Today was a good day

[joeri]

Today I went to the Antwerp Zoo and visiting the reptile house I also got a look on their frogs and newts. They only housed 2 species of newts though, but I had never seen them in real life before, so that was a great experience. I saw 2 species of tiger and a tank with axolotls. Great animals. I envy all who have them at home

When I got home things got even better. For the first time my cynops orientalis laid eggs. I only have them for a year and didn't think they would breed so soon already. All eggs are nicely fold in leaves. the picture shows a small fragment of the tank. Later today I will take a closer look and try to make a count.

Oh yes, and my pleuro female is gravid as well. she never gave me fertile eggs though

 

[matthew]

Congratulations... being care-taker for new life is a nice feeling, isn't it?

 

[joeri]

It's a great feeling.

Today I separated some eggs, as I noticed larvae are growing in them. Hip hip hooray!

I'll post pictures later.

 

[joeri]

eggs are now 4-5 days old, the larvae are a bit darker then in the picture, but I couldn't get it clear without the flash

 

[joeri]

I woke up today and spotted 3 of these (more will come)

When will they start eating?

 

[joeri]

found this interesting article, questions answered
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml

 

[joeri]

Update:

newts are being born everyday now.
3-2-5-4-6-10
(these are the number of newborns per day)

These number don't include the hatches in the tank with the parents in. I left some eggs there and they are hatching as well, but I can't "rescue" the baby newts as they can hide between plants and rocks. We'll see what the parents do with them.

Haven't seen the newts hopping for food yet, but it is available and maybe they did it when I was away. Who knows

Here's a picture I took today. Just one plastic box of the 6 I'm going to keep them in.

A stone to provide a shelter and a plant to make it look a bit more natural. In the left corner a small dot of algae for the micro life I'm feeding them.

And a close up (can't do them like John can

)

 

[joeri]

Here's an update: today I noticed some of the newts are growing behind legs already

Here's a picture I took last week, shortly before I transfered them to their new habitats. You can see they had frontlegs then.

Forgot to refresh the water, so I couldn't get a picture without the flash reflecting the surface. So you'll have to do with a fragment of the tank. This tank has light in it, but no airpump. (the other tank has no light, but airpump)
This tank contains 45 larvae.

Plants, stones, algae and LOTS of live food - more then other tank. You can see the airpump at the bottem. This tank is just a plastic box. It's placed in indirect sunlight. Threw in newts before I counted them, will be around 50 though.

And finally a close-up of some newts. These don't have behind legs yet.

 

[joeri]

Today I noticed something strange. I have a last batch of eggs that takes more time to hatch then the others. The odd thing is that I noticed among these a larvae that is still in his egg; but is growing front legs already.

Is that bizarre or normal?
Sorry I can't get a better quality than this.

The larv is on his back in the picture, those two small stripes upwards are the legs.

ps Is anyone reading this topic? As nobody posts in here - or is it not interesting or something? plz tell me

(Message edited by Xixarro on May 12, 2004)

 

[Jan]

Joeri,

I find this really interesting! I don't post replies, because I am profoundly ignorant on hatching and raising newt larvae....but I love the pics!

 

[joeri]

Good to know I'm not writing this for myself.
But don't be so shy Jan, this is my first time that I'm raising larvae. Any ideas, comments,... are welcome.

Maybe the oldies have seen cynops larvae too much already.

 

[jennifer]

Joeri, I am following this saga also. You seem to be on the right track!

It's unusual to have a larva stay in the egg long enough to grow legs. I recently had the experience that a batch of axolotl embryos stayed in the eggs so long they were almost starved by the time they got out. I helped the last ones by opening the eggs and letting the larvae out - but this is the first time I have seen larvae stay "too long" in the egg.

