Looking for breeding advice

[Kribby]

I admit that I have read the articles on raising baby newts and my roommate and I are in the process of discussing whether or not we have the space and resources to raise a batch of babies.

We were rather surprised that our chinese firebelly newts decided to breed given that we didn't do anything to really condition them for it. In fact, most of what I had read lead me to believe that breeding was not that common in captivity. Either way I have a number of eggs in the tank and some tadpoles swimming around now.

I am looking to inquire, with some experienced people, what the long term logistics of this endevour would be. I currently have 8 fish aquariums and I do have space to setup a 40 gallon breeder for the youngsters, but I am wondering what I am looking at in terms of feeding cost, and the most successful methods for rearing the little ones. I have read a few methodologies for setups, but I find it is always useful to hear first hand experiences and advice.

 

[evut]

I would say the financial cost doesn't have to be high but depending on method, it can be time consuming.

I recently raised Cynops pyrrhogaster, using little shallow tubs (tupperware type), with daily water changes and feeding artemia (baby brine shrimp). The water changes and culturing-harvesting artemia have to be done daily. What you need for this method is tubs, brine shrimp cysts (cheapest on ebay, usually) and an air pump. As I said, this is quite time consuming and limits your ability to go anywhere for more than a few days.

Another way of doing this is letting the larvae "raise" themselves on micro-fauna present in a cycled tank, like ostracods (if you have stuff like that living in your tanks). This might not be sufficient so you might have to feed them. This could be easier with food items that can stay alive in the tank. You would probably have to offer them a shallow set-up when they're close to metamorphosis.

Regarding metamorphs, I had success with them in larger, ventilated tubs on wet paper towels, feeding mainly chopped earthworms. Again, this required daily feeding and changing the towels every couple of days and keeping them wet. If you had them in some sort of naturalistic environment with live prey food present, it would need a lot less maintenance.

 

[Kribby]

Thank you for the reply.

I think I will go through with this and give raising the newts a shot. I do have time to do water changes and I already raise baby brine shrimp for some of my other fish. I am sure I can just toss a bit extra on the side for some baby newts. I think I have a bit of time between now and metamorphasis, so hopefully I am able to get some reading done and prepare for that. When the time comes I do have a 40 gallon breeder tank that I can setup for them.

This should definitely be an experience, that is for sure. Thank you for the advice