My first morph - firebelly newt

[Kribby]

Well, there is alot of excitement around the appartment today. Our firebellies produced some eggs this spring and we decided to try raising them ourselves. We just couldn't say no, which may come back to shoot us in the foot later. Either way, we have been feeding our little newtlets on a diet of brineshrimp and frozen bloodworms. They seemed to prefer these foods above the other ones and it can be a bit difficult to find other foods around here.

We've had the newt fry in a 10 gallon tank with 100% daily water changes and they have been getting rather plump. There are a few smaller ones still, but we still have a good number of larger ones (around 60 or so) that are over an inch long. Today we spotted on perched on the little rock island we had put in the tank for when they morphed. We are going to call him Darwin.

He is now in a little tupperware container with air holes in the top and resting on a damp papertowel. I guess this is the hard part now. Any tips or advice?

 

[vistajpdf]

Congratulations! Darwin's a looker! Reminds me of my "Newty", our first morph a couple of years ago...

Now you need to make sure the substrate doesn't dry out - I just had a problem when I switched from a hooded tank to a screen one for the last of my terrestrials.... You should be fine keeping in moisture in the tupperware, though you will need to think of multiple enclosures as your brood morphs.

Food: springtails and fruit flies (I raised wingless) were the first foods, along with pinhead crickets which were more costly as I never did a hatchery. Eventually, earthworms should be in there.

Don't worry if Darwin doesn't eat for what seems like an eternity. Azhael told me they don't often eat for a week or more, but I don't remember seeing mine eat for a month, which caused me great concern. They probably were eating, but just not in front of me as fruit flies would disappear and they weren't getting out. I use a little calcium powder on the food for enrichment.

A water bowl is optional. Just be sure to change the unbleached paper towels out frequently, keeping them moist with dechlorinated water, obviously. I provided some fake plants as hides in some tanks, others had aquarium decorations, etc. They'll be terrestrial for a long while - a year or so. When they go back to aquatic is the trickier part as they can easily drown, so you have to be careful there, introducing shallow water at first with multiple land areas for them. I do remember being very stressed out when my first few morphed as I really was afraid they were starving to death. Remember, too, that they can go long stretches without food. Darwin looks like he's pretty healthy, so don't be too alarmed if you don't see him readily taking food. The morphing process is stressful on them.

Good luck!
Dana

 

[Kribby]

Good to know. I do have 5 more tupperware enclosures that I have made into temporary enclosures, but we will eventually convert the whole 10 gallon to a little terrestrial setup for them. We will keep in mind that they can drown easily though and hopefully we will be able to set something appropriate up for them.

I don't know anywhere that we can get fruitflies or springtails, but I think I found a website that ships in Canada. Hopefully Darwin will eat by the time they arrive. I think though that we are going to have to look into a larger enclosure for them.

 

[vistajpdf]

What kinds of food can you get? Some people like wax worms to plump them up. I found them difficult to work with as they were large and cutting them up was a big fatty mess leaving me with a bunch of mush, not to mention nausea!

If you have spare tupperwares, you may want to group the newtpoles according to size instead of having them all in the 10 gallon. As the older ones hatch and begin to eat well, they will be considerably larger than those who hatch later. In fact, I think I'd move the newtpoles in groups of about 10 as they hatched, so I always had a tupperware (shoebox-sized) of just eggs, one of newly-hatched, medium-sized, and those I was watching for signs of morphing. The last bunch would need a proper lid just in case one was a climber. I found they just hung out on the turtle dock or land area and were quite still just after morphing, but you'd hate to have one get out and dry out.

I always had several makeshift tanks going and would constantly sort and resort so the smaller ones weren't eaten by the larger ones. I still did water changes almost daily, but not 100%. I'd siphon and dump water on a regular basis, testing water parameters occasionally.

You can also watch more closely for those about to morph (larger, shrinking gills, often times shedding their skin just around the time) and be sure there is adequate land space for them.

Good luck!
Dana