Experiences in keeping, breeding and rearing Hynobius dunni with some

remarks on other Hynobius species.

nebulosus populations. These animals are

1. Natural Range and Habitat however quite larger : their total length averages
from 10 to 16 cm, snout to vent length are approx
Hynobius dunni only occurs the Japanese Island 6 to 8 cm.
groups : Shikoku (Kouchi-ken) & Kyushu (Ohita-
ken, Miyazaki-ken, Kumamoto-ken). There the This species has a typical back coloration
animal is called ‘Ohita sansyou-uo’. consisting of round black dots. However with some
animals (even of the same brood) this pattern
Hynobius dunni lives in secondary forest and entirely lacks. I also have the impression that when
woods of bamboo on the lower hills. Reproduction getting older they tend to disappear too. In
happens in pools and swamps in filled with dead contradiction with H. nebulosus this species has no
leaves and fallen twigs or in little pools and slowly yellow line on the tail. During reproduction it does
flowing ditches along rice-fields. Reproduction color entirely yellow. In the average have 12 costal
starts in December and can extend till the end of grooves, but animals with only 11 are known to
April, with a main peak occurring in February occur too.
(depending on the weather of course). Outside this
period animals are living underneath stones and
fallen leaves (translation from Sengoku, 1979).

Through the destruction of their breeding pools

mainly for the construction of new houses this
species slowly starts to be threatened. At the end
of 1999 together with some other Hynobius
species they were placed on the Japanese red list
with the status ‘vulnerable’ (Ikeda & Kawamura,
pers. comm).This was one of the motivations to
keep track of these species under captive care
through a studbook.

2. Description Difference in cloaca visible during breeding season only

( left = male, right = female).
The overall coloration of this species is gray-green
a coloration which comes close to some H.
3. Housing from 14° to 16°C which one encounters mainly
during spring and autumn. In these periods on can
The breeding group (8 animals) are housed in a find them in the water. During winter and summer
urodarium of 140 by 50 cm. The bottom surface they remain on land, hiding between the fore
consists out of washed sand. Water depth is mentioned isolation holes. They clearly seem to
approx 10 to 12 cm at it’s deepest part. Two thirds prefer these openings which are slowly leaning
of the tank consists out of an island of broken upwards out of the water. Herewith they lay very
construction-stones of volcanic origin. These have humid even with some part of their body in the
many long aeration holes used for isolation water. The need for humidity is also a general fact
purposes. On top of these stones comes a thick with H. leechi quelpartensis (Ad Bouwman, pers.
carpet of moss, approx 10 cm thick. Through the comm.). To my experiences there exists an
capillary function the water is sucked up by the inverted relation between age and presence in the
moss till the highest regions. The thick plant carpet water. While younger animals seem to visit the
also plays an important role in temperature waterparties outside of the breeding season, this
maintenance. On top of that moss lay pieces of presence has decreased significantly (under
bark. This whole setup acts like a mini-biotope : unchanged conditions).
some prey animals self-sustaining and animals like
saw bugs even breed in the tank. During springtime, while refreshing with cooler
water, I noticed a strange lateral movement in
The tank is placed in a frost free garden house, some of the animals. It looks as if the animal
which is placed underneath a tree (shade for the stiffens it’s body, then softly bends it double to
summer) . A plexi-glass roof plate offers the natural release the tension all over sudden : this results in
and necessary photo-period. No supplementary a soft waving / knicking whip-movement. The
lighting is given. During the winter the purpose of this movement is not yet clear. In
temperatures drop just around freezing, one single noticed similar movements in H. leechi
time a little bit of frost might set in. quelpartensis and H. retardatus.

5. Feeding

The animals are not picky eaters : they willingly

accept rainworms, bufflaloworms, fly-maggots,
musketoolarvae, sawbugs, millipeds and other
insects which are found while gardening.
Frequently addition of prey animals in the tank
during the rest periods quickly leads to round
animals. They eat , but do not consume much
energy. In contradiction with other salamanders all
of my Hynobius salamanders seem not to eat
See the locations where the eggsacs are attached, slugs.
mainly close to the watersurface (maximum light-
absorption, temperature and or oxygen related ?)

