Ambystoma mavortium breeding

[paul]

Hello,

I'm new here,

I'm from France, and I hope my english is not too bad,

I've been breeding Ambystoma mavortium for 3 years now,

here the pics of the latest breeding of April,

new pics of the growing larva very soon !

(Message edited by axolotlman on June 14, 2005)

 

[francesco]

Interesting... some people here used to think it was impossible to breed them in captivity. How did you breed them? A friend of mine did it in a very big tank in his garden

 

[paul]

hello Francesco,

I't is not impossible, I already made it 3 times (2003,2004,2005),

the adults are kept in a 100x30x45cm aquaterrarium, in my garden from march to november, and in a cold room in winter,

I feed them with pieces of heart of beef, crickets, and big earthworms.

I don't know what to tell you, they breed and I find it easy, This year I choose the male and the femelle I wanted to breed, and put the others apart,

I, now, have 200 larvae that I feed with daphnia,

I will post new pics tomorow...

Paul.

 

[mark]

That's fantastic Paul. I'm hopefully going to try a similar large container, outdoor/cold room breeding attempt with A.maculatum next year. Could you post a picture of you tank set-up outdoors? Many thanks - Mark

 

[mark]

Hi Paul,

Very interesting news. Well done.

Do they start to breed usually right when you bring the tank outside in March?

Also, how much of the tank is water? I have my tigers in a 120x45x30 cm tank, but only about 1/5 of the tank is water. My male and female eastern tigers spent a lot of time in the water area for a few months in winter/spring, but never did breed.

 

[pollywog]

Interesting to see Paul, I was today offered some CB Tiger Sals, could they be from your breedings?

 

[jameswei]

if im not mistaken... Tim posted information about a gentlemen in Japan who succesfully breeded tigers as well. I didnt follow the post as i should of but i got the impression that more information would follow as how the breeding was possible.

 

[jennifer]

Paul, congratulations! This is an unusual species to breed. Many people want to know how to do this. How deep is the water? What is the land:water ratio? Do you have a photo of the tank setup?

I encourage you to write down all the details and try to get this published in a magazine. Or submit it to a website (like Caudata Culture!). I can help you with translation into English, if needed.

We North Americans should be ashamed. People in other countries have more success than we do with breeding some N. American species (mudpuppies and tiger sals come to mind).

 

[paul]

hello, thank you for the congratulations,

unfortunatelly I didn't have the time to take new photos yesterday, I wanted but didn't have the time , too much work feeding the larvae (200)...

Here's a little drawing to explain the set up,

I put some oak dead leaves in the water and a little moss, I use rainwater,

I feed my mavortium twice a week during spring,summer and autumn, they don't eat in winter,

and When i put them in water in march, they bred !

 

[paul]

a photo of young ambystoma born in 2003,

I think they are melanostictum x mavortium because at that time mavortium and melanostictum where together but this year I separated them !

Excuse me I'm not very good in english...

 

[joeri]

Great post!
Thank you for explaining it all.

Joeri

 

[florent]

hello Paul,

congratulations

Very nice, the color of the young is very interesting, they are very white when they are again in the eggs !

 

[ana]

hi Paul,
congratulations!they are very beautifull

u have same for me??heheheheheh
regards
Ana

 

[paul]

I just found old photos i posted on a french forum,

ambystoma adults, female and male and a young of 2003,

and the terrarium when i built it

 

[william]

very interesting! have you sunk this in the ground?

 

[pamela]

Welcome Paul!

Great pics!! Lovely animals, also nice setup.

 

[mark]

Wow, very much like my setup. But mine has about 24cm water, so its not quite as long as the 30cm.

But this is very good news, because it means maybe breeding is possible in my tank.

I noticed you said you don't feed them in winter.
(How cold do you keep the room?)
Maybe the lack of feeding helps to trigger the breeding? Anyone agree?

 

[mark]

Lack of feeding would be a symptom of hibernation but I'd be surprised if this was a trigger for breeding. It's more likely to be environmental triggers such as temperature or rainfall. I would think that a proper hibernation at a suitable cold temperature is necessary to encourage breeding, (some may disagree). Outdoors might be the only way to provide the required "ingredients".

 

[sergé]

That's excellent news...Europeans beat the Americans now on their on territory

..there are so little reports on breeding this species and like Francesco I only knew people who bred them in outdoor enclosures. You should publish it somewhere in a magazine! This deserves wide attention, because it can perhaps help in saving endangered species like Ambystoma californiense!

 

[william]

it's interesting that you use oak leaves and not a soil based substrate. how long did it take to find the winning formula?