Smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris vulgaris)

[Molch]

so the girl looks a bit fatter every day. I think she may have some eggs in there. But she's only 6 cm, the males only 7 cm. They are babes. They are only 1 or 1.5 years old...

if anyone has older adults, how big do they get in their prime?

 

[Tappers]

Hurrah for my local newts! Very numerous here in my garden and surrounding lakes where they live alongside T. cristatus.

Interestingly, I've found that they tend to be smaller here than the populations where I used to live in Surrey (a distance of around 100 miles south) where they often occur together with L. helveticus in a few locations in the intermediate habitat between heathland and more wooded habitat. There a rough estimate of adult size would be around 9cm, here I've yet to encounter an individual larger than 7cm.

 

[raptor86]

aha - interesting. Since these don't have the crest on the head, that would indicate they are indeed vulgaris, no?

Yes, I think so.Feed them artemia and earthworms and they will grow a cool big crest.

 

[caleb]

not sure - is there a key somewhere to fiddle out subspecies?

I posted Christopher Raxworthy's key a while ago:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...lissotriton-vulgaris-vulgaris.html#post258790

I should try and get the diagrams in at some point.

As for sizes, an unscientific survey of my garden pond gave males of approx 9,10,9,8, and 9 cm length, and females of 8 and 7cm.

 

[Molch]

we got eggs!! A week ago I saw her with a spermatophore on her cloaca, and now she's laying. The eggs are developing nicely.

Oh my - she's such a little thing, just 6 cm, and I plopped her in there with those 2 eager males - I feel like a pimp. Still, she looks very fat and vigorous and is going about it like an old hand. The temp in their tank is 53 F (11C)

The eggs are so tiny..oh brother, what am I gonna feed to such tiny larvae? I will try just plain old pond water (hopefully the pond has thawed by the time they hatch) with infusoria and tiny pond iddy-biddies. Hopefully that'll get them up to Daphnia-gobbling sizes....

 

[michael]

I feed my adult smooth newts some daphnia, back yard tub sweepings, mosquito larvae, and other little beasties. Mosquito egg floats are good too. I also use blackworms and chopped earthworms. The adult smooth newts don't seem to bother the eggs, larvae, and juvenile smooth newts. I just make sure the tank is a little dirty in the good way and take the juveniles out when they crawl on land or up the sides.

It couldn't hurt to throw in a dry leaf or two.

 

[otolith]

Any updates on the eggs/larvae?

I got a ton of eggs from my L.v. ampelensis group (also got mine from Michael) but my lone male failed to seal the deal. Several hundred dud eggs later and they are back in their summer terrestrial set up.

Do your adults stay aquatic year round now? Mine abandoned the water as soon as it got around 70F. Would love to see how you've set them up!

 

[Jantje Beton]

I've also got some smooth newts, but they're young and very very small... excluding the tail they're about 2cm / 0.79 inch... since they're so small I really don't know what to feed them . I tried to feed them cladocera's, but they seem to avoid water now, so I gotta feed them some land animals, but which ones will suffice?

 

[erik3333]

Jantje Beton, please release the newts, it is illegal to keep them in the Netherlands!

 

[Jantje Beton]

Hello Erik, it's only temporary and I got them from my own garden. We're completely redoing our garden and as we were draining the pool and spitting the earth we found some newt babies and juveniles. I did not know it's forbidden to take newts from your own garden, but I would like to keep them and return them to the garden once it's finished (with two ponds coming up and some marshy areas I'm sure they'll like it). At the moment I keep them in a tank with moss, leaves and tiny fishbowl-gravel.

 

[erik3333]

Okay, good to hear. If I were you I would feed them springtails and the smallest crickets posssible. These can be purchased from specialised shops (online too). You can also pick up very small insects from the garden. There are loads in the soil and among dead leaves. Good luck!

 

[Molch]

one way I feed new morphlings is to make "meadow sweepings" - just draw a fine-mesh net lightly over grasses and plants in a field or meadow, and you get a gazillion small critters.

Make sure the meadow is pesticide-free, however, and sort out anything that it too big or potentially harmful, like wasps etc.

 

[Jantje Beton]

Thanks guys, the sweeping seems like a good idea. Will do that soon! I've tried searching for springtails in some local petshops, but they didn't have any. Does anyone have a link to a Dutch petshop who sells them? I'm quite new to this, so...

Btw as I said, my tank is currently unevenly filled with fishbowl-gravel. I've added some water so parts of the tank gets flooded to a maximum of roughly 2 or millimeters. Put some waterflees, water isopods and small red larva's (mosquito larva's?) in there, and the newts really love them, especially the red larva's! If it's not too deep, they don't seem to dislike water that much.

Anyway, I'll try the sweeping and the springtails. If they like it, I'll change the set-up of the tank again and make it more terrestrial.

 

[Jantje Beton]

Sorry for the doublepost, but I just saw a video on YouTube of springtails and they seem really small and very very fast! Can my juvenile newts really catch such a fast creature? When I see them hunting water isopods and red larva's they take so much time...

Springtails - YouTube

 

[erik3333]

Thanks guys, the sweeping seems like a good idea. Will do that soon! I've tried searching for springtails in some local petshops, but they didn't have any. Does anyone have a link to a Dutch petshop who sells them? I'm quite new to this, so...

Btw as I said, my tank is currently unevenly filled with fishbowl-gravel. I've added some water so parts of the tank gets flooded to a maximum of roughly 2 or millimeters. Put some waterflees, water isopods and small red larva's (mosquito larva's?) in there, and the newts really love them, especially the red larva's! If it's not too deep, they don't seem to dislike water that much.

Anyway, I'll try the sweeping and the springtails. If they like it, I'll change the set-up of the tank again and make it more terrestrial.

You can get them and the crickets from shops like dutch-rana.nl, hch.nl, terrafauna.nl.

I think the salamanders wil manage to catch them.

 

[Molch]

another tip on the meadow sweepings: I use a funnel and a bottle to collect them: sweep your net, then twist the net to prevent the bugs from escaping. Stick the funnel in the bottle, then invert the net over the funnel and stretch it tight so that bugs fall down the funnel and not around the edges.

I use a funnel from an auto shop designed to pour oil - just make sure it's a new one that never had oil in it.

This way, I can collect huge numbers of meadow bugs in just minutes, even on our Arctic tundra. Bet the harvest is even thicker in good ol' Holland!

 

[Jantje Beton]

Haven't had much success with the sweapings so far. 90% of what I catch are spiders, harvestmen, ants or little flies. I dislike harvestmen. Weird creatures. Sometimes I find snout beetles and ladybugs, but the newts don't seem to care about those. They do seem to LOVE caterpillars though, but there aren't many left at this time a year.

 

[Jantje Beton]

I ordered some food at Terrariumkoerier and it arrived today. I ordered beanbeetles, springtails and pea aphids. So far I've given them only the beanbeetles and the springtails. They really like the springtails, but they show zero interest in the beanbeetles. In matter of fact, they don't seem to like beetles at all, because I mentioned earlier they also don't care about ladybugs and snout beetles. Maybe they're too hard to crack.

Haven't tried the pea aphids yet because the plastic bottle seems to be empty Has anyone else ever ordered pea aphids? I got a plastic bottle with beans and peas in them, but I don't see any pea aphids. Did they all die while on the road? Or are they still in eggs somewhere?

 

[Azhael]

Ladybugs will not be eaten, don´t even try.
Springtails work very well, but you can also give them earthworms or waxworms.
I´m looking forward to see your new garden and the little fellas back where they belong, producing more little fellas.