Andrias japonicus

[philipp]

Good Evening
Unfortunately, there are a lot more of those creatures in captivity, mostly kept in much too small tanks, without caves to hide or anything like that,....
They came in most zoos little smaller and grew, while their enclosures didn´t.
In Germany, there are very large ones in Stuttgart(very skinny, when i had been there the last time, half rotten goldfish on the surface of the water,30cms of water,...),Ulm,Karlsruhe,.....
Hopefully, they aren´t bred that much in here,
cause nearly noone can really offer them the space, they actually need.Here in Ulm, e.g., the specimen has to live in an enclosure, being about 40 cm longer than the animal itself, having a piece of wood an moss with it, but more as a kind of "decoration", than to hide the animal,....
Sad, very sad,...
Had been in a cellar of a very "V.I.P" newtlover in germany some years ago, who kept a Juvenile A.davidianus in an aquarium, about 30 cm longer than the newt, with a piece of bark on the surface,...
Simply to OWN such an animal,....
"Our" giant in here even escaped when he was smaller long time ago through canalisation of the vivarium and lived many years in the artificial rivers of the local park area around,....
Greets,
Philipp

 

[aaron]

Kaysie, many zoos worldwide are trying to breed these, and they usually have some in separate enclosures behind the scenes for breeding purposes. That may explain why you only saw two.

~Aaron

 

[aaron]

Btw, I am sorry for any misconceptions my post from October 6 may have brought about. That was just info that had been relayed to me from someone during a cryptobranchid lecture.

~Aaron

 

[kaysie]

Aaron, i'm sure of that. and i hope they do breed. rejoicing around the world, from caudate-lovers everywhere! detroit zoo has quite a large setup, and for a pair, or trio, i feel it was adequate. clean, flowing water, cold... i hope they're happy enough there that someone gets in the mood. maybe slip some spanish fly into the water. lol. btw: does anyone know where detroit zoo got their cryptobranchids

 

[ben]

in reference to the Andrias at Bristol, i worked at the zoo for the last three years of the animals life now almost 10 years ago, it had reached a size of almost 1.2metres and had a hearty appetite right to the end feeding on fresh trout and the occasional rat for Fibre it was fed using 450mm long tongs which it regularly swallowed to my finger tips. it was certainly my favourite animal in the zoo even though it never made it onto display as an adult!
Ben Baker