Fire bellies - a dregree of sucess

[Kribby]

Earlier this summer our adult colony of skellies graced us with about 120 eggs, of whcih about 110 hatched. The small little larva were too cute to pass up and we started on the long road to raising our first batch of baby newts. I will admit that it was challenging, though the information on this site helped (even if it wasn't always 100% clear to a beginner in raising amphibians).

Now we are just waiting on the last ones to complete metamorphasis and we will be set. We have decided to raise the newts on bloodworms and vitamines (since that is what is available locally). They seem to be doing well and we now have about 80 efts (40 of which are currently eating frozen foods).

I just wanted to share my little project

 

[Molch]

congratulation! They look fat, happy and lovely and you did a fine job. Are these pyrrhogaster or orientalis?

 

[Joost]

Very nice! You've done a great job. Keep up the good work. Succes with raising the morphs.

 

[Niels D]

That's a lot of little efts. Good luck and well done!

 

[Tudor]

Wow!
Nice job
They are C. orientalis of course

 

[Kribby]

Tudor is of course correct. They are orientalis.

It is actually a bit amusing to my partner and I since we got a bit better at raising them as the process went on. So some of the newest morphs are almost half again the size of the first ones to morph. It just goes to show what ample amounts of food can do for them lol!

I am currently working on separating them by size and who is eating. That way I can keep track of them and make sure they are all getting enough food. I have no idea what I am going to do with 80+ newts though once they are larger. I wasn't about to just let them die off, but I don't think I have nearly enough tanks for them all! I was sort of expecting at least some of them to die off naturally, but so far the only death was my fault (accidently squished one under a rock when I was cleaning the dish).

I suppose I will have to invest in some larger enclosures for the little guys down the road. I think I may become "the crazy newt lady" eventually if this continues!

 

[froggy]

They look great - fantastic job. Do you just offer frozen food on the paper towels?

C

 

[Kribby]

They look great - fantastic job. Do you just offer frozen food on the paper towels?

C

Actually C, I am a bit picky about feeding them and making sure they each get enough to eat as well as minimizing cleanup and waste in the containers. As you can see there are quite a few newts per storage device so I feel this is important for their health. What I do is offer the worms to each of them in turn on the end of a toothpick, as much as they will each, two times a day.

They've actually learned this routine so well that when I remove the lids they all turn their noses up towards me and start opening and closing their mouths, begging for food. Some of them have even learned to make this odd little rasping noise. It is kind of cute.

I also tempt the ones that have not started to accept food once a day in the same manner. When a new one takes a bite I separate him out and put him with the ones that are eating.

All in all it takes about 45 minutes of my time each day and is quite relaxing.