baby newt

[amelthia]

I've had my male CFB (he appears to be so anyways) for 3-4 years and just a few months ago (2 or 3) I decided to get another one to put with him. I didn't really care what the sex of the tankmate was so I never really thought about it and later took a look at it and decided I thought it was a male too. About a month ago while I was cleaning the tank the new newt made an escape and I never found it. I was doing some tank construction at the time...they were on bare glass with a few patches of gravel, some larger stones and some plants, the remaining newt is now in the same tank but with solid gravel cover, more plants, and some driftwood. I went to feed him today and to my surprise I see what appears to be a baby newt swimming around. My male newt eats anything that moves, I had to pull him off of his tankmate a couple times due to excitement during feeding time, so I don't know how this baby managed not to get eaten. I can't believe what this little newt made it through. It was not fed properly, had its environment completely changed around and probably barely avoided being eaten by its dad more than once.
Can anyone tell me about how old it is by looking at it, it has all 4 of its feet although its missing a foot. Its very lively.
Kim

 

[ButtercupSaiyan]

So cute!

Looks like you must have had some small pondlife in your tank for him to thrive on, possibly from living aquatic plants, or do you use any small, live feeders? Mother Nature does her best to ensure they live in the wild, too, just usually not in such close conditions with their cannibalistic parents ...

How big is your tank? Are there so many nooks and crannies that you wouldn't know where to START to find one? If so, it may have simply squirreled itself away in a "hide" that the larger newts would never try to squeeze through ...

 

[amelthia]

Its a 10 gal and up until recently I just had a few plants, some scattered gravel on the bottom (not enough to cover the entire bottom) and thats it. Now however I have a large piece of driftwood and I just bought 2 more plants and enough gravel to barely cover the bottom. I never saw any behavior between my newts that would indicate...making babies, they never even hung out together, and I never saw any eggs, other larvae, anything. I'm wondering if he was hidden away in the plants I just got...? He seems to like bloodworms..he eats some every time I feed him.
Kim

 

[amelthia]

oh and all of my plants are live

 

[jewett]

It could be that your new newt was already gravid and ready to lay eggs before she ever came into captivity - that would explain the larvae but no noticeable courtship behavior from the adults. I recently traded with another member for a female Cynops orientalis, and when I got her she began laying eggs within the week. Or maybe you just have very private newts and they kept their little affair very much under wraps!
Anyway, good luck with the little larvae. I would guess its about 3-4 weeks old but am by no means an expert. Your tank must have a healthy population of micro food items, as most well established tanks (especially those with live plants) will have very tiny organisms that most keepers do not notice. If you want to raise the little guy you can read about rearing larvae here: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml
Good luck!

 

[amelthia]

Thanks for the reply..I will check out the website.
Last night I noticed my male newt chasing a little twitching thing..it was baby number 2. It looked as though it had a little bite taken out of its back end. By the time I got it out of the water it had stopped twitching and was just floating on its side but it came right back to life and ate some bloodworms as soon as I put it safely alone in a new container. It has eaten 2 more times since then and seems to be perfectly fine, it hasn't floated on his side since last night and actually swims around really well when spooked. They are both doing really well (as of now) and eating every time I feed them.