N. viridescens viridescens egg laying

I just got my second batch of N.v.v. eggs of the year.They were all layed in plastic strips opposed to the tank full of elodea.The first batch was layed in the elodea before I added the plastic strips.Has anyone else had similar experiences?Do notos prefer plastic strips to real plants like some asian species?

Not sure about the plastic strips, but if you have any extra larvae or efts, let me know. I'm looking to acquire some!

Okay, I recently acquired a few adults and they started laying a few days later. I didn't have any plastic strips in the tank because I didn't expect them to breed so soon. Nonetheless they are laying on plastic plants and live plants. They don't really seem to care one way or another.

My N. viridescens louisianensis just bred for the first time. How soon after, if tank conditions are favorable, can I hope eggs will be laid?

Do you have any pictures of the eggs you could share?

And what are the plastic strips you mention?

Do they seem to favor certain live plants over others for laying eggs?

I noticed one of the females acting strange. I discovered she was actually struggling to pull an egg out of a plant to eat it! Once I removed the egg, she found another egg and ate it before I could get it. She acted like she was following an intoxicating odor which led her to the eggs. It was very weird.

Is "egg-hunting" (and eating them) common?

Each egg was tucked in a growing tip of fanwort--the leaves were pinched shut around each egg--so each egg looked like a tiny plant bud buried in a fanwort tip. No wonder I missed them for so long! I'd been looking in the elodea for folded leaves all this time.

So now I know why I haven't found eggs up until now, and now I know what they look like. The rescued egg hatched. It's a wee little cutie!

I'm going to try to gather some hatchling food from my pond since I can't find a source to purchase live foods that larvae eat.

The plastic strips you describe...are they just strips of cut-up plastic baggies...or saran wrap strips?

Katie - see:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/eggstrips.shtml

In my experience, Notos will choose live plants if they have a choice. If you want the eggs on strips (which is more convenient) you'll have to deprive them of plants.

Thanks, Jennifer. I just noticed the eggstrips page as I came on the site. Thanks to whomever put the eggstrips info. up there!

I don't have the heart to remove the plants. The newts seem to have their favorites. I'll just do some selective snipping if I see some eggs.

I'm looking for these newts to bring back a vanished population. If you have any you are willing to ship when they reach a stable age, let me know.

[Ryan]

Damielle you make it sound like you will be releasing them, is this true? You should never release any animal into the wild (even if it's native) unless you have a permit.

People, kindly look at the dates when responding to threads. This thread was started in 2003 with a short return in 2004.

It is probably better to start a new thread in 2007.

[Ryan]

I was thinking that but I wanted to tell him what I already said first because it can get very serious when releasing animals into the wild without a permit.