Hynobius mysteriensis ??

[henk]

Well I've done it again, putting myself in embarassment. In a quite large tank (2 meters by 7à cm groundsurface and 50 cm hight) I have put both H. lichenatus & H. tsuensis (4 of each) and now some weeks ago I observed an eggsacs. Ever since this I wonder what it turns out to be (since I have not previously bred with any of them). Having watched over the posts of Tim I'm still not certain what they will turn out to be , but whatever they are it's fine to me (but if I can choose I'll go for tsuensis). The eggsacs have longitudal stripes... (which I thought was typical for lichenatus) but the larvae have quite large yolks (but maybe not large enough for tsuensis...). The larvae have balancers.
anyway here are the shots

 

[henk]

And here some more

 

[william]

could they be a hybrid?

 

[henk]

No I don't think/hope so Willima, but time will tell. Just got a onte from a Japanese friend that from seeing the eggsac he thinks it is probably going to be H. lichenatus. From the larvae out he couldn't make the differentiation.. But anyhow time will tell, since I will hold on them. I normally keep quite some juveniles for myself of the first breedings of a new species; one never knows if it is a one time hit or possible start of a longer succesfull series and of both H. tsuensis & H. lichenatus I only hold 4 animals each and clearly want to build this out further. But I am currently busy compiling my new Urodela Newsletter that will hold more info on this and will be accesible for the interested ones at my caudata.org page ... just give me one more week to finallse it.

 

[henk]

Here is one now . So I'm ore inclined now to say it are lichenatus not tsuensis (black colored tip of the tail)

 

[henk]

Today I found some larger larvae and I know now that they are defintely lichenatus. Happy to have them since this is the first breeding with them I have. Will follow up further and document

 

[henk]

And as a further follow up , this is how the larvae looked this wednesday

 

[henk]

And here's a headshot