Raising juvies

[greg]

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck rearing juvenile T. vittatus or T. marmoratus in aquatic/semi-aquatic settings. I've had difficulty doing it with them on land for some reason (no trouble with Tylototriton, but Triturus I for some reason lose as juveniles in a terrestrial setting).

Are there any Triturus for whom semi or aquatic juvenile rearing should not be attempted?

greg

 

[rubén]

Hi Greg

You want to say if are newts which doesn't make problems like aquatic youngs ? in my experience marmoratus and vittatus are not good species , cause are quite terrestrial . I think that Triturus carnifex and karelinii are more adapted ( and SOMETIMES Triturus alpestris apuanus and Triturus boscai ) , perhaps you knew this...

 

[david]

I'm having good luck with my juvie/sub adult marms from last season in an aquatic environment. I'm hoping for eggs from them at a year old. Vittatus juvies in an aquatic environment is problems.

 

[colin]

my marms went through metamorphosis in august and didnt want anything to do with water. They are now 6-7cm and are on damp kitchen paper. I think i'll try them in water again in spring.

My large male is always aquatic

 

[yago]

I have put all my efforts in keeping t.vittatus juveniles aquatic but without success. Indeed some will survive, but their grow rate will slow down a lot...
From my experience I wouldn't recommend anybody to keep t.vittatus juveniles aquatic for the first year. Even though, it is curious that they won't drown easily after metamorphosis as it happen with other triturus species. There is no hurry to keep them terrestrial after metamorphosis, but within the next 10 days I recommend to set them in terrestrial setups.
Greetings

 

[jennifer]

I raised a group of about 30 marmoratus from eggs last spring. At metamorphosis, the vast majority came out of water and refused to go back. Interestingly, 7 of them stayed 100% aquatic and never came out, even though land was available. Both groups lived and grew equally well for me. By this fall, all of them were willing to live in semi-aquatic tanks and feed in water, and many of the males have crests.

 

[caleb]

I've had almost exactly the same experience as Mike with boscai- they were very terrestrial for 6-8 months, then became aquatic with no problem.

From my own experiences, and correspondence with various other people, it seems that:

carnifex, cristatus, dobrogicus, karelinii, and italicus juveniles should be easy to keep 100% aquatic.

marmoratus, pygmaeus, alpestris, helveticus, and boscai juveniles can sometimes be kept aquatic.

vittatus, montandoni, and vulgaris juveniles will be extremely unlikely to remain aquatic.

I guess it might vary from subspecies to subspecies- some alpestris subspecies are certainly more aquatic than others- T. a. cyreni is one that is particularly easy to maintain aquatically.

I'd be interested to know if any of the vulgaris subspecies are more aquatic than T. v. vulgaris.

 

[rubén]

Well , of course , captivity behavior could be quite different that wild behavior . If we are talking about Triturus alpestris cyreni , this subspecies have preferences really differents in high mountain than lower places . I can say that T. a. cyreni ( not neotenic animals ) at high mountain needs absolutely a terrestrial phase of hibernation for the simple fact that all water points become ice . It's interesting to see how on these high communities of T. a. cyreni you can find individuals on land at raising phase ( may/juny ) with others completely aquatics . Probably in lower biotopes at 0 - 800 m. of altitude doesn't needs a real hibernation in land , but then at summer I have seen a lot of them in the forests under stones when the temperature of the water was at 17/18 ºc , so we could say that annual cycle is inverse depending on the altitude . The same behavior can we observe on Triturus helveticus sequeirai ( more terrestrial than Triturus alpestris cyreni )
About Triturus boscai , sometimes you can find juveniles in water , but is not an usual thing in the wild . In mountain points is easier to see this , but anyway there are always more juveniles in land . In lower places , at the level coast , with warm/humid weather I think that juveniles grown up in land often .