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My tiger salamander female is extremely wider-looking this week than I have ever seen her. She did eat a few days ago, crickets, but now she is almost 2 inches wide in stomach(her total body length being about 8 inches.) I am wondering why she's expanding so? Could she be gravid..?
She morphed a year ago last September.
She is in a 20g long tank with a similarly-sized male. I would be the happiest person on earth if they mated.
I can get a pic Friday.
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*~Ginevive~*
[image] http://www.angelfire.com/pq/autumnjenleaves/beanerblue.JPG [/image]

Hi Ginevive,

So far there have been no recorded successful captive breedings of tiger salamanders, so I think it would be unlikly that she could have viable eggs. However, I am unaware if they will still produce the eggs inside of them and reabsorb them when they are not fertalized. 8 inches of length is also rather small, and morphing last September would be a big sign to me that it's probably not eggs, as it is believed they take 3-5 years to reach sexual maturity.

>>My tiger salamander female is extremely wider-looking this week than I have ever seen her. She did eat a few days ago, crickets, but now she is almost 2 inches wide in stomach(her total body length being about 8 inches.) I am wondering why she's expanding so? Could she be gravid..?
>>She morphed a year ago last September.
>>She is in a 20g long tank with a similarly-sized male. I would be the happiest person on earth if they mated.
>>I can get a pic Friday.
>>-----
>>*~Ginevive~*
>>[image] http://www.angelfire.com/pq/autumnjenleaves/beanerblue.JPG [/image]

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Hope my opinions help,
Rob

It can take three or more years for a tiger salamander to transform. and can breed the first season that they do. It is possible that your salamander is gravid, however captive laying with out the use of hormones is rare, but has happened. The reason for this is that the females will not lay their eggs Unless a body of still water at least 18 inches deep and of suffcient size is available. I know this from observation of wild breeding sites. Tigers salamanders will not lay eggs in smaller bodies of water and if there has not been suffcient rain fall to produce bodies of water that size they will not breed at all. Most keepers will inject their salamander with hormones to induce egg laying at this point. You can get LH-RH without a perscription from a chemical laboratory for this purpose. If you wanted to breed them naturally then your best bet is to setup an indoor pond or aquarium with suitable land area and at least 75 gallons of still water 18 to 24 inches deep as a minimum.

Hi Rick,

Several years for a larval tiger to transform is far from the norm, with most transforming well before that. I still think the salamander is too young to be gravid.

Also, I think it should be mentioned use of hormones is not always in the animals best interests, and you could lose your pet. It's quite the gamble.

By captive laying I assume you mean a gravid female is wild collected and then lays while in captivity? From her post she said she had both of hers together since morphing and it has just recently grown in size leading her to suspect she was gravid, so I suspect it was not a recently wild collected animal.

Also you speak about breeding tiger salamanders naturally. As I mentioned, to date no one has ever successfully bred tiger salamanders in captivite conditions without hormones. Are you speaking from suspected methods that could promote breeding, or have you or someone you know had success with the breeding? If you or someone you know has, I would be eager to hear all the details and see the photos of this event, and I suggest you share it on www.caudata.org with the other enthusiasts, as it would be a large step foward for captive breedings of Ambystoma species.

I currently am establishing an Ambystoma breeding project, so even if you're speaking from suspected methods I would be interested if you contacted me and we could talk about these methods and why they are suspected.

>>It can take three or more years for a tiger salamander to transform. and can breed the first season that they do. It is possible that your salamander is gravid, however captive laying with out the use of hormones is rare, but has happened. The reason for this is that the females will not lay their eggs Unless a body of still water at least 18 inches deep and of suffcient size is available. I know this from observation of wild breeding sites. Tigers salamanders will not lay eggs in smaller bodies of water and if there has not been suffcient rain fall to produce bodies of water that size they will not breed at all. Most keepers will inject their salamander with hormones to induce egg laying at this point. You can get LH-RH without a perscription from a chemical laboratory for this purpose. If you wanted to breed them naturally then your best bet is to setup an indoor pond or aquarium with suitable land area and at least 75 gallons of still water 18 to 24 inches deep as a minimum.

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Hope my opinions help,
Rob

Tiger salamanders often do not transform at all and remain and mature as neotates. Its not uncommon for mature adult neonates to tranform as the result of the stress of capture, shipping or being introduced into a new environment. Her Salamander could very well be gravid. There was a post here last spring of a captive breeding although their was no follow up. I have breed spotted salamanders years ago, about 15 to be exact. I do not currently have the space to meet their requirements. I am glad to hear about your project and wish you luck. If you are serious about naturally breeding Tigers, you will provide them with a large enough body of water at least 18 inches deep. in the wikd this instinct insures that the larvae will have enough time to transform before the pool evaporates, but don't take my word for it check out this website for breeding data collected on barred tigers in New Mexico.:
http://www.cmiweb.org/states/nmex_main/species/020070.htm
Also, I heard people say that hormones are not in the animals best interest, but I have never health problem resulting from their use.
Link

Wow, thanks for the info. I really am going to look into making a nice large breeding tank for them. Currently they are in a 30g long aquarium, with mainly soil substrate, so I can definately see why they would not breed in this setup.
On a side note, does anyone know if these salamanders can change sex (if there were two females, could one change into a male?) I have read of other salamanders doing this. Mine are male/female as far as I can tell, but I was just a-wondering. Thanks!
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*~Ginevive~*

She can't be gravid,wrong time of year, too young. She's just looking well fed.

All other info aside, how do you come to the conclusion it is the wrong time of year? If you reference a book, such as Petranka's Salamanders of the United States and Canada it states on page 111 "Breeding has been documented in almost every month of the year, depending on subspecies, latitude, and elevation. Ambystoma t. tigrinum breeds from November through May...".

I agree on too young....8 inches and recently morphed it's lucky if it's over two years old. Neotonic mature adults would be much larger and wouldn't morph (or if they did would not last long).

Neotonic tiger salamanders are also very rare.

Sounds like a well fed animal, as most Ambystoma are prone to be.

>>She can't be gravid,wrong time of year, too young. She's just looking well fed.
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Hope my opinions help,
Rob