Captive breeding?

I've noticed just by browsing through the forums here that there seems too be a consensus that Tigers are difficult to captive breed. Just wondering where this sentiment comes from? I worked w/ my mother on her masters thesis on Ambystoma californiense and we had a large breeding population for several seasons.

maybe you can share with us your technique

I would also point out here that when people mention tigers are difficult to breed, we're talking different species than A. californiense (A. mavortium and A. tigrinum). It's doubtful anyone here has even had the chance to try to breed californiense since they've been protected for a while now, and the internet community of sal hobbyists is still pretty young.

As mentioned before A. tigrinum has been bred in France under captive conditions.
I have good success with longtoeds over the last 7 years and woould adore exdtending this to other tiny species (talpoidemu & laterale for instance)
A. opacum has been bred in outdoor enclosures in Holland and Belgium (not yet indoors). A. maculatum has also been bred 2 consecutive years
in outdoor enclosusers.
Well so far the info as I'm aware for Europe

I'll see if I can't get a copy of her thesis and create a PDF. It doesn't deal w/ "captive" breeding per se, but rather the techniques and success of establishing artificial breeding sites. The A. californiense were collected from a vernal pool during their larval stage at Black Diamond Mines (Contra Costa County, CA), part of the East Bay Regional Park System only after obtaining permits from both the CA Dept. of Fish & Game & the US Fish & Wildlife Service. The project was run through the biology dept. at Cal State Hayward w/ help from UC Davis as well. We dug 10-foot long trenches in our back yard that ran at a slope from ground level to almost six feet deep to approximate ground squirrel burrows. "View ports" were included every couple of feet so that it could be determined how far into the burrows the sals actually went - there were also data loggers at each port that recorded temp, rh, etc... At the opening of the tunnels was a round plastic "kiddy" pool that was allowed to fill naturally w/ rain & dry accordingly as well (artificial vernal pool). The substrate & vegetation were naturally occurring as well.
This is just a quick overview - like I said, I'll try to make a copy of the paper downloadable for everyone. The sals reproduced for three seasons, I think the offspring are at Cal State Hayward.

(Message edited by d-willett on October 12, 2004)

I think that the "reputation" of tiger sals not breeding in captivity is based on the fact that thousands of people keep these animals in aquariums or terrariums in their home, but there has never been a documented case of tigers breeding in this kind of situation. If they did breed indoors, there would be occasional stories coming out in the forums, and I haven't seen any.

To the best of my knowledge, successful "captive" breeding of tigers seems to require outdoor enclosures. I've read some indications that water depth is a critical factor. Since tigers often use vernal pools, this makes sense, as they would be wasting their energy to lay eggs in shallow water.

I have heard from Ed K. that A. opacum has been bred indoors in simple setups.

The water depth of the natural vernal pool, as well as the artificial set-up, was no more than 8".

Regarding A. opacum. I have had them breed in 5 and ten gallon tanks. The ones I had were never kept outside and were raised from larva. One of the key items for opacum oviposition is humidity. The humidity needs to be greater than 80% for oviposition to occur.
Ed

Is there much interest in CB Tigers? I thought they were fairly prolific in <u>most</u> of their indigenous areas. I run across A. melanostictum & A. mavortium on a fairly regular basis, it might interesting to see if they could be coaxed to “do their thing” in captivity.

CB animals are usually more popular with enthousiasts due to them being captive bred and not 'ripped from the wild'. But most species of are fairly dense in their areas. However, I've still yet to find one in the wild!

(Message edited by kaysie on October 13, 2004)

CB Tigers were not popular overhere in Holland and Germany so far...

Henk, I meant captive bred as opposed to wild-caught. a CB anything is usually more readily bought than a WC.