With pool type Hynobius an optimal reproduction

involves the intrusion of some dead branches in
the waterpart of tank. They are best positioned in
such a way that for some part of their length they
run horizontally equally with the watersurface (see
reproduction). Thickness is important since the
branch will need to carry the weight of several
animals. Sato used a branch of 1,3 cm for his H.
retardatus study (Sato, 1992). Both Hynobius
dunni and H. retardatus seemed to prefer such a
robust branch. The female need this to deposit
both her eggsacs, while it also plays an important
6. Reproduction
role in the breeding strategy of the male.
According to the literature the eggsacs of Hynobius
4. Captive Behavior
dunni measure 15 tot 30 cm, each separate sac
contains 80 to 140 eggs. The sacs of my animals
Overall the animals have a secretive life-style.
never came near to this maximum size. Mashiba
They start to be active with cooler temperatures
reports that egg deposition happens at 9°C laterally onto it with one hind- and back limb and
(Mashiba, 1969). In order to create possible started tail waving. Through the high positioning of
spawning places and to facilitate observations, the the branch, the upper side of it’s tail broke the
waterparty was filled with dead branches. As with watersurface while fanning, which made the
other Hynobius species them ales enter the water standing water move in rimples. During that same
as first. First migrations happened from 5°C on. moment he oriented his throat downwards and kind
Together with Ambystoma macrodactylum of blew up his already thickened throat. I call this
macrodactylum this species are the first active behaviour of fanning and blowing up the attraction
salamanders in my frost free garden house. The phase.
chronology between both the species is quite
surprising : in 1999 en 2000 they both set off eggs
during the same weekend. In 2001 H. dunni
deposited as first.

In 2001 we were able to observe the male mating

strategy for the first time.

In contradiction with the other years we were able

to observe the major part of the mating strategy of
the males. On one of the first/few sunny afternoons
in a long-lasting winter and an unusually cold
spring 3 males started to get active around 13H00
(18 march 2001). In the former years this activity
had started as much as 2 months earlier. We
noticed one little (C) and one large animal (B). The
middle male (A) had the most pronounced white When none of the females reacted upon this phase
coloration on his throat, this animal also proved to male C let itself either glide back onto the ground,
be our key-player. restarting the wandering /climbphase or started
rubbing his cloaca on the same spot where he had
6.1.Males been tailfanning. I call this behaviour the marking
phase. When there was no reaction on that phase
At first all the males are walking around on the he fell back to the wanderingphase. He did not
bottom of the tank (wandering phase) and were always go from attraction phase to marking phase.
quite interested in the introduced branches. From The whole cycle (wandering-, climb, attraction and
time to time they started climbed on them (climbing markingphase) were repeated quite some times
phase), most of their interest was clearly focused without success. About every 10 to 15 minutes the
upon those branches which were placed attractionphase was displayed.
horizontally just underneath the watersurface.

6.2. Males & females

During some moments gravid females did walk by

and when they did they took the interest of the
males. Especially when one of them started
climbing onto the branches (their body is so thick
with eggs that they have difficulty to swim) all the
males came closer. Because I was trying to shoot
slides at some of these moments I did loose some
part of the overview, but at a given point I always
ended up having 4 animals in a square of at most
10cm. In that phase the males behaved quite
nervously and most of the times their nervous
behaviour ended up pushing the female off the
branches (by accident, off course)
Unlike the other 2 animals male A did not only
wander and climb, he also had a peculiar spot to
which he seemed to return from time to time (spot
A). This branch was oriented horizontally and just
situated underneath the watersurface. (There were
other spots like this). He kind of hooked himself
 Around 15h15 I had to stop my observations. At
that time I had witnessed 7 failed approaches of
the females. When I arrived home 3 hours later I
found a fresh-laid , rimpled eggsac attached at
point A. In the following week 2 extra eggsacs were
laid, they were also attached in the direct
environment of point A.

