Noto coursthip

[slowfoot]

Courtship has started again, and my male newt has become Mr. Jerk.



He knows he looks good! Check out those weird blue spots on his back - you can barely see them in this picture, but they're a lot brighter in real life. The poor females can't even enjoy breakfast anymore without Mr. Jerk swooping in to try to grab one of them. A near miss:



Got her!





Poor girl still has a worm hanging out of her mouth

And I just liked this shot of one of the females laying an egg:

 

[Azhael]

Great photos! He is a looker indeed, the blue spots are beautiful.
Very nice newts, congratulations I´ve been trying to get my hands on some Notos...it´s proving harder than i thought though xD

 

[antcatcher11]

every cool! I love notos, I am still looking for adults near me... no luck so far.

 

[bobberly1]

Ha, there was a nice pair a few miles from you but I snagged it. When are you going to give in and start going to the Boston Aquarium Society meetings?

 

[Denikar]

Very nice photos! I really like your tank setup also.

 

[bobberly1]

My male tried for it today, but the female's too skinny. Need to fatten her up!

 

[slowfoot]

A drop in temperature is probably very important in getting these guys to breed in the wild, however, in my experience with these three newts, dropping temperatures are not sufficient to promote breeding. And a huge drop is not necessary. Based on 17 years of observation: lots of feeding (fat newts) + dense vegetation + slight drop in temperature = breeding. Take away the plants, and they won't breed even if the temperature drops.

I've basically kept them at room temperature for the entire time I've had them, so they get a natural drop in the fall and winter. However, even tiny changes seem to be enough to trigger them to breed provided their tank is heavily planted, and they've been eating well. In the years that I've kept them without plants, they did not breed even with lots of food and a good drop in temps. And it's not just that the females have nowhere to lay eggs: the male didn't show any courtship behavior at all during those years.

 

[slowfoot]

I took a couple of bad videos of my male newt's bad behavior Here's the forbidden dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cirZO0gLJuY

And here he is stalking a poor innocent lady. This one should probably have the 'Jaws' theme playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnEVjFv5EOY

 

[Azhael]

Brilliant!!! xDDD
The little dance is very funny.
I had never seen this behaviour, and i must say i´m fascinated. The dance was interesting, but the way the male stalks the female and suddenly jumps over her to try and grab her was very unexpected.
I should be receiving a group of Notophthlamus this week, i can´t wait to discover the unusual and different behaviour of this species.

By the way, i wouldn´t mind a couple of extra videos

 

[slowfoot]

I'll try to get a couple more

The grabbing is pretty funny, but I feel a little bad for the poor females. They have to hide up near the top of the tank to stay out of his way. The male waits until the females come down to eat, then he pounces!

I end up having to take him out of the tank every few days to give the females a chance to eat and lay eggs without the stalking. And I think it's good for the male too: he won't eat if he's got hot ladies around distracting him

 

[Otterwoman]

I love that dance! I can't decide if it's a belly dance or a hula dance.

 

[Nathan050793]

Those videos were fantastic, I'm with Rodrigo in wanting to see more! When you only have a single adult you don't get to witness neat behavior like that!

 

[slowfoot]

Okay, here's more

So after the dancing and the attempted grabbing, my male newt sometimes gets lucky and nabs a girl. He then proceeds to rub her face with his chin and fan her with his tail. He also rubs his cloaca on her back. It's a little hard for me to watch because it goes on for so long (6+ hours, sometimes) and I feel bad for the little female with her bugging out eyes.

At the end, he starts whipping her around and fanning more vigorously. Here's a video of it. It's a little long and it looks violent, but she's fine really:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gse3T4nfNvs

Finally, he steps off really carefully and (while undulating sexily) deposits a spermatophore. The female is normally supposed to pick it up, but unfortunately she took off as soon as he let go. So I only got him going solo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy9sE0SE6Tw

You can see his cloaca is protruding quite a bit. I should have kept filming because a few seconds later he actually set down the spermatophore, then turned around and ate it. Classy.

 

[newtons13]

Hee hee. When it comes to newt mating...I'm glad I'm human! LOL!

Imagine, all of mine are boys! Talk about a struggle. :lol:

 

[Azhael]

Thank you!! It amazes me ....6 hours!!!! it´s hard to believe for me, i´m used to european newts....annoying yes(if you are a female), but not for 6 hours xDDDD
It´s fascinating to see the differences.
I wonder if the amplexus in this species is a way of showing strength, and it takes so long because the females will only mate with those males able to go on for hours....

 

[Axel01]

New movie in the making 'Dances like Newts'.

I'm curious about the blue spots I've never read any reports about spotting in courting males. I wonder if they are uniquely visible to the females?

Although this implies a level of subtlety the males don't show.

 

[slowfoot]

New movie in the making 'Dances like Newts'.

I'm curious about the blue spots I've never read any reports about spotting in courting males. I wonder if they are uniquely visible to the females?

Although this implies a level of subtlety the males don't show.

They're a strange color - almost iridescent. And, yeah, he's not subtle. In fact, he's on time-out right now (in a separate tank) to give the females a chance to eat and lay in peace. Here's a slightly blurry shot of his nuptial pads, in case anyone was interested.



They go all the way up the insides of his thighs and along the bottoms of his feet. My husband calls them 'no-slip' pads

 

[Greewok]

Oh man, those videos are awesome! That dance was great :wacko:

 

[slowfoot]

Thanks!

Here's a pretty dumb video - I was trying to get some film of the newts eating, but male newt had to butt in and ruin everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO5SY3HlcSo

Also, if you look closely you can see his wimpy left hand. He lost that arm about four years ago and the hand never grew back quite right.

 

[Azhael]

xDDDDDDDD
That crazy look in it´s face staring at the camera was mental xD
I´m starting to find this species one of my very favourites.