Unexpected newcomer HELP!!

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kittski

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alicia
Holy cow, I was cleaning the tank an hour ago and this little guy appeared!! I've only had my Fire-Bellys a couple of months and am new to keeping newts. I purchased three newts but two have refused to enter the water or eat. They sit huddled together high above the water. The third, Gordo, as done very well. I never saw any courting or even any interaction between Gordo and the other two and obviously never noticed any eggs. How long from mating to egg laying and then hatching?

I set up a small tank to isolate the fry. He's obviously very skinny so I'll go buy appropriate food asap. I will scour the site to try and figure out what to feed/what to do but ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 

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Well, it's been breeding season since March (I also have two, but no little unexpected visitors yet :p) so it could have happened right when you got them. I'm unsure when they metamorphose, but your little addition is mighty cute!
 
I suspect that "Gordo" is a female, and she mated before you got her. They can retain sperm for days or weeks. From egg-laying to hatching takes about 3 weeks. And your baby looks like it could easily be a month old, maybe more.

In case you haven't found this yet...
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/raising.shtml
 
the larva looks really good. i just had a few c. orientalis hatch 3 weeks ago. they don't have their back legs yet, so i think yours is at least 4 or 5 weeks old. i can't get any live food from where i live, but chopped up bloodworms and frozen daphnia have worked. i tried frozen brine shrimp, but none of them were interested. as long as you can make the food move around a little, they go for it.
 
Help needed

I am needing some help as well.

I went to go change the water in our tank yesterday and moved some rocks and plants to find at least a hundred of these little things. At first I didn't know what they were but after seeing your pic I am sure they are juvenile newts. I put them in a different tank but still have no idea what to feed them. The bloodworms I have look too big for them and were do you find daphnia? What IS daphnia?

I am a little duh?!? :crazy: about this stuff. I got the newts as a homeschool pet and educational tool, I sure wasn't expecting this. :eek:
 
Priscilla, have you read the web link I gave above? That will link you to the "microfoods" article, which outlines very specifically what the food options are. Daphnia are very small free-swimming crustaceans (related to lobsters, crawfish, etc). You can find a page of information about them here:
http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/

What I strongly recommend is to hunt down a source of live blackworms. They can be found at specialty tropical fish stores in almost any city, but it may take some work to find them. However, they are the best and simplest food available (unless you have a pond full of daphnia!)
 
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