are some bad phone pics They are in order from when i first found the eggs, to larvae this week.

Awesome

Here's a higher quality photo of one of the larger larva from this week. You can see the paratoids and toes are clearly lighter here. Also, the orange coloration on the tail is quite obvious. And while you can't see it on this individual, some of the larger individuals are beginning to develop rough skin. Tail fins are also starting to reduce in some individuals. Morphing is coming up soon!

Truly awesome mate!

That is really great!! Congratulations!!

Thanks everyone

Some good news! The first larvae has morphed. He came out of the water yesterday, at about 6.5 cm. Not a bad Christmas present! His colors are very dull, as expected, but should brighten up in the coming weeks. Another one is expected to come out of the water today, and a few others aren't too far behind.

Some observations -

The larva still had pretty noticeable gill stubs when he left the water. I've been told by another breeder of this species that they are pretty prone to drowning after morphing, so I've decided to play it on the safe side and put the larvae that are close to morphing into a slanted morphing setup (half land half water) so they have more control of when they come all the way out (versus a tub with cork floats). To my surprise, within an hour of being put into this setup, the first larvae came out of the water. I was expecting him to stay in the water til his gills had reduced more, but he had a different idea.

I've put him in a small tub with forest soil, a few hides, and some oak leaves. It's very basic, which should make monitoring and feeding easier. I'm hoping they'll take to tong feeding without an issue, but i'm not getting my hopes up. If they don't, i'll move them to a paper towel setup where i can put earthworm pieces and blackworms on the ground without having to worry about dirt clinging to everything.

Here's a picture of the little guy soon after moving onto the land

Congrats!

Hi folks
beautiful newts.
may i know if they T.yangi are more aquatic or terrestrial?
i read up T.shanjing and it seems terrestrial.
then i read up T.kweichowensis and T.verrucosus both seems to be more aquatic.
What's the most common species available?
thanks

ksc133 said:

Hi folks
beautiful newts.
may i know if they T.yangi are more aquatic or terrestrial?
i read up T.shanjing and it seems terrestrial.
then i read up T.kweichowensis and T.verrucosus both seems to be more aquatic.
What's the most common species available?
thanks

Click to expand...

Yangi are fully terrestrial in my experience. Mine have a small water area but they have never used it.
Kweichowensis and verrucosus are more aquatic, correct.
The most commonly available species depends on where you live. In the US it’s probably verrucosus, in Europe I’m not sure

hi Seth,
thanks for your advice and information
very interesting, to know more about Tylototriton species
i also read Axel Hernandez information on amphibiaweb.org. it seems like there are many look alike newly found and described species that looks like T.shanjing
example below:
Tylototriton anguliceps, Tylototriton panhai, Tylototriton uyenoi, Tylototriton verrucosus
Tylototriton pseudoverrucosus, Tylototriton kweichowensis, Tylototriton yangi
they seems live in slightly different habitats and have different temperature tolerance etc...
some are fully terrestrial and some are semi-aquatic.
cheers!

Hard work seems to pay off. Good job