No words needed ... H. retardatus

[henk]

 

[TJ]

This year's breeding, Henk? If so, congrats! You did it again (with a little help from the sals themselves, of course!

Over a decade ago, I had a chance to see a gully full of these egg sacs in Hokkaido, just outside Sapporo. What a site that was! I hope to one day follow your lead and see them appear in my own home

 

[henk]

Indeed they are this years breed. I have 2 eggsacs so far, one from each genetic breeding group. For the dark form it is the 3rd time, for the cupper colored form it is actually the 1rst time. Now I need to wait and see if they develop.
I also have 2 eggscas of quelpartensis. Hope that other species may follow

 

[jarid]

Congratulations Henk! I wonder if many Hynobids will ever trickle their way into the US hobby. You guys are so lucky.

 

[chris]

Well done Henk! I don't think my dunni will follow suit this year...the twigs remain eggless and I haven't seen any in the water...hopefully they'll be mature enough next year.
Its hard to get a good look at them, as all I usually see is a tail disappearing into the bricks when I shine my torch into the tank.
Chris

 

[henk]

Well here they are about 4 weeks later

and this is a try-out for a macro of one of the eggs. Since this is at the edge of how far I can go this is not really clean... but still

 

[henk]

An this is how they looked today

After a year (if all goes well) this is what you get ; this shot is of one of the juveniles I still have of last years breeding (I always try to keep some offspring to enhance the own breeding group).

 

[henk]

Well here's the follow up as today, the larvae are starting to move inside the eggs

 

[joeri]

Great set of pictures Henk
Good job breeding this beautiful species

 

[henk]

Thanks Joeri, I now know that all the 5 sacs have been fertisied for some part (there's a loss in each one for a part). So I hope I can raise some good groups out of those

 

[TJ]

Looks good, Henk.

By the way, I was having some discussion with other Hynobius keepers here in Japan who told me that they have successfully removed eggs from sacs with eggs that have gone bad, in order to avoid the good eggs from becoming contaminated. Have you tried this before? I am thinking I should have done the same with that H. tsuensis sac...