 

[joeri]

I'll give it a day or two more, he still looks healthy. Should he not be out by then I'll give nature a hand.

thank you for replying

 

[marion]

Hi Joeri
I've just been reading your posts with interest. I have larvae a little younger than yours. I've not been too successful feeding them, however. The only live/frozen food I've been able to get my hands on is blood worms. I've picked out the smallest ones, chopped and fed. Although some of the larvae have been hopping, I think the food is still too big for them. But now they are about 2 weeks old and have so far managed to survive on whatever has occurred in their environment "naturally" - i.e. decayed debris from plant matter, algae perhaps and whatever microlife forms this sediment harbours. (sediment as in your pics 3 and 4 posted May 1.) I only wish I'd discovered your posts yesterday - that was when I decided to clean up the receptacle floor as I didn't want the uneaten bloodworms rotting. Now I've probably destroyed their only source of food! Today I hunt for Tubifex worms....

 

[joeri]

That sediment in my pictures contains algae on wich microlife survives. My newts survive on the microlife. I haven't had to chop anything so far. I think even adult daphnia are still a bit to big (but not much longer)

If my setups hadn't so much hiding places I could tell if and how many baby newts passed away, but now there is no telling. All I can say is that there are still a lot.

Btw: I have a plastic box outside filled with rain water. Algae grow in it by itself. I added a bit of water from a pool, result; a huge amount of spare microfood.

One more thing, baby newts are very unlikely to eat any frozen/dead food. I red this over and over on this forum and I even tried it yesterday with a bit of frozen Daphnia, but no succes there. (as predicted)

 

[coen]

Amazing photoserie Joeri, please continue!!

 

[marion]

Hi again Joeri
How long do you leave the rainwater box outside before it has the desired algae? I don't want to be taking any water out of local ponds/lakes -too polluted I think.

I did a count of my larvae yesterday when cleaning up. I always thought there were about 12 but in fact I have 26. Some of the larvae are starting to get miniscule back legs.

My female is still busily laying eggs in her tank. Each morning I find turned up leaves. About 5 eggs each night for the last 3 nights. I'm removing them to a separate jar for hatching and want to establish microlife into this system soon. Still didn't find any live tubifex worms today - tomorrow I try a different market. Please keep us posted with your newts progress!

 

[joeri]

My cynops laid eggs for weeks. I had to stop collecting them. Where will I place over a 100 newts?

The plastic box has been outside for ages as it was actually ment to grow moss in it. It's not in direct sunlight but still algae grow. Here's a picture of it.

It is important to find a small pool that is not polluted. Maybe take an empty bottle or two with you when you go for a walk in the woods. Surely there will be water with some microlife in it.
When you find some, don't use it all at once. I keep mine in a sunny place and take samples from it, that lasts longer.

Also did you try the lettuce trick?
Boil lettuce about 30secs and then put it in water for a few days. If you add some water from your newts tank, you'll have microlife for sure.

Oh yes, when you visit a pet shop don't forget to <u>ask</u> for life food. I never really asked for it, just noticed he didn't have it. Seems now that he does have life food coming in every saturday, but it runs out fast. Or maybe you could order via your local shop. (or maybe I'm the only silly one around here

)

@ Jen : I helped 4 newts being born yesterday. I felt like a surgeon as I had to act with precision. Once they got out of their egg I could observe them better; 3 of them were in fact already developing the first signs of back legs!

@Coen: thank you, I will post some more pictures

 

[joeri]

Cynops Orientalis, +/- 1 month old

 

[marion]

Thanks for the info. I'll try the lettuce trick. I live in China and there are not that many options to buy food. We have two markets selling aquaria. The smaller has about 20 stores and the larger about 80 stores, all under one roof. It's great fun browsing!! Problem is, that they don't offer much diversity. When one has something, they usually all do, and if one's out of something, ditto. Actually, they usually always have live food, either bloodworms or tubifex. The tubifex were just too dark in colour for my liking, i.e. not too fresh looking. I'm heading out to the ricefields next week. There should be plenty of microlife in those rice paddies and chances are, the water will be cleaner than the lakes and rivers in Changchun. Maybe I'll even find some newts in the wild!