Paramesotriton hongkongensis, Cynops orientalis morphs

[jorge]

Could anyone help me how to take care of newly metamorphed juveniles ?

 

[kai]

Hi Jorge,

Rearing batches of Paramesotriton seems to be prone to catastrophic failures: everything seems to work ok until harvoc happens and then you're most likely to loose all offspring. Thus, the safest way seems to be rearing the offspring separately in small boxes on heavily decomposed leaf litter (forest topsoil) - check the pH though. Another advantage of rather small boxes is that the food can't hide as easily which results in better growth.

I'd try to raise Cynops like (non-aquatic) Triturus (Nate can certainly give more details on orientalis). I've yet to try other approaches with Paramesotriton and plan to compare different methods next year.

Best wishes,
kai

 

[nate]

I've raised C. orientalis (many times) and P. chinensis juvies (once). I treated both the same way, and they did great. I kept them in simple, sterile setups on damp paper toweling. Food consisted of live blackworms placed on the toweling in front of them until they grew a little larger and can start to handle small bits of chopped nightcrawlers (1-2mm pieces). fruitflies and pinheads are given sporadically, but never used as a main food source.

With the Paramesotritons, they grew very rapidly and at about 5-6cm TL, were introduced to water the next spring. In my experiences with orientalis, they grow much slower. I'd recommend not introducing them to water until 3.5-4cm.

Good luck, and feel free to email me with any specific questions.

 

[Jennewt]

Nate, I'm hoping you could you describe the "simple sterile setups on damp paper toweling" in more detail. I would like to use this type of setup with some juvies. I assume you use a plastic shoe box sized container? Or is it larger? How many juvies per container? About how often do you change the toweling? Do you provide a hide box or crumpled toweling for hiding, or is this not needed?

 

[nate]

Depending on the number of juveniles, I'll use anything from round deli cup sized containers to larger (app. 20cm x 15cm) plastic containers with tight-fitting lids. Anything I have available really...I don't have specifics as to how many juveniles I place in a particularly sized container, it's all by "feel". In a nightcrawler tub for example, I'd place no more than 3. and of course,as the animals grow, you'll need to make further adjustments.

I change the toweling about twice a week and when feeding blackworms, you have to be diligent with this. If not, uneaten blackworms will go rancid very quickly and can kill the juveniles. You can generally tell when toweling is going bad, it starts to turn a yellowish color, you might also see some small spots of mold devloping. I don't provide any hiding places because the containers are placed in a dim section of a room.

One thing I do use for some species is to add small, flat slabs of a rough-textured rock. In my case, shards of granite. This allows the juveniles a moisture gradient (they can get off the damp toweling if they want) and also gives them a rough surface to scratch against when shedding. Some species seem to have a harder time shedding on just damp toweling than others. C. orientalis generally don't have this problem, but the P. chinensis did. They would often end up with rings of unshed skin stuck around their neck, abdomen, and tail but the rocks fixed the problem.

 

[jorge]

Hi Nate !
Thanks for the info. What is your looking at this?
They are 3.5 - 4 cm tall. Now I keep them in terrestrial setup. They are on forest topsoil with pieces of moss. Wouldn`t be better way keep them in aqautic or semiaquatic setup ? I don`t know what juveniles of these species prefer in the wild.

 

[kai]

Thanks, Nate!

I second the notion to add some help for shedding. I usually use bark or plastic foam as well as pieces of rocks. I usually skip moss, especially with boxes for juveniles which receive only a little indirect light.

Jorge, juvenile Paramesotritons don't need (nor seem to utilize) any water until they are large enough to transfer into a generic aquatic set-up. The Cynops will probably grow faster in an aquatic set-up and if you can keep them cool enough, Nate's experiences suggest that you could already give it a try wether they'll adapt to an aquatic life style.

Best wishes,
kai

 

[chris]

How do you breed Paramesotritons? Does anyone have female for sale?

 

[jorge]

Hi Froggy,

I don't breed them so far. I just bought some offsprings to try raise them. They do well up to now.

 

[jorge]

Hi all,

I have another question about theese two species.
Has anybody any experience with hibernation of them ? It is convenient get them into hibernation or not ?

 

[nate]

True hibernation is certainly not neccessary for orientalis, all you really have to do is let their water temperatures drop for the winter to the low 50s F. I've never heard of anyone hibernating hongkongensis either.

 

[ralf]

Hi Jorge,
maybe I can contribute a little information on P. hongkongensis. Main breeding season of this species is November to April with the water temperatures not dropping below 12,5 degrees Celsius in streams of the Hongkong area during winter.

This information comes from MARTENS, H., 1999: Einige Beobachtungen zum Hongkong-Molch (Paramesotriton hongkongensis) in seinem natürlichen Lebensraum Elaphe 7 Issue 3 pp 65-68 (in German)

Ralf