Laotriton laoensis

[Opacum]

That's great, Dawn. I'm sure many here are waiting with baited breath. Best of success with them.

 

[Otterwoman]

Here's some pics.

 

[Opacum]

MAJORLY impressive beasties! Love 'em! Thanks for the pics! Too cool!

 

[walte230]

These appear to be in tremendously good condition. Keep it up : )

 

[Caudata breeder]

I was reading in the beginning of this post (way back in 2011...) that laoensis are difficult to keep and breed? I have to reply and say that I have found them to be very easy going, low maintenance, hardy, beautiful and easy to keep and breed.

I have 10 of them acquired from FrogOeyes in 2011, and although I had never heard of them before, it was easy to do some research to reproduce their environment. They have bred and layed eggs every year, and this year they are in full breeding colors and mating again. I expect eggs within the next few weeks.

The one difficulty I have had with them was in raising the larvae. Both years that I have hatched larvae, I have reared them to aproximately 1 inch before deadly fuungal infections that quickly spread and killed the whole lot. This year I have 1 sole surviving larvae that is 1.5 inches, no sign of wanting to metamorphose yet.

I am hoping that this next batch will do better as I want not only to increase my stock, but also provide captive born animals for sale.

Overall, my experience with these newts has been fantastic. I would rate them as a beginner to intermediate level newt keeper and they will do well with a slow current, lots of filtration, and a cool location such as a basement.

They are voracious eaters, non-agressive, and very active.

Best year round water temperature: 18^C
Cycle for breeding for 6-8 weeks: 10-14^C (I have them in a bedroom in the basement and I just crack the window open a bit)
They start showing breeding displays in December(ish)
Eggs are layed in January
Eggs take 6-8 weeks to hatch. Best to place them in a separate secure container that can circulate water and keep it in with the adult tank. This seems to prevent fungus growth.
Larvae will feed after 1 week of hatching on baby brine shrimp, later they will also take daphnia.

This is as far as I can tell you. Next year I will try and raise the larvae in the same tank as the adults in a separate container, as this seems to work for the eggs in terms of fungal infections. In both cases that I lost the young to fungal infections was several months after removing them from the adult tank.

Will keep you posted if I succeed next year.

 

[paul_b]

AW: Laotriton laoensis

Hello,
that is what I said - no problem in keeping (I did not lose one juvenile or adult in 8 years), but difficult in rising the larvae up to metamorphosis!
Look here:
AG Urodela
But I keep them at higher temperatures.
Paul

 

[Henry Janssen]

I bred Laotriton laoensis for the first time in the winter of 2006. In total 213 larvae hatched. I fed them with live Daphnia taken from different locations in my area and once with some I bought in a tropical fish shop. Each time with the same result : some of the larvae got infected with fungus and died. Typically the first outbreaks were visible on the gills, the digits of fore- and hind- limbs, on the tail fringes and around the mouth and the cloaca. In the end, in spite of frequent water changes only 4 made it trough metamotphosis. All others died from fungal infection at some stage in their development.

I had noticed that any dead Daphnia were covered in a cloud of fungus threads only hours after their death. I suspected the Daphnia to be the carrier of the fungus spores. Cultures of swaps taken from infected larvae were identified as an undiscribed Saprolegnia sp. at Ghent University.

The following year I again fed one group of larvae with Daphnia. All these died from fungal infection. For another group I avoided any direct or indirect contact with Daphnia and fed those with small red mosquito – larvae instead. In that group not one single Laotriton – larva got infected with Saprolegnia. Instead they grew well and metamorposed without any problem. These tests confirmed my idea that the Daphnia I captured locally were the carriers of the fungal infection that killed the Laotriton – larvae. I have not used them as food since.

I have no means of knowing wether Daphnia elswhere are carriers of fungal infections or not. But when your newt-larvae are dying from such a fungal infection while you are feeding them on Daphnia, a change of diet, without Daphnia, might be helpfull.

 

[Niels D]

I've used your method with blood worms and it worked well for me. I know for a fact that when I feed my T.verrucosus offspring Daphnia I will loose them all, but there are other keepers which can use Daphnia as food item without any problem. Perhaps it's due to the location where the Daphnia is gathered and which species you're feeding your larvae.

I don't feed Daphnia anymore. Instead I've got a good source of Diopsis and ostracods. For some reason there are no Daphnia to be found where I gather these crustaceans. After larvae get bigger I use tubifex and white worms from my own culture.

 

[NathanKS]

my hatchlings feed great on brine shrimp, black/blood worms, and CB mosquito larvae

 

[velasco13000]

At what temps did you keep them paul? I have a juvenile...he eats but not as much as I would like..the temp is like 70 F...

 

[NathanKS]

At what temps did you keep them paul? I have a juvenile...he eats but not as much as I would like..the temp is like 70 F...

im not paul, but will still butt in.

is it like 70 or 70?
as everyone in this thread has lamented the care of hatchlings to juvenile laotriton is a challenge mostly because of their care requirements.

In my experience a temperature over 72 (22c) degrees for a prolonged period of time can lead to greatly stressed animals that refuse food or eat poorly. The temperature of the room i keep my newts is never allowed to go above 70 and ranges from 66-70 throughout the day (thermostat set with 2 degrees variance at 68)

 

[velasco13000]

When i said paul..I was asking paul up on the thread because he mentioned that he kept his at higher temperatures..I have two rooms...a newt room which is around 45-50 degrees..and my room which is like 70 degrees.I have a little temp gauge on the laos tub and its at 70 degrees exactly..I feed him blackworms on a wet paper towel and he eats like every other day or every two days..thats probably normal though just that I haven't seen like a huge growth spurt like in the rest of the newts I have. Thats why I was trying to see if temp was a factor but I know he cant be any warmer than that.

 

[NathanKS]

Ive played around with my temps a bit and wasnt able to see a difference in growth spurt. I might be wrong but this species is rather slow growing IMO.

 

[NathanKS]

female on the right looks rather plump

 

[velasco13000]

Anybody in the us still have adults?? I havnt heard of many people keeping adults.

 

[Yahilles]

Laotriton are the newts which mostly resemble a FASHION amongst newtkeepers. And this fashion seems to be decreasing.

 

[michael]

I still have adults. I haven't collected eggs for a couple years but will give it a go again. It looks like their was only one import of these to the U.S. My guess is you won't see any more w.c. come in.

 

[velasco13000]

It's such a shame. These are a beautiful species. You guys should be breeding them every year. I know it's a bit harder seeing as they take years to mature. Like 5 or 6 years I hear. We have made such great progress with kaisers and strauchii and now that Jen is breeding crocatus. Laos is still one of my fav and it's great that none are being taken out of the wild. We just need to work with what we got. I am getting a nice size group of them. But they are not cheap. My intentions are to breed them and make them available to everybody. How big is the group?

 

[NathanKS]

I still have adults. I haven't collected eggs for a couple years but will give it a go again. It looks like their was only one import of these to the U.S. My guess is you won't see any more w.c. come in.

Yep, my former boss(steves) would agree with you that there was the single shipment of ~100 animals

 

[Roygbiv]

Hello every one, I am new to the group and just wanted to say hello. I enjoyed the read and would love a bit more discussion. Is any one out there still breeding or working with them?