Captive bred Gyrinophilus porphyriticus dunni

I had a very exciting (for me) surprise today in my salamander room. This is the first time I have had any breeding success with this genus, though I have heard some in Europe have bred them in the past.




Pardon the bigfoot-like quality of the photos. It is an awkward enclosure to take photos in.

I found the remnants of the eggs attached to the underside of a large flat rock. Based on the size of the larvae I suspect they were laid some time over the summer.


I tried for many years unsuccessfully at the Toledo Zoo to reproduce G.p. porphyriticus and G. p. duryi (however I was never certain that I had pairs as identifying the sexes can be a real challenge). I lucked out when herping last fall with a friend and encountered a very probable pair of G.p.dunni with some egg development visible in the female.

Unfortunately I did not find many larvae, fewer than 10. There probably was not a whole lot of food available for them after hatching, or perhaps the adults or siblings cannibalized a few. They immediately started eating black worms when I offered them.

Here is a photo of the male:


-Tim

Congratulations my friend. That's a real accomplishment. I know there are more to come! roud:

For what its worth, it looked like the female may have eggs in her again when I saw her last week. I assumed they were the same eggs so didn't even think to check thoroughly for larvae. Maybe I'll have some success again next year.

Well done do you find it ant easier to sex them now?

Nice, good work on breeding! I'd say that most of the larvae were cannibalized, I've read that this genus prefers to eat other salamanders, I guess that would include their own kind

alexps said:

Well done do you find it ant easier to sex them now?

Click to expand...

In this pair the sexes are only obvious when the eggs are visible. It seems the male may have a slightly larger head relative to the body, though not nearly so pronounced as in Pseudotriton. I will look closely at them the next time I see the adults side by side, and try to note any other differences.