6.4. CONSIDERATIONS

Apart from that one time occurring aggression I

could not witness territorial behaviour like it is
described by Tanaka (Hynobius naevius, Hynobius
nebulosus), Thorn (Hynobius nebulosus) and T.
Kusano (Hynobius tokyoensis). I am aware of an
article by Mashiba on reproduction of Hynobius
dunni, but I have not been able to obtain it so far
and even when I get it there’s still the matter of the
translation to consider (it’s entirely written in
Japanese).

In contradiction with Tanaka’s findings it was not

the largest male which played the key in this story.
But since these observations were done on a little
group of animals, we really should try to re-observe
this behaviour next year. At that point 24 extra
animals (F-1 1999) are sexually mature. The
6.3. Interested female voluntarily disturbance of the watersurface by a
tailfanning male has also been described with H.
At a certain quiet moment male C again started to nigrescens (Usuda, 1995). Thorn also mentions
display the attraction phase. In the direct visible that H. retardatus has a similar preference for a
environment there were no females (30 cm horizontally oriented rhizome.
around). kind of unrealistically quick.
The whole cycle has been photographed (slides),
The male had just but started to tailwave when all with the sole exception of that one time occurring
over sudden a female reacted upon this. Her time aggression. Next year we may try to record the
of reaction was considering the distance, observations with means of a (motion-sensored ?)
She came from underneath the stones onto the video camera.
branches and climbed on them towards the male.
Almost undistinguishable the other males had also It seems like the place of the egg-deposition is not
started to get closer (again) and in this hectic solely chosen by the female. The quick reaction of
moment the female was again pushed down by the the female on the ‘attraction phase’ still puzzles
over-active males. In this heated moment I have me.
also seen one male threatening another with a
wide open mouth. I have only observed this once After the egg deposition one active male remained
aggression once. underneath the eggsacs. At this moment it is not
clear whether this interest concerned the eggsacs
or the place of the deposition (fertilization of new
eggsacs).

SEQUENTIAL REPORT of BREEDINGS :

adaptive learning

Year 1998

The 3 year old animals fully overwintered indoors.

At the end of January they were placed in the
colder garden house. Due to their age I didn’t think
to get a reproduction yet. Much to my surprise I
discovered an eggsac 3 weeks later. Only 2 eggs
were fertilized and both larvae were raised without
any occurring problems in temperatures of 5°C.
After 1 year these animals became as large as their
parents, still retaining their juveniles pattern and
coloration. In 2000 one of these animals set of a
first eggsac which didn’t develop.

Year 1999

With the income of the cooler autumn

temperatures, a first male was observed visiting
the waterpart on 7 November ’98. In the spring time
the water was looking quite yellow through the
intrusion of branches, bark and moss. Daphnia’s
developed quite numerous under the first
springtime sun. Because I feared that the water Because I was not sure whether the eggs had been
was too acid, it was replaced 3 times during fertilized, deposition was entered indoors for closer
January and February. observations on 4 march ‘99. The temperature was
12°C. This would later prove to be a wrong
decision. On Monday 8 march it was already clear
that the major part of the eggs were indeed
fertilized (>80%). Some had already divided into 4
segments, others were already period-shaped. It
was remarkable to see that in one eggsac that had
fallen off it’s twig, the eggs on the outer side of the
sac developed at a much higher level then the ones
in the middle of the sac. The eggs in the second
sac which had stayed attached on the twig and
which received plenty of indirect sunlight
developed equally quick. On Wednesday 10 march
the 2 other depositions were also entered.

