2006's Mandarin Newt Juveniles

[newtboyuk]

Some of you may remember this lot from when they were larvae (http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/75454.html?1168382483). They hatched in September 2006 and morphed in November 2006 (http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/75692.html?1168380344)

They're amazingly tame (much better than their parents!), are continously begging for food and will tackle anything including earthworms, slugs and large waxmoth larvae. Theyre now about 9.5cm in length.

Since I haven't posted any pictures of them in a long time, I thought I'd post several!

The photo above shows one of my adult males and one of the 2006 juveniles when they were 18 months old. As you can see they've come a long way from 0.8cm larvae when they hatched!

The last photo above was taken earlier this evening. Normally they come towards the camera expecting food but each of those newts had just had a large waxworm so they were quite content just to sit there!


And finally, pictures of the most recent batch - hatched June 2007.
My major dilemma now is whether or not I should go for a 2008 batch as I now have absolutely no room for any more newts!

 

[louise]

They look great Mark! What were the survival rates from the 2006 batch?

 

[robkeulers]

Please breed!

this is the only way we can stop the horrible imports!

 

[Daniel]

They are really looking good and it is joyful to see them captive breed!

If you don't want to raise larvae yourself you may ask for people willing to raise them from eggs. I agree with Rob that it is important to breed Tylototriton to stop the harvesting of wild animals.

 

[Ralf]

AW: 2006's Mandarin Newt Juveniles

Way to go Mark and thanks a lot for the update! These young newts sure looka good!

 

[gr33neyes]

I love the photo 4th down from the top. That little one looks so pleased with having that worm all to itself lol.

 

[Lasher]

My major dilemma now is whether or not I should go for a 2008 batch as I now have absolutely no room for any more newts

I don't think there'd be any shortage of people here willing to take them off your hands if you did so, myself amongst them.

Gorgeous babies, and great photo's, well done!

 

[liam]

Hi there,

I enjoyed seeing the photographs Mark - thought I'd post a few of my own to compare. I'm afraid they are not of the same quality as yours!

For everyone else, these newts are 11 month old c/b Tylototriton shanjing that I got from Mark back at the start of January, from his 2007 breeding. They've grown considerably since then, on a diet consisting mainly of Whiteworm, supplemented with the occassional Tropical White Woodlouse, and the odd Earthworm. I have 5 of these chaps. 1 in particular is becoming a bit of a monster, and is bigger than the rest. These photos were taken between February 2008 and this past week. The newts are from the same breeding as those in the last photo that Mark posted:


This photo shows one of the youngsters at 8 months old:



At 9 months, eating some whiteworm:



The remaining 4 at 9 months:



Up-to-date photos, at 11 months old:







This one is the largest, and also has some nice orange pigment on it's flanks:



This one is the most tame. When I enter the room it appears from wherever it was hiding and proceeds to press it's nose against the glass until i feed it - hence the "nose prints" in the photo!



Cheers!

Liam.

 

[newtboyuk]

Cheers everyone!

I shall definitely consider breeding them again this summer - even if I don't actually raise any myself.

Louise - The 2006 batch was odd in that the majority of eggs did not hatch. Of the ones that did, I lost 10 or so very early on in a die off in one large plastic tub. I had no problems with the 14 that were left. In 2007 most hatched but I lost a lot early on, partly because I struggled to supply enough live food of a small enough size. I've found in both years once the larvae reach roughly 2cm and no longer dependant on daphnia then there are no problems at all.

Liam - Great pictures - the wee guys are looking fantastic!

 

[Jennewt]

Mark and Liam - great work, and thank you for showing the fruits of your efforts. I hope threads like this will inspire more folks to take newt breeding seriously.

 

[petro]

Hoi,
I,m here for the first time and have larve of Shanjings(few day's)
My englisch is not so goed,but i really want to give a reaktion.
It's good to read en see that more people have t.Shanjing and breading
with them.Great pictures!!!!!I have one of them now as background on my computer.
Petro

 

[alibombali]

Mark, what was your trick (keeping them alive) after morphing.

 

[newtboyuk]

Hi Alex,

There was no trick to be honest! Once the larvae were big enough to eat whiteworm, I've found that nothing tends to go wrong!

When they were larvae they were all "trained" to eat frozen bloodworm as well as live foods - the major advantage being that I could feed them as much as they could eat just by dropping in frozen bloodworm cubes whilst keeping the water temperature quite warm. The result was that they all morphed at around 6cm. From what I gather, the larger the larvae are when they morph, the easier they will be to look after.

When the larvae were close to morphing they were moved to a large plastic tub that was tilted at one end, with lots of moss and bits of wood for cover on the terrestrial side. Once the morphs were out on land, they were moved to the morph setup.

After morphing they become a bit shy and you have to ensure there is plenty of food available under cover and give them lots of hiding places. For convenience and ease of feeding I kept them in a half paper towel, half compost setup for the first few months before moving them to a proper planted vivarium. A moisture gradient is essential - i'd definitely make sure one end is quite damp and have hiding places spread throughout the enclosure. At this time they were fed whiteworm, bloodworm, small crickets and chopped (or small) earthworm

As they get older they become increasingly tame to the point where spraying the tank, or simply standing next to it will make them come out and beg for food.