Pseudotriton ruber breeding success!

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Currently there are 2 females laying eggs and guarding their nests. They've laid under large rocks and attack any other Red Salamander that comes close to their eggs. I've noticed they like to stir up the water under their nests to cause a current or flow to help oxygenate their eggs.

I'm amazed at the size of the eggs. The egg its self is large with a big yolk. There's very little space between the yolk and the outer egg membrane. The eggs are almost exactly half a centimeter and laid very close to each other. Wish me luck people!

 

[froggy]

Fantastic! What conditions did you give them beforehand? Keep us posted on their development.

 

[Opacum]

Congratulations, Jaymes! Looking forward to your success! Good Luck! :happy:

 

[Mark]

Great stuff James! A rare sight, so very well done to you! Best of luck with the eggs.

 

[Azhael]

Nice! Definitely an uncommon sight, hehe.
Are the females LTC, how were they housed before they laid?

Please keep us posted, it´d be great to see their development.

 

[Kaysie]

Good job, man!

 

[legardored]

congrats, well done

could you pls post pics of the whole setups with the temps you keep the.

thx

 

[taherman]

Congratulations! Ours just south of you laid last week as well....158 eggs!

You might want to pull out a few eggs. They hatched just fine for us last year away from the female in deli cups with around an inch of clean water with 5-10 per cup. Last year the first larva hatched on 13 Jan (laid 26 Nov) and all began feeding for the first time on 28 March. Maintain the eggs ~55-60F.

We ended up losing all the eggs left with the female, probably due to low temps.
Good luck! Soon the market will be crawling with CB ruber!
-Tim

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Thanks everyone for the good luck. These P. rubers are Long Term Captives. They were kept in a tank with many big flat rocks with gravel at the bottom. No plants, no water flow, and low photo periods. For the past 2 months I've been feeding them every 2 days, stuffing them with earth worms. The room they are being kept in is about 48 degrees F. That room never gets higher than 60 degrees even in the summer. I'm sure it was the constant feedings, temperature drop and low light situation which led to breeding.

I am now considering removing most of the eggs. There's a lot of aggression going on. The females are fierce as ever! Some of the males in that tank have obvious bite marks on their sides, that can't be good. I'm going towards a less stress element so I am going to separate the males and let the females guard their nest. It seems logic to let them continue their natural process of life. Right now which is laying eggs and guarding their nests. Plus I like watching the new behavior. Tail and body fanning their nests and being super alert. I'm going to let the moms be moms!

 

[taherman]

Yes females get extremely aggressive when tending eggs. If you haven't seen it yet, the attached paper does indicate nest raiding and oophagy in female P. ruber.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Thanks Taherman for being so responsive! I am taking everything said into consideration. Any information is good information at this point. Thank you everyone. Any word of advice would be great. I have raised P. ruber larvae before so I'm not that "green" when it comes to Red Salamanders. Thank you everyone.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Instead of starting a new thread I'll just add this topic here since its so similar. My Pseudotriton ruber nitidus is laying her batch of eggs as well. She's a familiar face on Caudata. She actually started laying yesterday and I spent most of last night watching her. Took some photos and a short video. Please check it out.

Its hard to distinguish her apart from a P. ruber and to identify her as a Pseudotriton r. nitidus. The video and pics do no justice for identification. Her eggs don't hang from the rocks they stick to it. P. ruber eggs hang from a from the ceiling of the rocks in little sacs and move around with water motion. P. r. nitidus eggs just stick to where ever they are laid.


YouTube - Pseudotriton ruber nitidus/Red Salamander fanning eggs

 

[VirgiChris]

Congratulation ! :happy:
Great pics

 

[Viv]

Could you show us pictures of the tank please? Thanks

 

[ed_moyer]

Great Job, Welcome to mine a Justins world!!! With no zoo to back us!!!!

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Here are the pictures of the whole setup. Just the front view, but it says a lot about the whole setup. The tank in the pictures are of the Pseudotriton r. nitidus. Simple gravel and stacked rocks are the main statement here. I wanted to go more lavish but its hard for me to find any time. Its a good imitation of Red Salamander habitat. I simply try to mimic the habitat where I've found P. rubers.

Thanks Ed! Its true I didn't have help from any Zoo, but I did get help from you and Justin"Greatwtehunter". I did do some online research to get info. 1st hand experience on finding this species helped a lot also. Talking to other keepers and knowing the natural habitat help the most actually.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Same group of P. rubers had a nest this early this year. When I saw it, it was mostly eaten/destroyed. Thought nothing made till I found this guy. Finally!

Hopefully there's more!

 

[Squirt88]

That's awsome!

 

[xMIDNIGHTx]

What a find!

Fingers crossed you find some more!

Thanks for sharing all this valuable information/photos!!

 

[Niels D]

Good job!