Alpine newt breeding journal

[Stupot1610]

I have a group of 6.4 Ichthyosaura Alpestris Alpestris and I have made a thread on reptile forums as well as here to record my breeding progress but I will make more often and detailed posts her because it is a specialist forum. The Alpine Newts are currently hibernating and have been for 31 days since the 28th of September, they will all be brought inside in January or February. I'm going to raise about 25 eggs from each female and the growth and development of the larvae will be documented here. I have attached some (loads of!) photos to show some of the adults.























Stuart

 

[xxianxx]

How cold are they ?

 

[Stupot1610]

They are roughly 4-6'c just now.

Stuart

 

[Chinadog]

Their bellies are nice and orange, what foods did you raise them on? I hope my tiddlers turn out like that, Although mine are apuanus, not alpestris.

 

[Stupot1610]

They are actually captive bred by me. They were captive bred by me, the pond (escape-proof) I raised them in was teaming with daphnia, so this probably played a part

Stuart

 

[Otterwoman]

Those are some beautiful animals and some great shots. Please keep our annual photo /calendar contest in mind. It should be coming up soon.

 

[Stupot1610]

Thanks! I have a lot of photos of them. I was wondering about the calendar competition because it normally starts in about August and I was wanting to enter it. I'll see if I've got more photos I can add.

 

[Stupot1610]

Their bellies are nice and orange, what foods did you raise them on? I hope my tiddlers turn out like that, Although mine are apuanus, not alpestris.

I forgot to add in my previous post, I think that apuanus have a tendency to be more yellow. I can send you some eggs from my lot in the spring if you would like, I won't be offended if you don't want some though! Haha

Stuart

 

[Stupot1610]

I think these are all the other photos I have of them.

 

[caleb]

They are actually wild caught by me.
Stuart

So are these from the Edinburgh introductions, then?

And is it really only 4-6C in Fife right now? I'm in NE England, and I don't think my unheated room has dropped below 12C yet.

 

[Stupot1610]

They are originally from France. I am heading through to edinburgh in the not so distant future to survey the habitat, then in the spring I plan to collect a small group of them. The newys are being kept in the garage to hibernate, the garage is always less than half the outside temperature. At the moment outside its roughly 16/17'c. It's reasonably mild at the moment.

Stuart

 

[Azhael]

You mean you collected them in France?

 

[Stupot1610]

I meant that they are originally from France, hence them being I.a.alpestris. They were taken from my garden pond, these adults were the entire population. There were no larvae or juveniles just these adults. I felt I should do the right thing and take them in so they would not affect the native species in my pond.

Stuart

 

[Stupot1610]

I have made a new thread for this, so please feel free to look and comment on that one. The reason I made a new one is because I felt I had made this one a bit cluttered by not adding all the info I should have in the first post.

Stuart