Aneides lugubris eggs (Again!)

[russ]

Well, my trusty old arboreal came through again for the third year in a row. I noticed last week that I had not seen her for a few days so I suspected she was nesting. While feeding on the 15th I tipped her cover and she was upside down. It really bothered me that I had disturbed her right in the middle of laying, but I just sat back for a week with my fingers crossed that I hadn't caused any problem. I decided to check her this morning to remove any eggs that might be there and sure enough all was OK. Even better than OK, this was her biggest clutch yet with 35+ eggs! They all look good except for one runt which could still prove to be viable.

Here's the female and clutch.
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This pic is deceptive, it doesn't look like there's that many.
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And the eggs on Perlite. This has proven to be a very effective method for incubating them as long as you keep the water level BELOW the surface.
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[william]

congratulations! do you think she'll lay any more eggs? or will that be it for the year?

 

[russ]

I haven't experienced any double-clutching, though others have. But I don't think any of them have proven fertile.

 

[nate]

Awesome stuff, Russ.

 

[erik]

35! That's a lot! One of my girls looks gravid again this year as well. This time I'm going to use the "Cormack perlite method".

Great to see any terrestrial Plethodontid bred reliably.....

 

[russ]

I just printed a copy of the pic and marked the eggs, 42!! Hopefully my A.vagrans does as well.

 

[russ]

Here they are at ~30 days. I'm down to about half, probably due to infertility since most of those I have lost showed no sign of developement. I suspect the unfertile eggs are the ones the female eats when they are left with her. I wish I could validate that. I had another young lugubris lay some tiny eggs this year that were obviously not viable and they were all eaten.

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[russ]

Well, unfortunately this clutch is a total loss. I started getting a white hairy fungus which I had heard of but had yet to experience. It was suggested that I place them in the frig to lower the temps a bit (~55F). I put them in a small dorm frig I use for cooling rubber boas (Charina), this seemed to stop the growth of the fungus. But after a few days I went to check them and something had gone wrong with the thermostat and the temp had dropped to 36F. I pulled them out to see if they would be ok but they all just started to swell and you know the rest. Just devastating.