Eurycea cirrigera surprise

Hello everyone, just thought I would share what I found this morning. I cleaned my Eurycea cirrigera tank a few weeks ago and didn't see any eggs but then this morning I saw a small white object wiggling around. Turns out one of my females had laid a clutch and they were just starting to hatch this morning.

I wasn't expecting any eggs from them for another month or two but I guess they decided to go a bit earlier, I'm also quite sure another female is holding some eggs. Well here are some pictures, I'll make sure to track their development.







I removed all the adults and tried to put the eggs back in a hanging position.

I just remembered I took a picture of the female I saw yesterday that is holding eggs. Also here is a picture of one of my males with his cirri extended, he's by far one of my brightest colored.

Thanks for sharing the experience Jake Hutton, is good news that these salamanders are bred in captivity.
Could you give us more details about the reproductive success?
How are you induced to reproduce?
Have they passed through a period of hibernation?
I would like see a complete photo of the installation.

Greetings.

I have my 3.3 group set up in a 10 gallon tank. I stack a few rocks over a small pump to generate some moving water and to create plenty of hiding places and there is a land area at one end of the tank with chunks of moss that they can easily hide under. There are also rocks slightly stacked in the water to provide egg laying sites. The gravel and rocks I use are from where I originally collected the salamanders, I have been told that this very helpful and sometimes necessary to get some wild caught species to breed in captivity. But I don't see it being too much of an issue for CB animals.

Most of the year they are kept in my basement which is roughly about 20-25 C. To cool them, they were moved to the garage in late September because it gets much colder in the garage than my basement the temps have gone from very slowly down from about 17 C to 8 C. I also gradually reduced the photo period from 12:12 to 8:16, I use a 14 watt CFL for lighting. They are fed Drosophila hydei, bean weevils, flour beetle larvae, and occasionally small crickets and roach nymphs. I dust most of the feedings with Repashy Calcium Plus and alternate between Vitamin A Plus and Superpig and will occasionally use Herptivite and Rep-cal.

I don't have a picture of the tank at the moment but I can put one up in a day or two.

The larvae that have already hatched still not have absorbed their yolks yet and it doesn't appear many of the other eggs have hatched yet.

Here is a shot of the new setup that I moved the adults to.

I haven't been home much the past few weeks, but so far I have seen about 5 free swimming larvae. I just tried feeding microworms and walter woms and added some pond water a few weeks ago that seems to have a few microinverts swimming around in it. I will try and take some pictures soon.

I was finally able to get a decent picture of one. I also got around to looking in the other tank to see if the female had laid the eggs yet, but I found her still full of eggs. So hopefully there will be something in a few weeks.

I was just checking up on the tank that I moved the adult group to and found at least 20 free swimming larvae. I will try and get some more photos up soon.

The other larvae seem to be doing well and feeding on the micro and walter worms.

Cool!

Very cool!

I found this big guy last week while cleaning out the breeders tank. I thought I had removed all the larvae when I had last cleaned the tank but I guess I must have missed one. It is much larger than the other groups. My only guess is that it has been eating whatever prey I added to the tank for the adults that just fell into the water. But it is at least 2x larger than the largest one in the other groups.

I saw some Eurycea lucifuga larvae pulling fruit flies down into the water this week and eating them (put in there for the metamorphs). They are crafty!

Update...

I have one larva close to morphing and three other much smaller ones.

Just checked the tank for eggs yesterday, didn't find any but I did see this happy sight..

Awesome!

Also, why is this thread not a sticky?

Also FYI, this 2:2 group and their offspring will be available within the next month or so as I will be moving and won't be able to take any animals. PM for details.