breeding C. pyrrhogaster

[moonstream]

I have a nice looking male already, and have been getting ready to setup a 15g to house him. I would love to breed them, and was thinking I would get another female and keep him, her, and any offspring produced in the 15g (the babies would be raised w/ the parents).

I was wondering how to breed C. pyrrhogaster, how to raise babies, and how to feed the babies?

 

[Kaysie]

You'd be better off figuring out how to care for the one you have first, then worrying about breeding.

The forum has a 'search' function that will answer most of your questions.

 

[moonstream]

I have spent almost all day learning about these guys as best I could, and feel that I now know enough to bring another C. pyrrhogaster into my home. I will be looking for a female on my next trip to the LFS.

as for breeding I did a search and read everything that came up. I also looked online. as fa as I can tell my male is in a breeding dress, or at least, his tail has a blue sheen to it. Is that a good sign?

 

[Jennewt]

Yes, it sounds like he's in breeding dress. And you could get lucky and find a female in similar condition. Given that they've just been transported from Japan (possibly via various other countries), they may or may not breed. The export/import/wholesale/retail experience is very stressful. If they do breed, you cannot raise the offspring in the same tank all the way to adulthood.

CC has some articles on raising larvae and microfoods for larvae:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml
For information on raising them from the point of metamorphosis to adulthood, it's harder to find info, but here's a good article:
http://groups.google.com/group/Urodela/web/raising-metamorphosed-juvenile-salamanders

 

[moonstream]

could I raise the babys in a shoe box w/ ventalation, shallow water, and a moss island? would feeding them bloodworms be okay?

 

[Jennewt]

They could be raised in a sweaterbox setup, more likely with soil rather than water.

 

[moonstream]

could babies survive in a paludarium w/ a large land area even if parents are there too? also, I keep hearing people say that they raise their young in the tank w/ parents, how do they do it?

 

[jewett]

The water in the parent tank may be too deep for the offspring. I did raise a lot of my Cp larvae in with the adults but once they morphed the larvae were removed. Young Cp's tend to be hydrophobic and they do best in a land set up or a very shallow water set up. I think if you tried to raise them exclusively with the parents you would lose a lot to parental cannibalism and to drowning. Some of my larvae raised with their parents from last year were missing half their tails and I am sure Mom and Dad were taking bites. I am also sure there were some offspring not so lucky to get away with just a damaged tail. So there are benefits to raising them in the parent tank (micro food items available, well cycled and established tank, no need to have little dishes full of larvae all over your basement) but there are still minor risks.

 

[Jennewt]

I have been known to say that I raise newt offspring with the parents. But I usually only mean the larvae, not the morphs/juvies. I have only one species (L. boscai) where I've been able to keep the offspring in the tank with the adults all the way to adulthood. In most cases, I remove them from the parents' tank when they morph. I suppose that I could imagine a paludarium where both the adults and juvs could live, but it would have to be quite a large tank to accommodate both well.