N. viridescens egg-laying

[peter]

Two weeks ago or so, I got three n. viridescens louisianensis adults from a pond near my house. They've been doing great so far, but when I found them, the males amplexused the female quite a bit. I never saw a spermatophore dropped, and was wondering if there's any way to tell if she's been fertilized. They've left her alone since then. Also, how long after fertilization do they lay their eggs? I've got two large plastic plants with four live ones in a 30 gallon tank, about 8 inches full of water. I've only been able to find one female so far, and only kept 2 of the males. I'm pretty sure she's gravid, she looks fairly fat. Any information would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[jennifer]

You never know. It's possible that she won't lay eggs, but also quite possible she will. Keep a VERY close eye on the live plants. Look for any tiny leaflets that are folded over. They lay the eggs individually, each wrapped (and virtually invisible) in a bit of plant leaf.

 

[roger]

I adopted four n. viridescens from a glorified drainage ditch around mid- April. My quad consists of two males and two females. Tonight I had to pull most of the plants out of their tank because I found several eggs. Just as Jennifer says, they were individually laid inside of folded leaves on my live plants and barely visible. Just keep looking for folded leaves! On mine I could just see the egg through the leaf as a light spot.

 

[ralf]

Congrats Roger,
good luck with raising them.

 

[peter]

Well, we haven't found any eggs yet, but my dad told me he saw two of them in amplexus, so hopefully it'll work out. Kinda hope they'll hold off until this weekend, so I'll be able to see the whole process since I'll be done with college for the summer, but it'll be fun just to raise a couple hundred eggs up to eft.

 

[peter]

Well, my newts are finally laying eggs. I got two more females and another male, bringing the total up to three of each gender, and at least one found a suitable partner. I've noticed about four or five eggs by now, over the last 24 hours. I made up two things of egg-laying strips, and no luck there, so I guess I'm stuck with getting them off of the live and plastic plants I've got in there. I'm curious as to whether anyone has a technique that works well for removing the eggs, or if I'm just going to have to cut the leaves off the live plants and remove the plastic ones. Also, how much plant material will they need; I'm going to have to get more suitable plants for them to lay in if they don't use the bag strips.

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone that's helped me at this site; I've always been into amphibians and I've raised various frogs and salamanders before, but it's a lot easier and more efficient with your help, and I'm really learning about the species. N. viridescens is my favorite herp species, and aside from a terrestrial adult a few years back, these are the first ones I've ever found and it's been a fulfillment of a childhood dream; successfully breeding them is even more of a positive note.

I heard that the louisianensis sub-species isn't kept by many people apparently. If anyone wants any, I'll be putting up an ad in the for sale forum once I see how many eggs are coming in, for free, plus shipping.

 

[jennifer]

Peter - congratulations on the eggs. I've also found that Notophthalmus don't like the plastic strips much. They might use them once in a while, but they'll go for real plants more often.

You just have to cut away enough plant to get the egg itself without damage. If you plan to keep the larvae (not ship them to someone), you could just let the eggs hatch in the parental tank, then fish out the larvae later. You may loose a few this way, but if you have plenty, it would save your plants. Notos are rarely fast enough to catch and eat their own larvae. And the tank probably has microorganisms that the larvae could eat for the first weeks of life.