So, have any of you won the gamble?

I am currently raising juvenile pairs of 3 different species, one pair being a species new to me (Lissotriton sp) that I got as eggs from a friend this past spring. Of course I was hoping for more than just 2 of the larva to make it this far, but I think I fed too many cyclops The other 2 pairs are juvenile offspring from my own animals.

Anyway, because I have these pairs I am hoping to beat the odds and actually end up with "true" a pair of the Lissotriton, male and female, that can perpetuate my little colony, and am mostly curious what I will end up with with the other 2 species that are from current colonies. I've never really been in this situation before because I have always had at least 8 larvae make it to adulthood in past experience receiving new to me species as eggs. I did get my 4 N. kaiseri as unsexed metamorphs and feel I "won" that gamble, as I ended up with 2 males and 2 females.

So, with the odds outlined in this article (Caudata Culture Articles - Pair Odds) I was curious what experiences you all have had with the either ending up with just a pair but getting a breeding couple, or on the other end of the spectrum, raising 3 dozen larvae successfully only to end up with a lone single female So share your stories! What gamble did you make big on and what left you busted?

HJ

Out of the original group of four T. verrucosus I was given there was only one male. I was quite lucky really because it started out life at a disadvantage by morphing at a very small size, and was in poor condition in general until it got big enough for earthworms. With subsequent breedings the male to female ratio has been the same or worse in large groups, the female larvae just seem to out compete and bully the smaller weaker ones which almost always turn out to be males. Not very scientific, I know, but many, if not all keepers of similar looking strains to mine I've spoken to see the same kind of pattern. I find it interesting because it seems to suggest the final ratio might not just depend on the sex of the babies at birth, but on the mortality rate of females compared to males when growing up?