OMG Eggs!

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dipsydoodle

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Well it appears that one of my female chinese fire bellied newts has been busy laying eggs.

My male is terrestrial; will be still have fertilized the eggs?

I've had to leave them in the tank at the minute as if I take them out there will be no plants left; there are only plastic plants as well; silly newt has effectively glued the leaves together.

How can I tell if they are fertile?

How long will they take to hatch (if they surive until I take them out the tank)? and what do I feed them?
 
im really not too sure, but i remember hearing that the only way to know if the eggs are fertils is to see them develope.

as for the male being terrestrial i would be willing to guess that the newts were recently purchased (less than a year), in which case the female was most likely pregnent when she was purchased.

here is a few links that you should take a look at as they are jam packed with good reliable information.

Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Newts and Salamanders from Eggs
Caudata Culture Articles - Microfoods
Caudata Culture Articles - Why Larvae Die

(another thread on a similiar topic)
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...f47-newt-salamander-help/50839-newt-eggs.html

(pictorial of developing eggs in C. pyrrhogaster)
Caudata Culture Photo Series - Cynops pyrrhogaster development

i hope this helps you out, if not you can continue to search the forum with the handy search function.
 
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Well, it was just over a year ago when I posted the same thing! If I remember correctly, it took about 3 weeks for the eggs to hatch. With the first batch, I didn't do constant water changes, but then learned that I should. I did daily changes most of the time with the larvae. I had a very high success rate - only infertile eggs were at the end of her months of egg-laying...and like yours, she glued leaves together with eggs, laid on live plants, plastic plants, etc.

The eggs begin like a tiny mustard seed inside a gelatinous slightly flattened ball. Soon, the "seed" gets darker, elongates and by the time it's ready to hatch, wriggles around inside the fluid at times. Duds will cease to grow and will get hazy in appearance. I guess they mold after awhile, but I culled them quickly so as to not harm the others.

Get your Daphnia ready. I also used a frozen mixture of Daphnia and similar organisms, some frozen BBS, and then went to white worms and blackworms for the larvae. My first morphs emerged last June.

Good luck,
Dana
 
If the male is terrestrial and has not been aquatic while under your care, then he is not the father. And if the female is not a "recent" purchase, then the eggs will be infertile. I´ve heard conflictive data on sperm storage in caudates, i´m not clear on how long it can actually be storaged.
 
Azhael said:
If the male is terrestrial and has not been aquatic while under your care, then he is not the father. And if the female is not a "recent" purchase, then the eggs will be infertile. I´ve heard conflictive data on sperm storage in caudates, i´m not clear on how long it can actually be storaged.
Click to expand...

Both of my females I've had less than a year; the longest one I've had 8 months; the other one I've had maybe 4 months, maybe a bit less.
 
I think my eggs are fertile. They appear to be changing shape, I'm taking lots of photos to check for changes.

Isaac who I've had since the 6th September 2009 is the one laying eggs it would appear. Got a photo of her sticking the leaves together.

Isaac has been laying eggs on the rock and in the gravel too.

How long do they take to hatch, approximately?
 
Assuming the eggs are fertile, would this be a suitable diet for them?

baby brine shrimp (if I can successfully hatch them), and live daphnia (would I have to grow this myself or would I be able to just buy it live?).

I read on the care sheet when they begin to get to 2cm long I can begin to feed live blood worms.

So for the first few weeks, BBS and daphnia and when they get a bit bigger, blood worms?
 
Yes, BBS and Daphnia are great for larvae. I never went to bloodworms, but to live blackworms and white worms which worked very well for us. My adults were on the same diet though sometimes ate frozen and thawed bloodworms.

Dana
 
I dont know where to get hold of blackworms or white worms within the UK - I'm sure I'll find something if I look. I just wanted to see what was good first.


