Guidance from community in breeding unisexual Ambystoma

Greetings all,

I am a researcher at Ohio State University who works with unisexual Ambystoma salamanders. We have a colony of these animals in captivity along with other sexual species (A. barbouri, A. texanum, A. tigrinum, A. jeffersonianum, A. laterale), and we are exploring the possibilities in breeding these animals for the use in genetic studies of the unisexuals.

I have read many of the breeding threads from this forum an tried to replicate some of the techniques. We keep all of our salamanders individually in a walk-in cold room that we can adjust the temperature of. This winter, I took the temperature down to around 5 Celsius and slowly increased the temperature to 10 Celsius over the period of a few weeks to match the outside temperature in Ohio. I then transferred paired couples of unisexual salamanders and males of the sexual species to outside containers that were about the same size as a 30 gallon tank. These containers contained small sticks, leaves, and around 20 cm of water. I fitted mesh over the top so they could collect rainwater. I left the salamanders in these aquatic containers for 3-4 days for three different time periods that included an evening rain.

I had no breeding success, and would like to survey this knowledgeable community for any pointers, especially those of you who have had successful breeding with Ambsytoma.

Thanks for any replies and advice!

Sounds like a great setup. The only thing I could think of that may have helped would have been more time in the out door tanks. Could have just been they were too stressed to settle down enough to start breeding?

As a side note, did you happen to go the MIPARC meeting?

Trying for more time in the tanks might work. I think we were nervous about leaving them out there too long, so we were keeping them out for 2-3 days at a time.

No I wasn't at the MI meeting, but I think one of my collaborators from Eastern Michigan was there talking about the unisexuals.

I suggest bringing the temperature lower in winter and when starting breeding let the males seattle in for a weeks time before adding the other sex... This is based on my sporatic but succesful breeding of tigrinum. I have no experience with the other sp but tigers alse bred in water at 2 c with ice floating in the surface.
Martin

megs said:

I suggest bringing the temperature lower in winter and when starting breeding let the males seattle in for a weeks time before adding the other sex... This is based on my sporatic but succesful breeding of tigrinum. I have no experience with the other sp but tigers alse bred in water at 2 c with ice floating in the surface.
Martin

Click to expand...

Megs,i think you have an idea. I'm pretty sure that rddenton can use your suggestion regarding the temperature for the breeding process of unisexual Ambystoma salamanders ..

rddenton said:

Greetings all,

I am a researcher at Ohio State University who works with unisexual Ambystoma salamanders. We have a colony of these animals in captivity along with other sexual species (A. barbouri, A. texanum, A. tigrinum, A. jeffersonianum, A. laterale), and we are exploring the possibilities in breeding these animals for the use in genetic studies of the unisexuals.

I have read many of the breeding threads from this forum an tried to replicate some of the techniques. We keep all of our salamanders individually in a walk-in cold room that we can adjust the temperature of. This winter, I took the temperature down to around 5 Celsius and slowly increased the temperature to 10 Celsius over the period of a few weeks to match the outside temperature in Ohio. I then transferred paired couples of unisexual salamanders and males of the sexual species to outside containers that were about the same size as a 30 gallon tank. These containers contained small sticks, leaves, and around 20 cm of water. I fitted mesh over the top so they could collect rainwater. I left the salamanders in these aquatic containers for 3-4 days for three different time periods that included an evening rain.

I had no breeding success, and would like to survey this knowledgeable community for any pointers, especially those of you who have had successful breeding with Ambsytoma.

Thanks for any replies and advice!

Click to expand...

Rddenton, I think you might get an idea on megs suggestion down on this forum.Maybe temperature is also a factor on the breeding process of those salamanders..

You might get an excellent ideas on some replies here =) CARLES

carles1988 said:

Megs,i think you have an idea. I'm pretty sure that rddenton can use your suggestion regarding the temperature for the breeding process of unisexual Ambystoma salamanders ..

Click to expand...

Did you ever read this?

Check your PMs!


Based on data to date, you are going to have to breed them out doors. To my knowledge, not much, if any luck has been achieved indoors with those terrestrial species. GreatWhiteHunter has had some luck with certain Ambystomids indoors.


Somebody around here was working with California tigers at a zoo, and I seem to remember they reported captive breeding in outdoor enclosures last year or so.


Ah ha! it was Dave Tobler and company! http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...ifornia-tiger-salamanders-have-laid-eggs.html

And here is some of Justin's maculatum:http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...67557-ive-bred-ambystoma-maculatum-again.html


As I am sure you are discovering, there is not much data available on captive breeding of terrestrial ambystomids. I suggest you also check out our German counterpart AG Urodele as I remember a few folks in Europe were trying their hand at CB certain species of the genus. I have had tunnel vision for Neurergus for the last few years, so I am not as up to date on the other critters as I used to be.

As I read through your cycling procedures, I wonder about the terrestrial period and what the ambient atmospheric pressure is like. The barometer reading is what interests me most, as if you are using a walk-in you will find that the internal pressure tends to hold below ambient, making the necessary sudden drops difficult to simulate.

What sort of diet are you feeding? how often? Do you increase and decrease feeding frequency seasonally to help stimulate aestivation and hormonal triggers?


Have you collected a few loads of muck/soil from known vernal pools? This last seems to be very important as I know this was Justin's trigger for success. These critters may have trouble detecting urea, but it sure appears they know dirt that has been partially submerged seasonally.

Also, is there any chance of water cross contamination with fish? Most current documentation discusses the presence of or the historical presence of cyprinid and other fish as a block for breeding.

I can personally verify this effect to some extant, though I have done no true experimentation with it.