Where can I get a Marbled Salamander?

J

jenna

Guest
These salamanders seem cool, and petco never seems to get them. What store would normally have this in stock? Petsmart? Pet club...?
 
You seldom, if ever, see them at pet shops. There are some for sale on kingsnake.com though.
 
After seeing the breeding strategy of A.opacum I would seriously doubt that captive breeding would even be possible. Unless of course you had huge numbers of them in an outdoor enclosure in the right climate...
 
How do they breed? Just curious to know more about newt and salamander.
 
Well, from what I’ve seen large numbers congregate at breeding sites on a particular night of the year – I doubt the trigger is even known. They mass in such large numbers that the males do not need to “select” a female. He will randomly place many spermatophores in the hope that a female will pass over it and collect. The strategy works because of the number of animals. I’m not sure how this could work in a captive environment with only a small group.
 
Nice one Ed
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- I hadn't read that before. Does the male court the female in any way or does the female actively search for the spermatophore? Or is it just pot luck? I can see how larvae raised in captivity would produce more settled captives, which in turn may encourage them to breed but do they actually change their breeding strategy?
 
The male does court the female. Unlike other ambystomids the female will often arrive at the nesting site after accepting one or more spermataphores elsewhere. They may or may not continue accepting spermataphores once they arrive at the nesting site.
This differences in the reproductive strategy is one of the reasons they are more amenable to captive reproduction than other ambystomids.

Ed
 
Mark i think you are confusing this species with ambystoma maculatum, opacum breed in the autumn, and she lays and incubates the eggs on land.
 
No confusion Will. It's just that all the footage of opacum breeding activity I've seen looks like a free-for-all with no courting from the males.
 
Ambystoma maculatum breed after the first warm rain. They turn up in congresses in vernal pools. There may even be snow on the ground. This breeding display appears to be "haphazard", but there is actually much competition going on with males trying to get the females attention. There is also documented behaviour of sexual interference between males. There is much "footage" and literature on this. Have not seen A. opacum "live" footage on this...would love to see it. Are you sure you are not mistaken the two?!? A. opacum lay eggs in the fall near vernal pools (edges) just inside the flood zone, hoping for a wet early spring so expanded pools will cover the nest and produce larva. Here where I live they co-exist and display different breeding styles. The A. opacum larva will also be much further along in development than A. maculatum (with in the same breeding pool). This supports the observation that they lay eggs in the fall, while eggs remain dormant until the winter thaw.
 
Hi Al,

Actually opacum eggs hatch before the freeze usually shortly after they are covered with water. The eggs will develop for a period outside of the water but will not hatch until submerged.
The opacum larva have a head start on the maculatum larva as the opacum have been feeding and growing through the winter.

Ed
 
Apart from them looking very different, one breeds terrestrially and the other aquatically so they are fairly easy to distinguish. I do keep maculatum but I’m definitely talking about opacum here
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. I’ve seen footage of both maculatum and opacum breeding (one of the bonuses of having a wife who makes wildlife documentaries) and they are very different affairs. Maybe I could get some stills and post them.
 
Opacum males do congregate at the breeding sites and engage in competition for the females as is seen in other ambystomids but opacum stays out of the water as they can readily drown, but the interesting thing is that the research shows that a large percentage if not the majority of females have already picked up spermataphores before they arrive at the breeding sites indicating terrestrial courtship away from the breeding congregations.

Ed
 
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