New N. v. piaropicola

Just thought I would share my newly acquired notos! I just received them not more than a week ago and I am extremely happy to have them.

I must say I am little surprised there are not more people that own these energetic little guys. My search of the site turned up very little on the piaropicola specifically.

I was told that a least two of the five I received are females although I have a difficult time telling them apart other than overall size. Although I must say two of them are mighty "gifted" in the belly department. I have them in a 20 gallon tank with plenty of plants and clay pots to climb on and hide in. These guys have been highly energetic, day or night but are also pretty skiddish and scare easily. They LOVE bloodworms, during feeding time, they come out of nowhere and stuff themselves!

One observation I had is that they seems to get air only once in a great while, they usually swimming around quite a bit and stay closer to the bottom. Compared to my other newts, these guys get air 1:4 of the time.

Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Mitch

Very interesting and beautiful!!!

Neat! My N.v.d. are quite active too - very fun to watch.

I have to say, I've never heard of this subspecies before. And I've taught field herpetology
Could you give me a little more information about them?

Just got some of these myself, i believe they skip the eft stage.

Very nice, Midnight!!! They are beautiful specimens.

Well I don"t have much personal experience on them yet but I know this species is only found in peninsular Florida. This species also lacks the classic red spots completely. As rigsby said they usually skip the eft stage and neoteny is quite frequent. I actually have one that is adult size and still have gill nubs, though it still goes up for air .

I still have not been able to distinguish between male and female yet but two of my adults are fairly plump so I hoping for eggs in spring! I hope to gain plenty of knowledge on breeding, raising offspring, etc and I will make sure to post that on here!

Mitch

IMHO the middle picture you've provided is of a male.