My hongkongensis male is gearing up for this year's breeding...

[Yahilles]

I fed him with woodlice, guppies, white cloud mountain minnows, live bloodworms and waxmoth larvae.
It is impossible to him to be a female - here you have pic of his baby, previous owner bred them, he has got tail sheen and fanned the female and they were kept only in this pair.

"in the time when he was eating better"

Ah, and, what you have asked for, juraj:

 

[Greewok]

Not to derail the thread, but here is a Male and Female I have. One female is gravid, the other is working on it. Male is super aggressive, he will attack the glass if I put my finger up to it.

 

[Kaysie]

Janusz, is it possible that the previous owner did not have them long? The female could be retaining sperm from previous matings (in the wild), and then laid eggs in captivity. Salamandra have been known to retain sperm for years.

 

[juraj]

Hi Janusz.
I dug out some old photos of my female. Compare with your animal.

 

[micstarz]

Those females are subject to my coveting
They look really adorable.

 

[Azhael]

Take into consideration what Kaysie said, sperm retention is a fair possibility. Also tail fanning cannot be taken as a definitive character because females of territorial/agresive species like yours can and will fan their tales.
As for the sheen i can´t see it.
Unless you see true breeding behaviour(not just fanning, but spermatophore deposition too) i´m not sure you can say that´s a male.

 

[Yahilles]

Hi Janusz.
I dug out some old photos of my female. Compare with your animal.

To my female? (sorry, i'm just starting with taking full-animal pictures, not portraits)

(Yes, i keep them with three little Corydoras habrosus)

Now i can't be sure, when you just covered me with arguments, but my friend (who kept them before me for over 2 years) says, that he saw spermatophores and tail sheen in past.

because females of territorial/agresive species like yours can and will fan their tales.

On livingunderworld.org (sorry, but here on CC you don't have any Paramesotriton articles) you can read, that only males of P. hongkongensis are agressive.

 

[louise]

My female hongkongensis are very aggressive, especially when there is food around. I would say that all three of them are more aggressive than the male.

 

[Yahilles]

And none of mine hongkongensis are agressive. So what can i say?

 

[lims]

breeding !

This hongkongensis breeding article is going to be too late!!!

Is it more to do with photoperiods instead of temp? I bred my c. orientalis with just photoperiod changing and water levels.

 

[louise]

Re: breeding !

I don't change photoperiods either.

 

[Jennewt]

(Yes, i keep them with three little Corydoras habrosus)

I assume you know this and choose to accept the risk, but I must mention for newbies: cory catfish can be fatal to newts. There are 3 separate accounts of amphibians being impaled by cories on the Species Mixing page.

Sorry to sidetrack the thread... I am enjoying the discussion. Hongkongs do seem to vary quite a bit in aggressiveness.

Louise, when you say that you don't vary the photoperiod... how do you AVOID varying the photoperiod? Are the newts in a basement?

 

[louise]

They're in my kitchen. Their tank is covered on three sides and lit by an artificial striplight. The light comes on at 6.30am and goes off at 10pm. I have it on a timer.

 

[lims]

i think my newts are either too old or both same sex, they never get white stripes, only had them 2 seasons but they've been well fed and in that established tank un-disturbed for nearly 2 years

 

[Yahilles]

I assume you know this and choose to accept the risk, but I must mention for newbies: cory catfish can be fatal to newts. There are 3 separate accounts of amphibians being impaled by cories on the Species Mixing page.

Mine are just too slow and they can't catch the fish even if they swim directly next to newt's snout.