Wrestling P. Waltls?

[ahritchie]

Hi everyone, I just noticed some disturbing wrestling match between two of my P. Waltl this morning; they had their arms locked together while each of them attempted to pin the other one upside down. They are normally pretty feisty when it comes to feeding time but this morning there was no food involved; is this of cause for concern? I separated them and they got right back to it a few minutes later?! I took a crude picture of them in their "death lock"....do any other P. Waltl owners notice any fights like this?

 

[Chamaeleo]

Hi!
They are not wrestling, this wants to be an amplexus. But the male managed to catch the female in a wrong position.

 

[Mark]

That's not fighting, it's breeding behaviour called amplexus , all perfectly normal behaviour for a ribbed newt, although yours haven't quite got the hang of it yet....

You can read about the courtship behaviour in the P.waltl caresheet: Caudata Culture Species Entry - Pleurodeles waltl

 

[ahritchie]

Well that's good to know! Don't I feel naive! These guys waste no time practicing mating, they are only 3-4 months old :blush: ! Can you tell which is the female? (I'm guessing the larger luecistic one?) The "regular" P. Waltl seemed to be the instigator; but I'm not sure.

 

[Mark]

The male hooks his arms over the females from underneath and carries her on his back. As yours have screwed up so badly it's difficult to say which one is the male from that photo. The male always instigates this behaviour.

When they mess up, or when a few newts try to get in on the action it can be quite amusing to watch. I think my record is 4 newts attached to each other.