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

[ravenous]

I got them frozen bloodworms, theyre eating that now thankfully. Sucks I have no more supply of live food but ses la vie.

 

[dane]

you might be able to feed them choped earth worms now, at 1.5 inches I got some larvae to eat 'em

small earth worms if can find them

 

[chris]

^^^yeah if you already have them established in eating you might be able to get away with cutting up tiny cubes of earthworm and poke the pieces with a needle and hand feed them.

 

[ravenous]

Okay HUGE update. And Im a bit freaked out by this.

I was about to work out and saw my biggest, oldest, darkest newt standing on his tail in the water. Ive never seen that so I tapped him and he didnt move, I thought oh <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font> dead! I tapped him more and nothing, he was falling on his back. I isolated him and took these pics.

After I took these I thought I caught him drowning, I reduced the water to right above his back and noticed he had fuzz or something around his legs, stomach and cloaca. Could it be shedding already? He seems a bit more active now with minimal water in my betta bowl hospital. But he still allows me to touch him, doesnt flee and doesnt move much. I had two better pics but the damn thing wont let me reduce them anymore and I cant post em

 

[ravenous]

To add to this, I did an immidiate water change for all the 7, cleaned the java and container and added the island. Heres the pics. THe dots in there are snails that hitched a ride with the cured rock

Please critique cause frankly if any more die, Ill be pissed as hell for sinking so much time into them!

I still have the other guy isolated to see whats up with him. Theyre all eating very well and have to problems with the frozen blood worms. So I dont know what was wrong with the first guy.

 

[jennifer]

The 7 certainly look fine. I'm not sure what's up with the funky one. They do start shedding at around metamorphosis, so what you saw may be normal shedding. They also sometimes float a bit when they start breathing air, which also happens at about the same time. But the newt being unresponsive doesn't seem right. In the second photo, he looks a bit bloated, or is that just an artifact of the photo angle?

To further reduce any chance of drowning, it would be good if you could put a lot more plants into the tub, even fake plants would be OK.

 

[ravenous]

Alright just got home and read your thoughts and the odd one out was moving alot in the betta bowl. He struggled alot when I tried to catch him so I dumped him back in on the rock and heres a pic!

The bloat may be because of the angle and the roundness of the betta bowl (no worries, I didnt buy a betta for the tank). Trust me he looks fine. Now theres one Im thinking could have bloat cause he is VERY fat but doesnt have the bloat on the neck and face, legs, etc. He may just be a fat <font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font><font color="ff0000">&#149;</font>.

Oh and I also have another rock for an island I can use so Im thinking of using that, plus I will also buy some plants, they should do some good.

(Message edited by Ravenous on April 25, 2007)

 

[ravenous]

I may have spoken too soon, it seems to be getting worse. He seems fine when around the plants and rocks, but when he swims out hes struggling alot and seems to be fighting to stay straight. If he stops he starts to float and turn around UPSIDE down, floating on his back... He'll than fight again for awhile but give in and still struggle...

What the hell is going on

 

[ravenous]

It looks like he may be a goner, he cant submerge it seems and just floats. He must have the bloat

 

[rodrigo]

Could it be that it is morphing??
I have no experience with alpestris but i´ve seen helveticus metamorphs act like that when i was younger. Maybe it needs to leave the water...Just an opinion though...for what i´ve heard alpestris are a lot more aquatic, so i could be completely wrong.

 

[ravenous]

I dont know cause Ive never read of these actions during morphing. I have him in water barely over his head but not back. Hes still alive too when I checked earlier (wow, Im surprised).

Observing him, when he struggles he turns over on his back and he looks extremely bloated. His stomach is a pale white with what looks like blue/brown veins, theres a red blotch right under his throat, and most odd, his cloaca is very red and seems inside out. I swear it looks like hes going to blow up. Also yesterday I heard his gulps of air and they were very loud, almost bark or burp like. I have good hearing but to hear a morphing newt so loudy?

This is a weird experience no doubt

 

[ravenous]

Found him dead today fatter than hell. He looked like a torpedo and wasnt able to even walk around.

The Magnificent Seven are no more...

 

[chris]

i wish someone who knew more would chime in.

sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[ravenous]

Shyea, Im wishing the same thing. I guess most are saying oh well, lol

Im just mad that theyre still at major risk. After all this raising and work, no more should die

Oddly, another one is looking very fat. Hes pear shaped though and hes been fat for awhile. Where as the one that died got fat over night, fatter the next, died the next. He was also torpedo shaped. This other fat one has it around his gut and has a neck.

Another thing Ive noticed. WHen I leave them in the dark, 2 turn extremely white. They look like ghosts. The fat one has this problem. Id call em albino if their eyes were red. I dont know what the deal is here. But when I leave a light on them for awhile, they get some color.

 

[ravenous]

No new updates, all the newts seem to be doing fine. Just thought Id test out this new forum things

 

[ravenous]

Looks like another might be on the way out. Hes getting very fat and I noticed when changing water (barely enough water to submerge me), he cant even walk, just rolls over on his side. Damnit!

 

[jshadowstalker]

i had some paramestriton chinisis (14) from a friend that started to do something simular to what your describing. he told me to make shure to age there water at least 4 days before i used it and ...wow they all seem better. there about 3 weeks older and i have not lost any more. i had lost 3 before i started using aged water. not shure if that might help any.

 

[ravenous]

Well I do age my water for awhile. Though it sits in a gallon milk jug with a cap on so I dont know if thats an 'ok sit' but it sits for at least a week.

I wonder if my fat one is sick, if he'll still morph.

 

[rigsby]

when you leave water standing leave the cap off or better still use a bucket..
what temps are they being kept at ,they are a newt that like it on the cool side.
also at that age they need full stomachs all the time or they will tend to make a grab at each other injuring legs and gills and the fungus will set in.....too high temps will cause the bloating problem you have been getting ,i've had it with them myself.....ian.. ps sorry i did'nt have time to read all four pages you may have already mentioned the temp!

 

[ravenous]

Alright, I'll let the water sit capless from now on. I cant take the temp of the water because it always fluxuates. I keep them in a plastic shoe box so Im always taking out water and adding water. Its done all the time now that theyre getting larger as they get messier and messier. The bloat problem I have is with 1 newt though.

I had one die to bloat already and I was thinking.... one day when I was changing the water and cleaning the container I picked the largest one up. It hadnt morphed yet so it had the gills. About a month later thats the one that got bloat and died. Coincidence? I havent handled one since.

Ive learned the hard way making sure theyre fed. One had part of its tail bitten off. Its grown back already though and looks good, just a bit shorter.

I also added an airstone recentley and I think they hate it or love it! Check this out, one even went after the stone and started biting at it and going into the bubbles. Hed than open his mouth and the bubbles came out. It was pretty damn funny... yea I know, I sound like Rodrigo

New pics coming soon!