Land-The ultimate aphrodisiac xD

[Azhael]

I´ve commented on this before, regarding my Cynops orientalis. I have to move my animals from one city to another for the summer. They spend just 3 hours or so on "land", and it always has the same effect the following days: courtship.
My C.orientalis stop breeding around the end of spring but then always court for a few days when they get to Burgos, and then start breeding again when they get back to Salamanca.
I got home (Burgos) two days ago. Today the C.orientalis were courting xDDD
The big surprise, though, was that my C.pyrrhogaster are following the lead!! Two males are following my biggest female right now, and they are showing some breeding colors. They had stopped courting and lost their coloration a good while back.

At this point i´m finding it very hard to consider this a coincidence xD
Anyway, i just thought i´d comment on it since i find it very curious indeed

 

[evut]

Hi, my Cynops pyrrhogaster have also been courting like crazy for the last week or two. It's been very hot here and also they've had to move into a smaller tank for a while (not a different town, though
Not sure what triggered this behaviour. One of the males appeared to be tail fanning me the other day :rofl:
I've seen spermatophores lying around the tank and the females finally started to lay eggs. The males never lost their colouration but maybe they are a bit bluer now and one has an interesting new feature on the tip of his tail.

 

[Azhael]

That male is an identical copy of one of mine xDD I wonder if our pyrrhos are related xD
Congratulations on the breeding Evut, it´s lovely to see more breeding! I got another metamorph this morning..tiny little fella xD

The tail filament at the tip gives them a nice touch (and it will grow longer, yoú´ll see). Mine also have a ragged surface on the ventral side of the tail, very weird looking but also very interesting, do yours have that too? It appears from the picture that they might have it.

 

[evut]

Actually only this one does. The other one is smaller and thinner and his tail is smooth and has a pointy tip (just 1). The two are really different. The smaller male developped male features and started tail fanning really early on. With the one in the photo we had to wait for ages to see what sex he is.

 

[Azhael]

I have a small male too, his tail is also different. In my case it was the opposite, he was the runt of the group and he shyly reached sexual maturity when his brothers and sisters had already bred. We´ll see if they change when they get older or if this is a permanent thing.

This species fascinates more and more each day.

 

[evut]

I love these guys - something is always happening in their tank. They make really entertaining pets!
Hopefully I'll manage to raise some babies now.

 

[Jennewt]

Interesting observation, Azhael. Maybe it's something other than 'being on land' that provokes them to breed. Maybe it's the big water change, or the change of surroundings. Or something else different about the new setup. I do recall in some of Henk Wallay's breeding accounts, he was using large-scale water changes to provoke breeding, so this would be my guess as to the reason.

 

[Azhael]

I have considered that and it certainly could be the true factor (and makes more sense xD). However, my C.orientalis have been housed in a series of different tanks since i got them, and the change didn´t promote courtship (although there´s also the posibility that i missed in entirely). It could also, of course, be a combination of many things (this is likely).

I like to think it´s the brief terrestrial period, mostly as a joke, if only because so far it has never failed xD I´m obviously speculating, and could be making a completely false assumption xD

 

[Yahilles]

When i planned to breed my both Cynops species in November, my first movement was putting animals on land for 3 weeks, because when i did it accidentally for the first time with ensicauda, it effected with my swordtail male fanning every female in the tank, and i once saw a thread here on caudata - someone reported of C. orientalis breeding provoked to courtship probably just by periods of living on land.
So i put my both Cynops in moss box on my window sill (18'C / 64F) for those 3 weeks, which effected in ensicauda tail-fanning shortly after putting them back to water, although orientalis bred eventually after 2 months. Anyway, now i am raising both species' morphs.

 

[PereJosa]

more interesant!!