Marmoratus care?

[coen]

Dear fellow enthusiast,

I'm going to purchase some captive bred marmoratus in a short while (the 19th of november). I have done my research on the caudata culture website and read the caresheet.

However, are there any marmoratus pro's here that care to share their information and maybe some "tricks" they use for the succesful keeping and maybe breeding of these animals? The ones I'm buying are from March '06, maybe someone could share what they feed their little ones? Could it be wise to maybe start culturing my own food? If so, which food is preferred?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ian]

hi coen...i bred quite a few this year...the first food i offered was blood worm from a damp kitchen towel and pin head crickets, later i upped the size of cricket but still fed blood worm. some took pieces of small earth worm but most seemed to prefer the blood worm. if they morphed in march and have been well fed they should be a fair size. i have some that morphed in july that are taking wax worm.i keep mine on damp kitchen roll, so i can see if they are feeding ok, with some cork bark and a shallow water dish. using this method ,out of 125 morphs i only lost 3...ian

 

[ian]

peter...sold all but around 30.

(Message edited by mike on November 06, 2006)

 

[coen]

That's great, thanks for the info

I don't think I can get my hands on some bloodworm here in Holland though, I've never seen it offered here.

What would be a good alternative?

 

[ian]

can't believe you don't have blood worm in holland.the supplier to the shop i get it from imports it from poland

 

[coen]

Believe me; I've searched!

Nothing here. the dutch name is "bloedwormen", but they only offer it in frozen blocks. I do have some of that in the freezer, But I really would love to give it live.

What are other options?

 

[ian]

another option would be tubifex worms can you get hold of them. they would require a good long rinse in clean water as they tend to live in foul conditions...ian

 

[coen]

Do you think it might be possible to feed my juveniles the blocks of bloodworm? Not frozen of course...Just wondering if they'd accept it.

I could get my hand on tubifex every now and then, but you need to keep those under running tap water right?

 

[ian]

any idea of the size the marbleds are going to be ,as i said earlier if they morphed in march they should be a fair size, my earlier morphs from july are now taking wax worm , size one crickets and the odd small earth worm. you could try tweezer feeding with defrosted blood worm ,i didn't because of the large amount of morphs i had it would have taken days.

 

[coen]

one pair is 10 cm, the other are the ones from may this year...

I guess I'm gonna email the guy and ask how big they are and what he feeds them!

Thanks for the advice on food. How often do you guys dust the crickets/waxworms/earth worms with calcium?

 

[ian]

10cm should be eating wax worm, crickets, earth worm, wood lice.if you are feeding a varied diet maybe dust once a week. good luck with them..ian

 

[coen]

Allright thanks for the advice! Any other advice for the care?

 

[coen]

Well, the juvies are in their new home, photos are on the way!

I haven't seen them eat yet, Is this normal? I've offered them small waxworms, pieces of small worms and fruit flies. On the way are pinhead crickets and mosquito larvae.

 

[coen]

Also, one bigger marmoratus juvenile is walking around all the time, while the others seemingly don't. Maybe only at night?

 

[roy]

Bloodworms are "rode muggelarven" (red mosquito larvae) which you can get at any descent LFS.

 

[coen]

I found that out a while ago, thanks Roy. The pet shops (what do you mean with LFS?) here in Zeeland don't have any bloodworms though. I can order a litre via one petshop, meanwhile I'll have to give them the white musquito larvae's as an alternative.

 

[ian]

mine tend to stay hidden through the day and feed at night. now and again i see the odd one going walk about and climb the side of the tank. how were the newts kept prior to you buying them and what were they fed on. i sold around 100 this year and most had trouble feeding them at first mainly due to putting them into a natural set up, i had been keeping them on paper kitchen towels and as soon as they were put back on these they were ok.its a lot easier this way when they are small you can see when the food has been eaten and the best sign is all the small dots of c**p all over.

 

[coen]

They were kept in a pretty big container with some kind of peat as substrate, and a lot of bark and moss stacked on top of each other for hiding spaces.

I've kept them like that at first, but now I've simplified it a bit. Now it's only cocofibre peat as substrate, a shallow dish with water and a wet tissue in it, a piece of moss, piece of wood to hide under, a slice of banana with yeast over it to attract the waxmoth larvaes and fruit flies, and a little ball of peat for a small springtail culture.

I'm planning on keeping them on tissues as substrate...but on the other hand maybe the substrate will strengthen their immune system? What do you guys think?

 

[mark]

I raised mine on a substrate of topsoil with some cork hides. If they are feeding and look healthy I would be inclined to keep them on a soil based substrate (avoid peat based substrates as they can be acidic). Soil will require less cleaning as it is better suited to handling waste than paper towels. Sterilized topsoil from a garden centre is also much cheaper than coco bark. Paper towels will need changing regularly so it depends how much time you have - I've had good results from both.

If you have the patience it's well worth trying to get juvenile T.marmoratus to hand feed, even when very young. Some of mine started tweezer feeding at 3cm. Small chopped earthworms make them grow fast!

 

[ian]

yes soil is better .but i kept mine in small 18 inch tanks so cleaning was easy if pretty regular. i would maybe try a smaller tank so food is easier to find. if you try kitchen towels and you can see they have been feeding at least it will put your mind at rest