H. Orientalis Morphing pics and questions

[theadmira1]

My 7 adult H. Orientalis laid around 20 eggs back in Feb. and as of today I count 16 left Most are beginning to morph. I have 4 so far that have come out of the water completely.

This is my first time with the little guys so I wanted to post my current setup for morphing, and ask if you guys think itll be sufficient.

I used sealed styrofoam and stones to fill the left side of my 40gallon long tank. I then filled it with a sand, flourite, small river stone mix, and finally covered it in some moss and riccia. Finally I filled a small 1.5-2 gallon area with water and a sand bed. I brought in a colony of live blackworms on a moss ball for food, and covered the top in Frogbit.

My biggest question is what should I be feeding these guys once they go on land? They love the backworms, and I give the Daphnia on the weekends, but I cant get the terrestrial guys to go under for food.

What kind of terrestrial plants should I add? Or should I add terrestrial plants at all? There is currently an aloe vera plant in there, but thats simply a holding place until the morning when I am moving it to a proper planter.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! TIA!

 

[Mark]

The set-up looks fine for morphing orientalis although you should keep an eye on water quality with such a deep substrate for the land section. Dirt tends to get trapped in thick substrate layers and lead to some pretty undesirable conditions. I wouldn't worry too much about plants but the newts will appreciate some dark cover where they can feel safe and secure.

Newly morphed orientalis are normally quite hydrophobic so you may want to even consider moving them to a 100% terrestrial set-up with a a small water dish. Suitable prey items include small woodlice, slugs, spring tails, small mealworms, maggots, lesser waxworms, frozen bloodworm offered on the end of a toothpick, chopped small earth worms and cultured fruit flies.

Good luck with them!

 

[kwarzym]

What kind of moss is that in your last picture, the picture with all of the greenery and the newt in the middle? I thought at first it was java moss, but it looks like it has...stems or something. Is it growing on land?

 

[Wildebeestking]

The newts look great. As for terrestrial plants I'm rather found of Devil's Ivy. It provides nice broad leaves to hide under and spreads quickly. Love the design of your tank. So simplistic, but quite attractive.

 

[caleb]

What kind of moss is that in your last picture, the picture with all of the greenery and the newt in the middle? I thought at first it was java moss, but it looks like it has...stems or something. Is it growing on land?

That's Riccia. It's a liverwort rather than a moss. The aquarium varieties are usually grown floating in water, but they will grow on wet soil.