Approximately 80% of the eggs hatched. Only a

minority of the larvae died die to Saprolengia. After
The first egg deposition happened on Saturday
this beautiful start the first problems immediately
27/02/99 (sac 1), with a temperature of 7°C. On
arose. These troubles remained until the larvae
Sunday noon 28/02 I finally discovered 3 eggsacs.
were approx. 3 cm of length. Symptoms : after
3 males where still actively crawling over the feeding with daphnia and little-musketoo larvae the
eggsacs. All of the eggsacs were placed over the larvae developed a gas-belly, which turned out to
same branch which partly came out of the water.
be deadly in all the cases. Pinching the air-sac with
The point of attachment even came out of the water
a needle and water-refreshment didn’t help.
while the eggs were just underneath the
Possible cause could have been : 13°C being a too
watersurface. While depositing the heavy loaded
high temperature (putting the metabolism ratio of
female must have climbed out of the water despite the animals on a too high level), food poisoning or
the active males. Hereunder the distribution of the
wrong water composition. Since the same food
eggs by eggsac
was simultaneously offered at larvae of other
species without troubles, we could scratch that
Deposition 1 : 93 + 82 eggs
from the list. After reaching 3 cm the larvae proved
Deposition 2 : 60 + 61 eggs to be very resistant.
Deposition 3 : 72 + 68 eggs
On 25 may the first juvenile metamorphosed, the
last one on 13 august. Freshly metamorphosed
juveniles reached a total length of 5 to 5,7 cm. That
year 48 animals were raised

Year 2000

During the week of 23 till 30 January we had very

cold weather with deep frost even during the days.
As preparation for the reproduction season we
cleaned up the tank on 31 January : parts of the colder garden house in their separate tank. These
moss-carpet had fallen in the water which again 8 animals survived.
gave a yellow acid impression. The week after this
became unexpectedly warm, with quite some In the colder water the larvae from group B merely
sunshine. For some days we could measure up to moved. Still they grew till 16-17 mm in that same
15°C. This warmer weather and the refreshment of period, without losses. However there was no
the water had a direct impact on the reproductive much difference : the group just started to get in
behavior of these animals, on 5 February with at a troubles later : 3 larvae (on 120) survived this
temperature of 8°C 3 depositions were made. In stage. The speed at which they died was
order to avoid the troubles of ’99 this time the eggs frightening : on one day there were no apparent
were left unharmed in the cold water of the parental troubles, the next day I discovered death wool
tank. A total of 273 eggs were laid, 52 (19%) died points in the tank.
during development due to fungal infections. As
soon as a eggs showed fungal development it was With these findings I could exclude food and
sucked out of it’s jelly with a serenge needle. temperature as possible cause for the unusual
death rates. Two other possible reasons could be
the waterquality or the large larval densities (stress
situation for cannibalistic larvae). Since the 3
former years we had introduced the eggs in a fresh
installed aquarium with new (rain) water, we
pointed our investigation towards waterquality .

Deposition 1 : 78+60 eggs of which 9+2 died by

Saprolengia infection
Deposition 2: resp. 24+ 7 eggs (infected: 3+ 1).
Deposition 3: resp. 55+49 eggs (infected : 22+15)

Due to the activity of the males one of the eggsacs

had fallen of the twig to bottom of the tank. In Year 2001
contradiction with the observation of ’99 this did not
influence the further development of the eggs. One As preparation we had only refreshed the water 3
male remained quite active : each night I could find times during January / February. We were again
him back , right underneath the eggs. able to obtain 3 depositions, but due to the priority
of breeding & raising Hynobius retardatus, we
In an attempt to get more informed on the influence didn’t count the eggs individually. In order to test
of the temperature and food on the development of the water-hypothesis they were left in the parental
the larvae : 26 were entered indoors at higher tank (80x60x60). We did not change the water
temperatures ranging from 13°C till 15°C (group during the development. The adults were removed
A). The other larvae were nursed at 7 till 9°C (group one week after hatching. This strategy (currently)
B). In order to exclude the possible influence of the proved to be the most reliable one. Since larval
musketoolarvae both groups only received densities were getting so high the gradual
daphnia and enchytrids. removement of some part of the larvae was started
2 weeks after exovation. They were removed to
Especially group A seemed aggressive eaters, on other aquariums which had already been prepared
merely 8 days they attained lengths of 20 – 22 mm for this purpose 3 months ahead. This was
(initial lengths were 14 mm). Though all over repeated approx. every 2 weeks. At the end of this
sudden the problems started again, phase we had 12 tanks filled with an uncounted
despite/because of frequent water refreshments (but large) amount of larvae. Some part of the
most of the larvae started dying from fungal larvae were also set in an outside swimming pool.
infections. This problem started on 28 march, on During the winter this pool had filled up with leaves
30 march only 8 animals were still alive. In order to
avoid further deaths, they were reentered in the
and twigs from the surrounding trees and as such these larvae can thus grab larger prey. The tail tips
had a good support of little insects around. of the larvae are black from the early beginnings.

