Successful breeding of Ambystoma opacum.

[Greatwtehunter]

You can try small slugs, chopped bits of worm pieces, and even live blackworms on a small piece of papertowel. For shy individuals I will put their food in the tank about 10 minutes before I turn off the lights and just leave the food in there overnight.

 

[huug]

Justin,

Those pics of your morphs make me tingle inside!
You got a group pic of them together?

 

[anothernewtfan]

What a great thread. With a happy ending too.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Look at who laid again yesterday!

 

[stavroske]

Look at who laid again yesterday!

Guess you got the trigger Justin! Congrats!
I'm very curious if some other keepers got them breeding this year...

 

[huug]

Great news, Justin!!
You got the magic touch!

Good luck with raising the cb this year again, wonder if the larvae will grow to that big size again!

 

[Logan]

Great Job. This is a wonderful species that I have found many times in the field and wanted to collect. I never have because I don't believe I should take anything from the wild I don't think I can breed. Now I may very well try to get some of these wonderful sallies to work with. I am even more excited at the prospect of getting cb specimens. Thanks for all your info.
Logan

 

[Opacum]

So awesome! My favorite salamander. Kudos, Justin, on a fantastic effort on your part. These are the reasons people get into the hobby/culture in the first place. Obviously keep us posted!

 

[froggy]

Just a quick question, Justin - what temperature did your adults get down to in the Winter?

C

 

[Greatwtehunter]

The lowest temperature I noted was 2.2'C but for the most part it stayed around 3-4'C.

 

[froggy]

Thanks. How important do you think winter cooling is for this species, and could it be done in a fridge?

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Honestly, I think it is a must and could easily be done in the fridge.

 

[Blueflip2]

Hey,are you going to try and breed them this year again?

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Absolutely! I've been lucky enough that they've bred the last 2 years and I'm not about to stop now.

 

[fabri]

Hi Justin!! Congratulations for your results with a such great species.
Sorry if I'm invading your thread but I think that here it's the place where I can get the right answers about my problems.
It's two years that I'm thinking to buy two couples of A. opacum, but everytime that I decide to take them suddendly I change my mind. I think that they are wonderfull animals, but what scares me it's their breeding. I just want animals that I can breed and they looks to me too hard because of the Coolidge effect. So I want to ask you some questions:
Is the Coolidge effect a limit also for captive breed animals? Did you separate males and females before of the breading season? Are they so hard as people says or I can hazard buying them?

Thanks to everybody guys and sorry for my poor english.

 

[tom]

Hi there!
I have the same problem as Fabri, but I decided to acquire two pairs of opacum this year. So my questions are mostly the same: Will they breed now, in late November? Do I have to seperate males and females during the winter? When do I have to take them out of hibernation? Who can answer all of these newbie question?
Greetings
Tom

P.S.: And I'm sorry to hijack this thread, too

 

[MarioR]

Hello Tom,

have a look at my homepage there's an article about breeding A. opcaum in german: Ambystomatidae - Die Welt der amphiben Maulwürfe

Just keep them as natural as possible when it comes to temperature, day and night cycle, autumn rainfalls,...
Last year three different german keepers bred them successfully.

Greetings,
Mario

 

[tom]

Hi there!
You won't believe it, one of my females has laid roundabout 50 eggs last night and now I'm quite nervous. It's the first time I have the chance to breed an Ambystoma species!
Cheers!
lucky Tom

P.S.: Thanx Mario, I'm going to read your article right now and with special enthusiasm!

 

[methodik]

Hi Tom,

congratulations! Breedings of Ambystomids in germany still aren't many, nice success...if you got too many eggs: I would take some (helpful me, lol).

Keep us updated.

Greetings, Jakob

 

[ChristianV]

I'm very interested in breeding opacum with this method. Thanks