Echinotriton andersoni breeding info

I've got a pair. They are doing fine and have a large breeder sized tank but I don't know exactly what it takes to trigger their egg production and breeding.
Any info appreciated.
Travis

I don't think that many people have bred this species before... I personally think that the best thing you could do is to increase temperature and humidity in the summer. This works for most Tylototritons. Any advice from people keeping them in zoos?

The Detroit Zoo treats them the same as Tylototriton shanjing and has had success that way.

Ed

i have found a paper on breeding the chinensis form of enchinotriton-if this info might help you can access the pdf file via the caudata.ru site, its address is :
http://www.caudata.ru/pdf-caudata/3890.pdf

Check out (if you can find it):

Male Courtship Behavior of Tylototriton (Echninotriton andersoni) Boulenger under Laboratory conditions

Taeko Utsunomiya and Masafumi Matsui

Current Herpetology, Issue 21, December 2002

They bred for the authors in conditions in which they were kept at the room temperature and under natural light conditions in Hiroshima, except for the winter season when the air temperature was kept at 15 C.

"Each terrarium used measures 36x22x25 cm, and one-third each of the bottom was covered with shallow water, pebbles and sand. Pieces of slate were laid on the pebbles for shelters , and leaf litter from the natural habitat was placed on the sand."

"In some males, the cloaca swelled and became wet with mucuous secretions from December to May."

The male is not present at oviposition and the female lays fertilized eggs even after isolation from males for several months.

(Message edited by TJ on February 28, 2005)

Thanks for that info, very key stuff there TJ.
I think that the temps will naturally be increasing now and I will trying raising humidity and create a water area in their tank which has similar dimensions to the one TJ mentions. Wish me luck. I would love for nothing more than have the E. andersoni produce some of those strange eggs for me. hehe
Travis

Travis,
I wish you the best of luck in breeding those E. andersoni (not only for the accomplishment itself but also because I would be very interested in trading for or purchasing some of the offspring ). I briefly became excited today when feeding my T. tailangensis. Two of them became interlocked but I quickly realized that this seemed to be a sparring match over the food as opposed to breeding behavior.

Chip

I'll bet

In fact, I too am raising a pair of E. andersoni, born of parents from Tokunoshima Island, that I acquired a couple years ago as babies before the last legal loophole closed, and I have similar aspirations for eventually breeding them -- though they are siblings and I still haven't ascertained their sexes. They still have a lot of growing to do first!

it just so happens that I'll be in the Amami Islands for a few days from Friday, and will produce some habitat pics which will hopefully be of some help as you design your breeding tank

Which reminds me...I guess I'd better post a pic of my 2 juvies before I leave lest I be accused of poaching



(Message edited by TJ on June 02, 2005)

Very nice animals Tim, I think a lot of people envy you