Triturus Marmoratus embryonic development

[Molch]

I use a dirty tank method, not doing any water changes maybe ever, until they morph, unless they are taking a long time to morph. I only use an air bubbler.

this sounds great. If you feed chopped blackworms, do you ever siphon off debris and leftovers? Or do you let mulm accumulate? If so, do you get any nitrate building up? How big are your rearing tanks?

The larvae are now adjusting to their new diet of whiteworms. I have a few that are stewing. They are looking as if to say.....Where are those pink thingys?
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have you tried Daphnia? I find they are very low maintenance once you got a tub or two going....

 

[Otterwoman]

I never clean out stuff, that I can remember, though maybe I have if there was something particularly ugly. I let stuff accumulate but never knew until now that what I was letting accumulate was "mulm." I also don't put in more chopped blackworms than they will eat, so there's not a lot of waste.
If that wasn't enough, now you will all cringe, I've never checked nitrates or anything in all the years I've been keeping newts. Please don't excommunicate me!

When I have a lot of eggs I raise them in 40 gallon breeders, or if fewer eggs, ten gallon tanks. Currently I have five egg tanks going.

I've had good luck rearing eggs of many types, so I can say this all works. Now as for raising terrestrial morphs, that is my weakness.

 

[Otterwoman]

My larvae look almost like adults! Here they are yesterday, photos courtesy of my friend Kim who was over:

 

[Mark]

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If that wasn't enough, now you will all cringe, I've never checked nitrates or anything in all the years I've been keeping newts. Please don't excommunicate me!

Me too. It's like nitrates anonymous. My name's Mark and I've never owned a water test kit.

 

[Otterwoman]

OMG, that's such a relief. I thought I was some lone freak. And another moderator, at that! I do water changes every two weeks and have lots of plants in the tanks, if there's enough light for them.

 

[Molch]

hey Dawn - how old are yours now? When did they hatch? Mine are 5 weeks old and have not yet gotten their hindlegs, but are fat and eating well...also, do you have a pic of the whole setup? Would love to see...

and since we're doing confessions: My name is Claudia, I have OCD tendencies and I own at least 4 water test kits

 

[esnailme]

My larvae look almost like adults! Here they are yesterday, photos courtesy of my friend Kim who was over:

Wow Dawn,

My larvae don't have the color that yours does, They look great.:happy:

 

[Linus]

Looking great Dawn :] Keep up the good work!

 

[esnailme]

this sounds great. If you feed chopped blackworms, do you ever siphon off debris and leftovers? Or do you let mulm accumulate? If so, do you get any nitrate building up? How big are your rearing tanks?



have you tried Daphnia? I find they are very low maintenance once you got a tub or two going....

Yes, I have daphnia magna. Now granted my eyesight is not the greatest they appear tinier than bbs. They are in a 2 gallon tank. I have had them since November 2010. Maybe I am not culturing them the right way. I have some but not enough to feed on a regular basis. Sometimes I will have to give my culture a chance to rejuvenate.

 

[esnailme]

Saturday is a landmark birthdate.

Grandma's babies will be 9 weeks old.

I have thinned out the bunch.

8 to each container.

This may still be too much.

We'll see.

I have introduced red wigglers.

I am not sure my babies know what to do with them.

total count 19 out of 25. (I think I may have miscounted)


Attached are my babies "school pictures".

 

[Molch]

Yes, I have daphnia magna. Now granted my eyesight is not the greatest they appear tinier than bbs. They are in a 2 gallon tank. I have had them since November 2010. Maybe I am not culturing them the right way. I have some but not enough to feed on a regular basis. Sometimes I will have to give my culture a chance to rejuvenate.

hmm..they can be cultured such that they produce very well though. D. magna should be much bigger than BBS, the fattest ones are almost a quarter inch across and newborns maybe just a bit bigger than BBS, with all sizes inbetween.

I have mine in big 20-ga plastic totes with a sponge filter, lots of hornwort and daily feedings of spirulina powder and soy protein powder(Jennewts recipe more or less). I keep the temp at 70 F. They are reproducing very well and I get enough out of there every other day to provide for 4 larvae tanks. Once a month or so I clean out their tubs and change water and let them recover for a week or so before harvesting again.

 

[Otterwoman]

Here's my tank. The eggs vary in age from over a month before I started sharing to a few scattered eggs the last month even.

Mine started morphing but I want to raise them aquatic so I scooted them back in the water.

 

[Molch]

fascinating - they do look like a happy healthy bunch. I bet there's a lot of microlife in them that tanks!

My larvae are now getting their hindlegs. They are about 6 weeks behind yours I think, so maybe I'll get morphs by the end of July.

 

[esnailme]

Just a very quick update:

I noticed some pushing and shoving.

I am thinking my babies have grown a tad.

The color has changed to a dull brown.

I am going to switch my babies from 8 to 4 in a plastic shoe box container.

Wow......I am taking up a lot of space.

My bedroom and my fish office looks like a forest.:uhoh:

No morphing yet. I believe it is definitely not far away. I would guess 3-4 weeks.

 

[Molch]

cool. My babies have gotten their hindlegs and their color is less transparent and more olive on top.

I had to amputate the leg of one of them: I found it with one front leg half off, all white and dead and dangling - I believe it got mauled by one of its siblings. I was worried the leg would rot like that, so I pinched it off with the tweezers. Didn't enjoy that, but now baby is doing fine and the leg is growing back already!

 

[esnailme]

Another quick update.

The color of the 16 larvae has changed from the dull color to a dark green. I cannot tell whether I am seeing stripes or spots. I am looking from the top. The next feeding I will view from the top. They have definitely grown larger.

The 3 larvae that were trampled and shoved by their big brothers and big sisters are doing well. They have since regrown their limbs. They are what I consider tiny. I believe they are definitely fighters. Their diet is a little different than the other 16 larvae. The 3 larvae eat microworms and daphnia on alternate days. Within the last few days I have seen these babies eat the baby whiteworms.

 

[esnailme]

addendum:

I forgot to add the 3 tiny larvae are eating what I call my experimental gutloaded microworms. The larvae appear to be a pink color which is quite different from their original color. This may stir up quite a controversy. The 3 larvae and 10 guppy fry are currently on this diet. See my post under Microworms for further explanation of this process. I had a culture of microworms that I spit into 3 separate containers.

 

[Mark]

Mine are mainly feeding on live mosquito larvae, tubifex, bloodworm and each other's tails. They are very charismatic little chaps. I'm sure they're more intelligent than other newt larvae. They live in the kitchen and I swear they watch everything that goes on. Hopefully they've learnt how to do the washing up, which'll be handy.

 

[Otterwoman]

Mark- no morphs yet? I've had about 30 morph so far.

 

[Mark]

Not yet, mine are way behind yours.