Also, somewhere on this site, there is an article that shows the newt eggs and how they change over time, but for the life of me I can't find it again, does any one know where it is? (I don't think it's on the care sheet listing)
 
I agree, both BBS and Daphnia are excellent options. Daphnia is extremely easy to culture even indoors, so i strongly recommend that you do, however i think you can buy them live in the UK too.
Blackworms are not common in europe, but we have a more common substitute, Tubifex, which you might be able to find for sale.

It usually takes around 20-22 days for the eggs to ahtch at an average temp of 20ºC. I´m very happy to hear they might be fertile, but how? There absolutely must be an aquatic male for that to happen, otherwise she is using sperm that was stored before she was even captured in China. If that´s the case, that´s 9-10 months at least of sperm storage... interesting.

Here is the photo series for C.pyrrhogaster, i hope that´s what you were looking for:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/series_Cp.shtml
 
Oh yes that is the link, thank you so much :). I've spent most of my day looking for it lol *goes red*.

I'll keep checking the eggs, I'm taking photos to keep up with any changes, I'll confirm if they are fertile but they were certainly changing shape.

I know, at least 9 months of sperm storage is pretty good going lol.
 
Most of the eggs are changing now. I took a photo of the most "advanced" one yesterday. I'll have to set up a album to keep updating or something.

She is still laying eggs (I am aware she can for months), there are at least 30 eggs (there were 26 eggs, 24 hours ago and there have been more laid since then). But it doesn't look like there is a change in the size of Isaac :(
 
When the eggs hatch, how deep should I keep the water for the baby newts? and roughly how long does it take for them to become terrestrial?

I have two or three small containers I can use for the babies and a larger tank I can use for a terrestrial set up (sizes unknown) however the lid is broken; is it true if i put a 'lip' on the inside of the tank about 2-3" with tape, would it be enough to stop them escaping?
 
I personally prefer to house the larvae in biggish tanks with a big volume of water. They do very well in an stablished, old tank.

It usually takes them anywhere from 3-6 months to reach metamorphosis, but this is highly variable.
 
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Yeah, I raised two batches of eggs. The first one I basically fed them as much as i could and they morphed in a little over three months. The other batch I got lazy with the brine shrimp and fed them less often and it took five months. So it appears some of it depends on how much they are fed. Congrats by the way. Raising newts from eggs is such a rewarding experience.
 
Thats ok, if I assume 3 months minimum. I just wanted to have them a nice terrestrial set up ready for when they morph; but I was wondering how quickly I'd need to do that. I'm going to get them to hatch; grow a few weeks and then start on a terrestrial set up. I am half wondering about doing a half land, half water set up for them anyway...I'm still just thinking it through at the moment.


I’ve also read that when the newts are first born they lay on their sides for a while, how long is this for (I don’t want exact numbers, but I was wondering is it more like 5mins, 1 hour, a day etc).

And how deep should the water be when they first hatch?

One of my eggs is definitely looking like the day 4 photo :happy:. The rest aren’t quite as advanced but they are starting to change from circular to circular with a bump on them :happy:. I'm really excited that some are fertile at least but I'm also worried I'll be totally stupid and do something wrong (my other main concern is that I am going away for 2 nights in July; my dad wil be around to feed them but I'm just worried something will happen then - My mam normally feeds my pets when I am away but I am going away with her!). My boyfriend has said I can take them to his house; but then it's the trouble of taking them there, and bringing them back...I guess I have to hatch them and see how easy it is to do (for my dad).
 
I can't remember how long they lay on their side for, it isn't more than a couple days I think.

I used about an inch and a half of water when they were first hatched.

Yeah, those two nights in july are certainly going to be nerve-wracking. Depending on how big they are, you might want to feed them just before you go, and right when you get back rather than risk someone else do something wrong. If they are still really small though, that would be a risky thing to do.
 
I know. I will feed before I go; get my dad to do it in the middle and then I'll feed when I come back (although I'll see how it goes closer to the time :().
 
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