Raising my first newt eggs....Mesotriton alpestris!

[andy]

I can only agree with my friend Kamil.
All the species i've ever bred have been treated the way Kamil suggests. A naturalistic tank that is left alone will often yield better results all round.

 

[jennifer]

While I agree that a naturalistic setup is best, I've found that the "sterile" approach (clean containers and daily water changes) works fine for Triturus-related newts. When a cycled/planted tank is not available, I have found this to be the second-best option. The times that I've had problems with dieing larvae were when I tried to raise larvae a "new" tank or container with only partial water changes.

I should also mention that this sterile method works less well for Cynops. They seem to be stressed out and eat poorly if they don't have a ton of plants.

 

[andy]

Also Paramesotriton and Tylototriton seem to need natural set ups....these don't do well at all in sterile set ups.

 

[ravenous]

Well I dont have the luxury of a natural set up cause I dont have the parents or the space. Nonetheless these are some interesting ideas that I should look into. So this natural route, would it be like the pond water method?

As an update ALL eggs have hatched and as of today this is the total:

4 eggs lost to the fuzz
5 larvae lost several days after hatching
35 larvae still going strong.

Ive added the Bifuran and the worm culture is better and Ive developed a method to gather worms easily.

For those who use Bifuran... I wont get cancer will I?

 

[ravenous]

Sadly, I seem to lose a larvae after every water change. That aint good at all. A few hours after the change, one always seems to die. Am I being too rough? Are the jugs overcrowded? Also, the ones with stripes or color seem to die. All the ones that are white seem okay and some are already getting their legs.

Any theories to this or just bad luck?

 

[kamil]

changing water daily is contra-productive for the small Triturus. They can not deal with a frequent change of the water too good. I recommend using (old) water from the adults and only to change water all 2 - 3 weeks. You also should use a big watervolume - for 20 Larvae about 25-40 litres. An airpump would be fine too.

Take a bigger volume of water and do not change it! Just suck the rest of food up and refill the water taken out - take care that this is as less as possible.

 

[andy]

Hello Andy.

Just one question to your Paramesotriton laoensis : Did you ever bread some of this fantastic creatures ? If yes, successfuly ? I heared from an other Laoensis-breader that he changes the water after every feeding, at least al two days. Up to now, with success

 

[dane]

oh im sorry, i wasnt beeing sarcastic, it truely is exciting to me to read this, kinda reminded me when my blue spotted sal larvae were morphing, except this is hatching

 

[samuel]

Does kind of make one broody hearing about others raising/rearing successes!
Best of luck with them

 

[david]

I agree with Kamil about the water changes and the idea of more water volume. I also prefer live daphnia for a food source, less pollution of the water, so less needs for water change. Live plants and an air stone help alot with water quality. I get magna daphnia from Dallas Discuss and they's to large for the smaller babies to eat, but they are constantly reproducing and the smaller larvae eat the baby daphnia

 

[ravenous]

Okay I see what you guys are saying. Im thinking I can try this for a week and see if there will be less deaths but heres what I would do:

I have 2 GALLON jugs filed with 1.5 inches of water. I change the water every day and put them in a new clean jug every 3 days.

Oh and Kamil I cant get the old water from the adults as these eggs were sent to me. I do have a cycled aquarium going though.

What I can do is, fill the jugs to at least a 3 inch water mark, change the water once every 2 days and put them in a new jug once a week instead? This kinda goes against what Ive been learning from others and read in the articles here, so Id hate this experimination to backfire. However since so many have died (of course it could be becuase they were sick to begin with) maybe some experimintation is called for?

I think Ive lost about 10-12 hatched larvae to date.

 

[jennifer]

Here is an old thread where I and Paul Bachhausen discussed various larva rearing methods:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/53058.html?1155779406
Paul and I pretty much agree - it works to use either the cycled/naturalistic method, or the clean method. But not so well to try to mix the two methods.

It won't hurt to use more water, and maybe add some more plants. But if you are using the "clean" method, you still have to change the water and clean the containers out often. If you are still having deaths, I would switch to changing them to a clean tub every day.

 

[ravenous]

Thanks for the link Jen Ive read it thoroughly. I havent been using the middle ground and decided to stick to the clean method since on the day of my last post, the last larvae with the color died. I lost quite a few to start with, maybe they were runts or just too weak, but my final total should reflect the significant loss.

Since than Im left with nothing but all white larva and NONE have died. I doubled the water level and put some anacharis bits in there. They even survived the big water change of putting them in new containers. So that should be a good sign I suppose. But I assume Im not out of the woods yet right? Is there a bigger critical period coming than the first 2 weeks after hatching?

Final Tally:
26 Larvae

I hope these guys have a good chance. Its been colder than hell here and we never turn on our heater so they should be loving that.

 

[jennifer]

Unless something goes seriously wrong, I wouldn't expect any more to be lost. Once they are eating, you are usually out of the woods until metamorphosis.

 

[ravenous]

Would seriously wrong be another death or a whole lot of em? I ask cause I found another one today. He was actually colored too. I thought they had all died, this ones defenatley the last.

All the others look good and are getting big. Its weird watching these guys grow. Very interesting. I hope no more go though, Im ready for the morph!

 

[michelle]

Dan.
You haven't posted in a bit. How are things going? I and from the looks of this thread a lot of others were enjoying your updates.

 

[ravenous]

Hey thanks for caring Michelle

An update would be I had a few more deaths, one major one, so I had to seperate the larger ones (about an inch already with rear legs) from the small ones (barely half an inch). The total is 20 so HOPEFULLY no more will die. Im at total water changes everyday and that is a REAL hassle. Ive also gotten live blackworms but theyre not touching them yet. But theyre there for em. Here are some new pics right after a new water change. Oh and the water is yellow cause of the medicine I put in there.

BTW, it was really hard catching the big guys to seperate them. Anyone have any tips for doing this?

Pic 1 is the larger container, double the size of the original and it has the 5 monsters.

Pic 2 is the original container with all the tiny guys.

 

[ravenous]

Though my thread seems to be dead in the water, for those curious I am now at:

8 total apuanus.... thats it. Im really shocked that my mortality rate was so high. I dont know what I did wrong. I have 7 large ones and 1 that is still tiny, not even any legs visible. The large ones are already climbing the plants, staying on top, and gulping for air at the surface.

 

[ryan]

How long are they right now?

 

[ravenous]

The largest is about 1.5 inches, where as the others are at least 1 inch.

The last small (just a few cm) one died today. Even though I had him seperate from the others and gave him food and new water everyday. I just did the water change and I guess he couldnt take it this time.

Its been about 2 months since the first hatchings. The 3 largest ones are already turning into a brown color and getting dark. Damn I wish morphing would hurry up, but I think I got 2 motnhs left...