Due to the variable setups there were various Due to high larval densities there seemed to be an
larval densities, which reflected itself in various absence of oxygen in the parental tank. This didn’t
larval lengths. Tanks with a high larval densities affect the larvae negatively : they came up gulping
(50 larvae in a 60X40X20 cm) measured 4,6 - 4,8 for air quite frequently and I did not notice any
cm. At the same time we found animals of 7 to 7,5 deaths or cannibalis (even in 2001).
cm in the outdoor pool. These looked more like
gilled juveniles : they had already lost their fins and Raising Hynobius dunni larvae
larval coloration, but still retained their gills. Food
was offered every 2 or 3 days The first animals
metamorphosed from 04/07/01, they were still In the first stages the larvae were fed with
metamorphosing while writing this report (mid Daphnia’s, later on they received musketoolarvae
august). and enchytrids. In the last year another very handy
food resource was tested for all my Hynobius
Larvae larvae : Tubifex worms. The preference for this
foodtype was quite surprising and is already
apparent in the first period after hatching.

These larvae can exhibit a gigantic appetite, which

goes hand in hand with aggression. Larvae of
merely 4 cm succeeded in eating 2 large
flymaggots of approx 1 cm, which they digested
without any apparent trouble. After this menu they
were worthy of the name tadpoles instead. In order
to attempt a massive breeding/rearing be aware
Literature that this also results in the need for large quantities
of food.
In nature the metamorphosis only start from
August to September, occasionally a larvae over Predation on tadpoles is quite likely to occur in
winters. Shortly after hatching these salamanders nature : once the larvae are 3 cm they do not
posses a pair of well developed balancers. hesitate to chase eventual preys around through
According to literature they feed in insect larvae the tank.
occurring in the water & Gammarus sp. In
populations with larger densities cannibalism The larvae have a bentonic life-style : they are
occurs. The larvae grow to a length of 4 cm in July. bottom dwellers. One mostly finds them crawling
around on the bottom, consistently searching for
food. Only with the intrusion of large clouds of
daphnia, they start to stratify, gliding through the
water while chasing and feeding on the daphnia’s.
Larval H. retardatus display a different life-style :
they are frequently/mostly found stratifying.

Especially in the rearing of 2001 the Hynobius

dunni came frequently gulping for air. High larval
densities and not refreshing of the water probably
being the main cause. In this behavior they
resembled Tylototriton verucosus larvae, which are
also raised in standing, oxygen poor water but at
Personal observations much higher temperatures (25-27°C). In none of
these species this resulted in deaths.
In 2000 with average temperatures ranging from 8°
tot 10°C, the period from eggdeposition to During these 4 consecutive breeding years there
exovation was 39 days. The larvae measured occurred almost no cannibalism. Only in 1999 we
initially 14mm. Eggdeposition nr 2 of 2000 only noticed 2 such cases : the prey was grabbed by the
hatched at 27/03/2000 with larvae measuring up to tail end. This is not consistent with the experiences
17 mm. So it does look like fewer eggs in sacs of Kusano (1985) for H. tokyoensis . Therefore it
postpones exovation and finally yields larger may have been more of an ‘accidental’ cannibalism
larvae. This is certainly no disadvantage since then a reasoned one.
The care for metamorphosed juveniles During the winter the growth-rate can be strongly
enhanced by keeping them at temperatures of 14
to 20°C and feeding them on a daily schedule.

