I've bred Ambystoma maculatum again.

[Greatwtehunter]

I actually first bred these guys last spring but since I had only had them for around six months I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure I could replicate the results.

This year I did pretty much the samething as last year. I filled a 20 gallon long tank about 1/4th full of water and lots of leaves. The leaves seem to be important as the A. maculatum do alot of darting back and forth through it. I've tried it for a few days with just a bare bottom but got no results, they laid the very next day after I added the leaves. I put thin sticks in the tank to where the were about halfway sumberged, they like to lay their eggs on the end of sticks. I add a small pump that has a homemade rain bar attachment so that when I turn it on it looks like it is raining in the tank. During the winter the maculatums were exposed to temperatures that got as low as 7C.

You can see the eggs masses on the left side of the tank.

This is about 8-10 hours post laying.

 

[monkeyfrogman28]

congratulations, this is a very nice accompaniment on your end.

 

[freves]

Congratulations Justin! I was at a show in Columbia, SC yesterday. There were several dealers there with WC A. opacum and A. maculatum, it would be nice to see CB animals replace these some day. it looks as if you are well on your way to working out the details.
Chip

 

[Azhael]

Brilliant, Justin!!
It seems that the "impossible" ambystomatids are finally being figured out. Here in europe A.maculatum is being bred more and more, and so is A.opacum. Hopefully your experience will help others succeed, and one day soon a CB Ambystomatid will not be a rare sight.

 

[monkeyfrogman28]

haha ment to say accomplishment. I hate how when I use my PS3 it finishes words. Again great job

 

[Jennewt]

Absolutely super to see! Congratulations Justin, and thanks for sharing!

 

[Melmo]

Wow, first Opacum and now Macalatum! It's funny, it's not like these processes are anything over the top, people just need to pay attention to how nature does it. Congrats!

 

[Jennewt]

Wow, first Opacum and now Macalatum! It's funny, it's not like these processes are anything over the top, people just need to pay attention to how nature does it. Congrats!

I agree, these process are nothing "over the top". The biggest problems for most people are (1) providing different summer/winter setups, and (2) getting sals cold enough, but without freezing them. One or both of these factors apply to a great many species. Everyone says they want their newts/sals to breed, but when it comes down to it, these things are not trivial to provide. My hat's off to Justin for taking the time and making the effort.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

To me it seems with both of these species that a summer high temperature was, if not, just as important as the winter lows. I let the tanks of both of these species get into the low 80's. I did give them enough depth in their substrate to stay comfortable.

 

[dane_zu]

thats nuts

 

[stavroske]

Way to go Justin! This is a nice example that succes might be dependent by the small details.

Cheers,

Steven

 

[slowfoot]

You definitely have the magic touch with these guys

 

[Linus]

Wow, Great job man, keep us updated on the babies

 

[froggy]

Brilliant news! Congrats. It seems for a lots of the Ambystoma, transferring them from the terrestrial winter setup directly into an entirely aquatic setup is the keym, rather than trying to simulate migration etc. Did you feed them up after the winter while they were still on land, or put them straight into the water? What temperature is the water, and what temp did they reach on land before the transfer?

Chris

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Once their tank temperatures hit around 4'c I started feeding them twice a week, before that they were being fed only once a week at best. I only did this for a few weeks before plopping them in. The water temperature was 10'c which was a few degrees warmer than the air temps (8'c).

 

[vide]

This is so cool! Any updates on the development?
Me and two friends who I´m sharing "salamander basement" with got lucky with Ambystoma mavortium this year. I´ve been meening to post a thread about this but haven´t gotten around to it. Hopefully I will find the time in next week though.

Congratulations again!

-Vide

 

[Greatwtehunter]

They started hatching about a week ago.

Here is a container that I put the smallest egg mass in. Even with just a standard fluorescent light fixture over the tank the eggs still developed the algae. Although, it only grew around each individual egg and not the whole mass like most that I have seen in the wild.

 

[John]

Keep up the good work.

 

[Daniel]

'though I am late...Good job, Justin! Very well done!

 

[Lupin4th]

HI, I am new to spotted salamanders and have a question. It sounds like you put them to the entirely aquatic setup in spring to encourage them to breed. Do you keep them in the aquatic setup until they lay eggs or do you transfer them back and forth between the terrestrial setup and the aquatic one like every evening?