Care of Icthyosaura alpestris apuanus.

[Chinadog]

My beautiful Alpine newt larvae that I received as eggs from Julia (bellabelloo) earlier this year are starting to morph and I was wondering if I should leave them in the water, or put them in more terrestrial set up until thy're a bit older? Ideally I'd like them to stay aquatic, but I worry they might drown. Their tank is full of plants and they can rest on the water lettuce if they want, but I've done some searching in the archives, but can't find a definitive answer.
Cheers in advance for any help.

 

[otolith]

My apuanas always end up staying aquatic after morphing. They will climb the sides of the tank but inevitably return to the water to feed. I find that they are more prone to climbing out of the water if the temperatures creep up or if the density of larvae is high, but even then its only the odd morph here and there. I have only had one morph drown out of three years of breeding, but it is possible. It sounds like your enclosure is perfect, I'd leave them there.

I have found that some will become timid feeders for a week or two after morphing. I've had good luck feeding frozen bloodworms when this happens until they are bold enough for blackworms again I wish you continued luck!

 

[Chinadog]

Thanks Perry, I'll leave them where they are then. They are much less bold than they were as larvae, They were little monsters compared to the Cynops larvae I'm used to! Their tank is smaller than I'd like at the moment, but I have a bigger one on order for them, so feeding time will soon be a bit less frantic, hopefully...

 

[dean james]

One thing I'd do Chinadog, is to make sure they can't climb out of the tank fullstop, they are very good at escaping, I kept mine in their water until they decided to leave of their own accord, by floating a piece of cork bark in the tank. They are now kept in a large tub with a top with a hole cut into it, they have water land area they morphed last autumn, and are doing well on mass all 20+ of them. I fed them mainly on frozen blood worm, and sweepings from our water butts, including mozzie larva. They now take cut up small earth worms an d 2nd instar crickets.
Hope this helps.

 

[Ian T]

I'n in exactly the same situation and have a small group in the process of morphing. The first to morph was a particularly large larva and seemed determined to leave the water and indeed the tank. I put it by itself in a tub with 2" of water and loads of plants and after a lengthy battle of wills it eventually began to live aquatically. I was advised to keep it this way until it was eating well and did this. It's now been returned to the main tank and is doing great. The next one to morph didn't even seem to bother leaving the water at all...

 

[Chinadog]

Almost all mine have morphed now, they seem happy to be aquatic although I haven't seen any of them eat since they changed yet.

 

[Ian T]

One of my larvae keeps lying on it's back, belly up and motionless, it seems weaker than the others and I guess is a "spinner"...? I'm amazed it's made it this far as it is fairly close to morphing.

 

[Chinadog]

I thought I might lose some of mine when they morphed, they all made it through with no problems though. It took them a while to start feeding again afterwards, but they're back to swallowing anything that smells remotely edible again now.

 

[KevinMarshall]

Live blood worm and more live bloodworm + daphnia from the water butt and anything else that was swimming in there. I kept mine in a tank in the porch (un-heated) through the winter and they stayed active and feeding through out.

 

[Chinadog]

Mine were kept in the water butt/daphnia colony from being eggs until the first ones were ready to morph. Since then they have been eating chopped worms, defrosted brine shrimp and black mosquito larvae. By the time I brought them inside they'd pretty much wiped out anything that moved in the water butt!