Spanish ribbed newt larvae questions

[ahritchie]

Hi everyone, my Spanish ribbed newts have been laying eggs for weeks on an off now and they nursery 10 gallon tank I'm using probably has over 100 larvae of various sizes/stages ranging from fresh out of the egg (1 cm) to sprouting both front and rear limbs (3 cm) long. I've been feeding them baby brine shrimp, daphina and bloodworms. My question is, should I separate the bigger ones? Also, should I move them to smaller containers to make sure they are being fed? I don't want to disturb them with bad water quality since they are doing great in the 10 gallon with lots of plants and a sponge filter. Anybody have some helpful tips on raising larvae?

 

[eldaldo]

Larvae will turn cannibalistic depending on how well fed they are. I saw it happen with my T. karelinii larvae. However, if you keep them well fed it will minimize this. I personally separated mine by size. i used maybe 6X10 inch tupperware for the smallest larvae, and when they became more developed I moved them into a 5.5g aquarium and then later before morphing into a 20g. If you're worried about water quality I'd suggest moving some of your plants into the new containers, I find it really speeds up the cycling since plants have bacteria growing on them and depending on what they are can be decent purifiers themselves.

Whatever you decide to do depends on how much work you want to put into it. Separating them all is much more micromanagement and work, but I think that usually results in more juveniles in the end. however, you can leave them all together, and maybe a couple will be eaten, but it will be survival of the fittest and is alot less effort. The second time I raised larvae I spent less effort and ended up with fewer juveniles than the first time, but it was still quite a few since they lay so many darned eggs!

As usual my advice is long winded, but I hope it was helpful.