Life-span & studbook

According to literature Hynobius dunni can become

up to 16 years old. Currently my adult group is 7
years of age and I hope that I may have much with
pleasure with them in the years to come..

Since this species has been set on the Japanese

Amphibian red-datalist and the fact that this animal
is rarely kept among other European keepers I
started a studbook program. Through breeding and
rearing with a group of originally 10 young animals
this group has currently attains 335 living animals.
For more detail see the attached studbook
Already some weeks before metamorphosis starts document.
to show, one can clearly recognize the usual
Hynobius head in these large larvae : a short To my opinion this hardy and easy to maintain
mouth with eyes positioned shortly to the snout. As salamander has a good chance of becoming a well
a first signs of metamorphosis one can start to see spread terrarium animal. For the serious
the coastal grooves, shortly thereafter the fins start keepers/biologist there is still plenty of room for
to shrink and disappear, as last the gills follow that new and interesting observations (reproduction
same pattern. Some of the juveniles go on land strategy, relation between wintertemperature
while still carrying little gill buds versus breeding, growthrates versus temperatures
/ population densities, …).
During the autumn of 2000 the offspring of 1999
measured 10,4 cm (largest 12,5, tiniest 8,1 cm), I explicitly wish to thank both Jun Ikeda & Ad
while the offspring of 2000 measured 6,8 cm Bouwman for the offered help, information &
(largest 7,6, tiniest 5,8 cm). With both groups the translation.
ration head width versus total length was 11,1 %
(e.g. H. leechii quelpartensis 16,7% and 10,3% in References :
A. macrodactylum macrodactylum).
Bouwman, A. 1995. Temperatuur en kweeksucces met de
Hoektandsalamander van Leech (Hynobius Leechi). Lacerta
Each year 2 distinct colormorphs seem to develop 53(3) : 91-95
underneath the juveniles. A group of tinier black
colored animals and a group of larger yellow brown Kusano ,T. 1981. Growth and survival rate of the larvae of
Hynobius nebulosus tokyoensis TAGO (Amphibia, Hynobiidae),
animals. This last group also carries black round Researches on Population ecology 23 : 360-378
dots and as such already showed the adult
coloration. Within both the groups the body carries Kusano, T. 1985. Size related cannibalism among larval
lateral blue iridescent points, sometimes making Hynobius nebulosus. Copeia(2) : 472-476
the whole flank looking blue. A few months later Mashiba, S. 1969. Ecology of Hynobius dunni – chiefly its
however the dark animals also develop into adult breeding activity. Saishu to Shiiku ( Collecting & Breeding) 31(5)
pattern. : 122-135 (Japans)

Sato, T. 1992. Reproductive behavior in the Japanese

The raising of the juvenile animals happens in a salamander Hynobius retardatus. Japanese Journal of
miniature version of the parental tank. For a Herpetology 14(4) : 184-190.
detailed description see Wallays (2000). Since this
tank is sealed of with a glass-plate upon which a Sengoku(ed.) 1979. Amphibians and Reptiles in color (Japans)
TL lamp is laid, the air temperatures can Thorn,R. 1991. Observations et notes sur diverses espèces de
occasionally get up to 27°C especially during the Salamandres (Amphibia, Caudata). Bull.Soc.Nat.luxemb. (92)
summer months. Until now this has not been a : 79-83
problem, probably because of the presence of
Usuda, H. 1995 Waving behavior and its effect on the
cooler hideouts. In contrast to the sensibility of reproductive behavior of Hynobius nigrescens. Japanese
their first larval phase (< 3 cm) young Hynobius Journal of Herpetology 16(1) 19-24
dunni seem to be quite tolerant towards
temperature and waterquality.. Wallays H, 2000, Raising metamorphosed juveniles, Indiana
university Axolotl Newsletter 28 : 10-17