Spermatophore interception, now what?

[FrankTheTank]

This evening I observed my eastern newts in amplexus. It was a rather long, yet interesting, and somewhat violent at the end. The male deposited 3 spermatophores, the female missed the first one, picked up the second, and swam off before passing over the last one.

They are currently housed in my 75g native community (heavily planted) with blackstripe topminows, a couple of johny darters, and 4yoy l. humilus. I'm wondering should I take the female and put her in a seperate tank? Or should I wait and see if she lays in the 75?


Tank is 62 degrees and has 16hr photoperiod(108watts). The filter only runs at night.

I took some pictures but they didn't turn out (my cellphone is weak).

 

[slowfoot]

Hmmm... your fish will probably eat any eggs she lays, but moving the female might be stressful for her.

If you want to keep the eggs, I'd give her something to lay on that you won't feel bad about cutting up - like cheap elodea - and just remove the leaves with the eggs attached before they get eaten. She'll prefer plants with leaves that she can easily fold around the egg. Also, my females tend to prefer plants that are near the surface. Other members use plastic strips for laying.

 

[FrankTheTank]

Tank is 62 degrees and has 16hr photoperiod(108watts). The filter only runs at night.

Well its been awhile and I've got news.

The last month or so, temps in the basement and community tank had dropped to 56F, and I had shortend the photoperiod to 12hrs.

Five days ago, I put the female in my beautifully planted 10g plant tank(no filtration),along with 3 small female fundulus notatus. The f.Notatus where quite shy, and I hoped to fatten them up in the smaller tank. The tank was without vertabrates for 3 months, but host to numerous snails, blackworms, other small/micro invertabrates. The plant tank was heated up to a warm 70F, and I keep the lights on about 16hrs a day.

I've been feeding the blackworms in the tank tetra crips and algae wafers. The wafers also keep the snails from eating the plants. While the fish had been munching down on the black worms, it seems the newt has a preference for snails. I wonder if its good for the newt to eat a high percentage of snails? The newt has gotten a much fatter, I think being in the community tank with two males may have limited her behavior and feeding habits.

Tonight I observed the female clasping the leavf of ludwigia repens with her hind legs. The eggs ( I hope) look just like snail eggs (I dont have a real good view at the moment) in the tank. I would really like to keep the eggs in the tank, but I'm afraid the snails might get to them.

I probably will increase the wafers I feed the snails and hope for the best.

 

[Nathan050793]

If you leave the eggs in the tank, chances are they'll get eaten. Notos are big egg-eaters. Your best bet probably would be to remove the eggs as you find them (if you plan on raising the larvae).

If you haven't already found them, these links could come in handy-
Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Newts and Salamanders from Eggs
Caudata Culture Articles - Egg Strips