My Hynobius & Ambystoma recepy

Herewith I'll show how I make a good meal out of my Hynobius / Ambystoma hanbbook. No enough kidding ... this is just meant to shiow how I setup my Hynobius setups (which also works perfectly for my longtoeds Ambystoma macrodactylum.

Here are the ingredients. The moss comes from between my lawn and lasts about 2 months

Now I first put in the gravel and some of the broken stones

On top of this I will now put the moss. The idea is that later when the water comes in the moss will suck up the water and through it's capilar function make the setup wed till above. It continues to live for quite a while. so now put some moss on top of these stones

Well you also see my son following what I do in the background
Then time to install a 2nd layer of those stones

And since my daughter also want to become a model I had to promise here I would also put her in the forum ..

After that time to set up another layer of moss

On top of that Island you can now install ferns or other plants and include some cm. of water. The animals can hide in the holes of the stones

Great series of photos Henk, thanks for sharing your information, its hard to find pics if Hynobius set-ups.

Wooohooo! 300 posts

(Message edited by Mark_uk on September 10, 2004)

hi henk what size tank is that is a nice set up.
thanks tony.

Well the tank is about 60 by 30 cm (and 30 high). Good enough for 4 to 6 Hynobius, altough with many stones in it I would even dare to go (much) higher for storing (not for breeding)

Well they need plants in the waterpart offcourse, but yes they did actually. However installing them in a large tank with more water and after setting the (tiny) waterfall in action I got more eggs this year... (but didn't have time to raise all of them : final result 22 juveniles).

I have texanums, but only 4 males....

Well I have indeed read studies that refer to maculatum being the first species to disappear when the habitat is disturbed.
I think laterale , texanum and talpoideum would be interesting species to try and breed in captive conditions. I have succeeded breeding the longtoeds for 7 years on a row now and I think this mioght work as well for some of the other mole salamanders. I give them a very cold overwintering and in the spring time I spray alot around to simulate rain... but maybe there might be other stimuli involved...

Nice set up. But how do you feed in such a terrarium. I feed my Hynobius dunni mainly crickets, but I think those would drown in sec in such a set up.

Matthijs