I think my Newts are trying to breed....

[mummyhamster]

Hi all,

I have a question about my Italian Alpine Newts. They were captive bred last year. I was worried about the temperature in their tank towards the end of last year. The tank is in my living room, and we have a log burner, therefore it is very difficult to control the temperature in the living room, and obviously I was concerned about the tanks from getting too hot.
I decided to move them into a smaller tank which was in an unheated the room, and the temperature was quite low, sometimes I saw it at 9.c and other times it was higher at 12.c. I did a test in the living room, and to my suprise found that the tempertaure in their tank didn't exceed 20.c despite a roaring fire (the tank cooled significantly overnight as the fire went out). I have now decided to move the Newts back into their original tank.

They have been in their tank for about a week now, and I have noticed that the males (2 of them) are trying to court with the females (6 of them). I haven't intended to breed them, but if they do, I will obviously do my best to rear them up.
Does anybody know how big the eggs are, and an easy way to spot them.

Also, are they actually old enough to breed? I have read that the females are bigger than the males, but this is most certainly not the case with my Newts at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks.

Veronica. :frog:

 

[morg]

Im sure you will already of read this care sheet?,
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Triturus/T_alpestris.shtml
some good info on there.
Your males may be ready this year but the females might not yet be mature especialy as you say that the females are not larger than the males yet.
Keep an eye on them if you can to see if the females pick up any deposited spermataphore, then make sure you have some ;live plants [elodea prefered] in the tank.
If they do breed,you will see the females holding onto and folding leaves of elodea when depositing eggs[see pics on care sheet].
If you miss this just keep an eye out for any bent over leaves containing the eggs,
pics here
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml
For the record , I have had this species of newt breeding just a year after hatching from eggs before if well fed etc

 

[mummyhamster]

Hi Morg,

Thank you for replying. Yes I have read that care sheet, many times in fact!

I watched a male 'deposit' what I assume was spermataphore. It was just laying on the bottome of the tank, and then got caught on a tail of one of the females. She then hid, so not quite sure if anything happened?! There are live plants, but I'll have to get some of the plant you mentioned.

I hadn't seen the second care sheet you linked on, will have a good read of that, so thank you.

I think you are probably right, the males are ready, but the females are not, they are smaller than the males.

One other question. Do they grow regardless, or do they only grow in turn with how much food they eat. I hope that makes sense. In other words, could I be under feeding?

V'.

 

[morg]

If the males have reached sexual maturity in this short a time, then you are definately feeding them enough, I think its just a matter of your females taking a bit longer than the males to mature

 

[Clive]

What size are your male alpine newts ?. or doe's any one know the minimum size for breeding