17 gallon Alpine newt tank.

[Chinadog]

It's been a while now and the plants are starting to get a hold, especially the Vallis, I've never been able to keep it alive in the past for some reason, so I'm happy about that.

The newts are growing as well and their colours are developing nicely. They do seem to be able to change colour at will like their parents, which is strange to watch! They are always quite light in the plants, but they can turn really dark, making them blend with the slate perfectly. The bigger ones have just learned to beg at the front of the tank as well, I'm really getting to like my Alpines and can't wait to see them all grown up with eye popping colours and crests.

 

[whiteblaze11]

I love this setup! I'm thinking about doing something similar with my 20 galling long Kaiseri setup with a leveled in one corner and having slate bottom for feeding too!

 

[kettering bloke]

Hi cutting glass is very easy and second hand windows work fine and are usually free a glass cutters only about 2 pounds or cheeper. I put a thread up a year ago with my 6 yr old daughter cutting glass so you should be able to do it quite well enough. I hope this helps regards KB

 

[Chinadog]

Yes it's a lot easier than it looks, just be careful and If you do use second hand glass, make sure it's not toughened, it has a nasty habit of exploding like car windows do when you try to cut it!

 

[kettering bloke]

Hi Mate dead right on the toughened anyone new to it it often has a mark telling you (very feint) another giveaway is if all the edges are shiny and smooth they should be sharpe like broken glass. It wont cut it is dangerous to try . Avoid laminate as well it looks like two thin sheets of glass glued together when viewed from the side. I cut apart old double glazing units with a Stanley knife lots of free glass that most of the time they don't even recycle. regards KB

 

[mr cyclone]

I've had good success with Perspex I've ordered off eBay very easy to cut to size and a lot easier than getting glass strips, glaziers around my town have quoted ridiculous prices

 

[tyzoone]

This is looking awesome Chinadog! Keep the pics coming!

 

[Chinadog]

I've never been that happy with the lighting on this set up. I used two 9w Arcadia arcpods when I set it up and thought they'd do the job just fine. However, the Alpines are next door to the pyrrhos with their Beamswork Led lights so I could compare plant growth in both tanks and it soon became obvious which was the best.
I couldn't get the exact same fitting as the pyrrho's tank as they don't make one small enough, so I went for a Beamswork Green aspect planted tank fixture. Its only been on there for a week or so, but already there's already an improvement with the plants. The Alpines are going to be cooled down to overwinter soon, so hopefully when they go back in there'll be a dense jungle for them to hang out in.

 

[Stupot1610]

How big are the alpines now? The tank is looking good.

Stuart

 

[Chinadog]

They're about 50mm now, I guess. The males are starting to mature already though, so maybe they wont get much bigger.

 

[Stupot1610]

My smallest male is about 55mm and largest is 70mm, so yours are pretty much adult sized.

Stuart

 

[manderkeeper]

Looks great!

 

[Chinadog]

Yeah, maybe so, these are apuanus so apparently don't get as big as alpestris like yours.

 

[Stupot1610]

That is true, they could well be fully grown though I suspect they may grow slightly more over the next year or so.

Stuart

 

[sde]

My smallest male is about 55mm and largest is 70mm, so yours are pretty much adult sized.

Stuart

Man, it never fails to surprise me at how small the rest of the newt world is...or should I say how large my first newts were. I had Taricha granulosa as my first newt, and they regularly get over 5 inches. The tiny morphs of T. granulosa are the size of adult I. alpestris alpestris!

Thanks for that info on lighting, Chinadog.

 

[Chinadog]

I've changed my mind about them being nearly full size, I saw some very old female apuanus yesterday afternoon that were easily 120mm long, the males weren't that far behind either. Very impressive!

 

[Stupot1610]

I think that size would probably vary by the location the original wild stock come from?
I know that within subspecies populations can be isolated which would eventually cause them all to have even more similar characteristics e.g. Lack of variation in colouration, size etc.

Stuart

 

[Stupot1610]

How are the newts and tank doing?

 

[Chinadog]

How are the newts and tank doing?

They are doing really well, the only issue has been the male to female ratio. Out of the eight newts that I kept in the end only one was male, but having searched around the archives it seems like its normal for apuanus like these.
They aren't even a year old yet, but the males have crests and the biggest female has been laying eggs on and off for a few weeks now, I don't have room to hatch any at the moment, but once my smallest T. verrucosus re-joins his siblings I will have a spare tank so hopefully the females will still be laying then.
I'll post some up to date pics of them soon.

 

[Stupot1610]

They are doing really well, the only issue has been the male to female ratio. Out of the eight newts that I kept in the end only one was male, but having searched around the archives it seems like its normal for apuanus like these.
They aren't even a year old yet, but the males have crests and the biggest female has been laying eggs on and off for a few weeks now, I don't have room to hatch any at the moment, but once my smallest T. verrucosus re-joins his siblings I will have a spare tank so hopefully the females will still be laying then.
I'll post some up to date pics of them soon.

That's great. Are they fully grown now?
I've got myself a few eggs now so I'm hoping they'll be nice and bright next year. I've also got five I.a.inexpectatus juveniles which are supposed to look just like apuanus, but most stay neotenic, I'll be interested to see how they turn out in comparison.