Wanted : tips on raising hynobiid larvae

[TJ]

Some of my 35 or so tokoyoensis larvae (all from a single egg sac) are missing 1, 2 and in one case even 3 legs

owing to their aggressive feeding habits.

Due to the sheer number of them (and I have another 100 or so earlier-stage larvae of other Hynobiid species...), I am wondering if they can be properly raised in individual containers on stackable trays like so:

In this case, I would expect to change their water every 1-2 days using cycled water from the same tank. I would not utilize airstones as the water is so shallow. Room temperature during the day is around 23C max.

Would this allow them sufficient space at this size, or would it be a stressful environment?

Currently, most my Hynobiid larvae are kept together in large, filtered tanks. Cannibalism has been kept under control by ample feeding.

 

[jarid]

I've never had experience with any Hynobiid sals, but I think they would be fine in this type of setup.
Since the water is shallow you probably wouldn't need an airstone anyway and the elodea helps too.They will probably grow faster too since there is no competition for food.I've raised Salamandra larvae like this with no problems.Just keep up with the water changes and I'm sure they will do great.

 

[TJ]

Thanks Jarid. I tried this method for a week but found it not worth the trouble. I've since just separated them into two containers and haven't had much more trouble. Anyway, half of them are morphing and seem less aggressive toward one another at this stage. Still, these little containers come in handy!

 

[henk]

Didn't see this post earlier Tim,so sorry for delay.
I have had greatest of success in raising H. dunni in aged water, leaving virtually without change over the whole development. But in the water I have set waterweeds and there was a soil. In fact this water had been partly in the tank for the whoel winter. Watertemperatures were like outsidefreaching 7°C i nthe beginning till 16°C at the end (over a perdio of amlmost 2 months).Larvae were raised on daphnia's,
bloodworms and tubifex.
Eggsacs seem vulneable to sudden waterchange.

Have since use this tric to raise H. leechii, H. retardatus and will try now this year for the first time with H. tokyoensis.

Enjoy your work with them

 

[TJ]

Hi Henk. I've had no probs with the larvae other than nipping and some cannibalism. Frequent water changes never posed any trouble. Water temps have been around 20-25C as they've been kept inside. I was expecting they would be more difficult. As a result, I'm now overwhelmed with Hynobiid larvae! (200+-)

How do you feed your morphs? Mine have dug into moist moss and keep out of site. It would seem difficult to add pinhead crickets into this environment (too wet). Do they take to handfeeding of bloodworm? Do they ever enter the water to feed after morphing?

Good luck with your tokyoensis! I haven't used any "tricks" with them at all and almost all that emerged from the single egg sac survived. They're very hardy and real pigs when it comes to frozen bloodworm. Today I'll be picking up a retardatus egg sac from my neighborhood department store, probably the last Hynobiid eggs I'll see this year since they're from the chilly far north (Hokkaido).

Any tips on raising H. morphs would be appreciated as this is completely new to me!

 

[henk]

Well Tim, they do go in the (shallow) water when offered certainly by night (where they will hun for food).
I offer mine fly-maggots when they are in the moss and this works perfectly without losses

They do seem to be quite hardy. Currently I'm raising some 400 or 600 larvae myself... I leave eggsacs and larvae in the parental tank and only take out the metamorphs.

Good luck with yours out there (are they all H. tokyoensis ?)

 

[caleb]

I've also seen small individual containers used for Salamandra in the past, with good results.

I've seen pictures of a similar setup used for raising Ceratophrys (horned frog) juveniles, which are also very aggressive. The basic idea was to maintain a water flow through multiple containers on a tray. The setup used short upright pieces of large-bore (10cm?) plastic water pipe, with plastic mesh glued across the bottom. Each one had a single frog in it.

This meant that the tray could have a constant flow through it, which would also flow through each frog's container.

I'm not sure how useful this would be for more delicate salamander larvae...

 

[henk]

You could eventually use this tric for raising eggs from salamanders species which have to hungry adults..

For Hynobius I leave the eggsacs in the parental tank since there is on predation but I use of those tropical fish raising tanks for raising larvae in parental tanks which hold predatory adults.

It might maybe come as a surprise but in the past I also let the larvae of Neurergus species
in their parental tank (the adults are too slow and the larvae are incredibly quick)