Hi I'm planning on doing a husbandry conservation study for my dissertation next term. I have been speaking to number of keepers. Who have questioned my choice of species. As I like Tylotriton species I have been suggested T.taliangensis do they ever come available.
I was also thinking kaiseri
Also open to ideas of species.
I have been working on this sort of thesis with Neurergus kaiseri for a few years now. It is a lot of fun, but our laws pertaining to the species here are lax when compared to what you folks in Europe have to deal with. What started as a hobby project quickly became a research project that probably will not be complete when my senior thesis presentation is due next year.
The best advice I can give you is that if you are considering a husbandry study of caudates you must keep in mind it takes years and years to gather valid data. They just don't breed that often as a general rule. While I applaud your efforts, I'm not certain you will have time, especially if the species you wish to work with is not readily available. I would be really happy if I knew more people were working on similar projects with the same species. More data is always better in the long run, even if the results are different.
The good news is (although perhaps this is actually bad) is that there are a vast number of newts and salamanders that are desperately in need of scientific husbandry data for conservation.
The really popular ones, if there is such a thing here in the States, is hellbenders.
While I am not very up to date on European species, I bet there are quite a few you can legally work with or gain access to research and experiment with. I suspect certain species and subspecies of Salamandra may be ideal, as the Triturus complex is fairly common as a standard model. But Any of that genus may be a good choice too.
As for North American species, ours can be tricky in captivity when it comes to breeding. We have a few folks around here that have pulled off some amazing results over the years.
I would also suggest considering Paddeltails (the ones I still think of as Pachytriton complex). There is a ton of argument and missing information on these and captive breeding of them is sort of a holy grail in certain circles of this community.
So, there is a bunch of ambiguous mud for you to slog through. Good luck and please keep us posted!
