Raising Larvae with Adults

[Bethany29]

I have 3 Chinese fire belly newts and today I saw a little larvae chilling out in their tank. It may have been eaten already but I was wondering about the pros and cons to keeping it with the adults still in there?

I'm also going to need information on care during the terrestrial phase which I haven't been able to find much about on this site. If someone could give me a link to that, it would be much appreciated.

Also does anyone know about how old it is? It's about 1 cm long and swims around pretty well but I didn't get a good picture.

Thanks

 

[ChristineB]

Cool! If you want to raise it, you should separate it. There is no "pro" to raising it with adults, other than the potential problem of a larvae you can't/don't want to raise separately taking care of itself in one big gulp! :grin: Seriously, though, the only advantage I can think of is water quality, and you could use a divider or breeder box to achieve that. Here are the Caudata links: Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Newts and Salamanders from Eggs. Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Juvenile Newts
Good luck!

 

[Asevernnnn]

There is no "pro" to raising it with adults

Will my H. orientalis, they will eat the eggs, but dont generally touch the larvae. It depends on the newts personality, but usually H. orientalis dont eat their larvae often, especially in a tank with lots of plants and hides. A pro to raising them in the tank with the adults is that if its an established tank, there would be lots of micro-organisms for the larvae to feed on. Apart from that and leftover food I haven't had to have any other source of food for them until they morphed.

 

[Chinadog]

I leave my Cynops larvae with their parents, As Aaron says, the adults will most likely eat some of the eggs, but the seem hard wired to avoid eating larvae.

 

[AuSu]

I share the same experience with Aaron and Chinadog, they eat eggs but don't care about larvae. Can't tell age from size but my orientalis have became terrestial when about 3-3,5 cm long so I'd think it's guite young?

 

[Bethany29]

Awesome, thanks guys! I haven't seen the little guy in a while so he was probably eaten. But next time I think I'll use the little plastic breeding thing to separate the larvae :happy: