Other <i>Hynobius</i> keepers ?

[henk]

I am trying hard to get in touch with other people keeping Hynobius species.

Currently in Europe there have been succesfull breedings with some species like H. leechi quelpartensis (for more then a decade), H. retardatus (3 people this year) and H. dunni (my 4th consecutive breeding year now, this year with quite some succes).

Formerly some species (especially H. nebulosus) were quite actively bred by Robert Thorn in Luxembourg, but the last years this genus has not gotten much attention (also because Japan does not export these animals either).

So please inform me if anybody else is working with these ... ?

 

[paris]

hi henk,
i have 2 but am unsure how to sex them. they are leechi's. i would like more but they are hard to come by in the states. any ideas how to sex them , and if ive got the ratio right-how to breed them?

 

[henk]

Hai Paris,

sorry to answer so late... but I just now discovered your mail.
Hynobius are quite difficult to sex out of the breeding season and I must admit I fail to sex them myselves... During the breeding season it is easier and I have made slides on the cloaca of H. dunni that show this (I am not sure wether I have loaded them in on amphibiaweb).

I keep al my Hynobius species in a frostfree gardenhouse which works well and have bred H. leechii last year (approx 50 raised juveniles).
They are laying their eggs on and inbetween stones, so not on branches (like my other pondtype Hynobius). If you need more detail tell me...

 

[TJ]

Paris, do have a look at this page on "Sexual Dimorphism in Vents" by Masato Hasumi, Dr. Sci., for photos and info on sexing them during the breeding season.

http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~hasumi/photo/vent_e.html

Here's the main page for this site (Hasumi Virtual Lab for Salamanders), which is the most authoritative (and only?!) site I'm aware of that deals specifically with hynobiids:

http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~hasumi/index.html

John, hope you'll consider adding a link to this informative site on the "Links to Web Sites and Mailing Lists" page after reviewing it. TKS!

 

[henk]

Thanks for this great webpage on Hynobiids Tim...