Raising larva

[Lilibugz]

I’m hoping to breed my ribbed newts and I’ve read up on the article on them as well as the raising larva article but I still have a few questions.

• do you use the parents tank water for water changes?
• do you do a 100% water change everyday? How do you go about this? Use a mesh net, turkey baster?? Just switch them into a new clean tub?
• planning to culture some moina and daphnia for them (and getting some black worms as a backup/when they’re larger) but how often do you feed since the daphnia do survive in there
•has anyone every tried raising them in their own cycled tank rather than tubs/parent tank? How’d this go? Considering trying this with some of them!

 

[JM29]

Hi,
Adult Ribbed newts can be stimulated to breed with :
- an important water change,
- temperature drop (2-3°C less)
- raising water level

After amplexus, the mother lays eggs within one day.
After that, you'll have about 2 weeks waiting for hatching plus several days before larvae can eat.

I personnally transfer the eggs in a small aquarium filled with non-chlorinated water. Some water from the parents'tank is a possibility.
I add a lot of live plants (generally Egeria densa) ; the tank must have light.

Daphnia or Moina are safe live food. I don't know how is the climate in Texas but now in western France, Daphnias are very abundant in many pools. At the beginning, the larvae won't move a lot and willcatch only little preys which come near their mouth.
So a fair amount of preys is necessary. Try to adjust the amount of daphnias (or Moinas) so that it remains constant. You'll see if the larvae eat enough because the stomach content can easily be observed for young larvae.

I always raise larvae in their own tank. As for cycling, I suppose you mean with a filter. Unfortunately a filter is not a good option if you use tiny little preys. In my opinion (and 24 years experience now), the solution : No filter - a lot of fast-growing plants - light is far better.

 

[Lilibugz]

Hi,
Adult Ribbed newts can be stimulated to breed with :
- an important water change,
- temperature drop (2-3°C less)
- raising water level

After amplexus, the mother lays eggs within one day.
After that, you'll have about 2 weeks waiting for hatching plus several days before larvae can eat.

I personnally transfer the eggs in a small aquarium filled with non-chlorinated water. Some water from the parents'tank is a possibility.
I add a lot of live plants (generally Egeria densa) ; the tank must have light.

Daphnia or Moina are safe live food. I don't know how is the climate in Texas but now in western France, Daphnias are very abundant in many pools. At the beginning, the larvae won't move a lot and willcatch only little preys which come near their mouth.
So a fair amount of preys is necessary. Try to adjust the amount of daphnias (or Moinas) so that it remains constant. You'll see if the larvae eat enough because the stomach content can easily be observed for young larvae.

I always raise larvae in their own tank. As for cycling, I suppose you mean with a filter. Unfortunately a filter is not a good option if you use tiny little preys. In my opinion (and 24 years experience now), the solution : No filter - a lot of fast-growing plants - light is far better.

Thank you!
So tank with a filer is a no go got it!

there are tons of daphnia and scuds around here when it’s warmer around April-August but I doubt there’d be many now. I’ll probably order a starter culture and set up something for them inside since it’s cold out now. I’d be worried about parasites and such with any wild caught ones but honestly if my cultures don’t go well I’ll probably do that haha. I’m thinking of trying to start up the culture and experiment with it a bit beforehand, read they can be finicky.

I tried to raise some larva from the same breeder as the adults I have now last year but unfortunately it didn’t go well so I’m trying to make sure I’m extra prepared this time.

 

[Niels D]

You can keep a couple in little plastic containers as a backup. Keep the water in balance by using a couple of strings of Elodea and pond / ramshorn snails. You can even use take away plastic containers for this. When you use a straw or a Turkey baster, you can suck up the detritus. Then you don't need to change the water that often. You don't need an air pump or filtration this way. Just change the water once a week, and since it's only a plastic container, this can be done easily.

A larger setup of this system you can see here: