Rough Skinned Newts

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tyjorg

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Hello, I am a teacher and last school year for a class project we hatched rough skinned newts from a egg sack we found in a pound. 11 hatched and are still alive today. We are just wondering when they will be ready to get out of the water, we thought it would be now, but they seem content in the water. They hatched in late February so around 7 months old.

Another thing, we got some brine shrimp eggs we are going to hatch and feed to the fish we have in the class and were thinking about the newts. Is this a good idea? Do brine shrimp live in fresh water long enough to get eaten? Thanks.


Tyler
 

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Hey Tyler,

In my experience with Rough skinned newts near Seattle, the larvae will metamorphose in October, usually around the 20th, though it depends on the year. In a classroom however, that might change since there is not the natural temperatures indoors. Either way they should metamorphose withing the next few months.
That setup is very nice by the way!

Brine shrimp wouldn't be a good idea in that setup, once they die they will be very hard to remove and pollute the water quickly.

Hope this helps! -Seth
 
I second what Seth says. If the newts are big enough, chopped Canadian Nightcrawlers (Not red wigglers or the bait and compost worm) are a fantastic staple food
 
Thanks guys for the advice. One of our newts is getting very big and we are hoping he comes out of the water soon.
 
Does it have front and back legs? Also would love more pictures anyways!
 
Most of the time, you can tell when they are ready to come out of the water by 3 signs: 1.) they will get bigger in size, 2.) their gills will begin getting smaller, and 3.) they may start turning into a brownish-red color. When they leave the water, they will live as terrestrial efts for a few years and may be too small for nightcrawlers so I would make sure that they have something small enough to eat like bloodworms/black worms/tubifex worms or fruit flies if the nightcrawlers don't work
 
Here are some pictures
 

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Couple more.

This is our biggest one.
 

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Hi Tyler,

These look like they are all northwestern salamanders (Ambystoma gracile) to me. The last one almost for sure is, and the ones in the pictures before that look to be as well.

If you look at the side of their head and tail, you can see small light colored dots. These dots are actually the poison glands in which it secretes poison if it is threatened. They only ( to my knowledge ) use these poison glands once they are terrestrial, which is why it may not have been noticeable til now - it was still developing them.

Either way they look healthy. Also, the larger one looks as if he is getting ready to morph.
Once they morph they should be kept the same way you would keep tiger salamanders, here is a care sheet for them: Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander

Hope this helps :happy:

-Seth
 
Interesting, we thought they were NW Salamanders when we first got them and then changed our mind and said they were rough skinned newts. They all came from the same egg sack we found in a pond. Thanks for the info.
 
Rough-skinned newts lay single eggs. If you found them in an egg mass, they are almost guarantied to be Northwestern salamanders
 
tyjorg said:
Interesting, we thought they were NW Salamanders when we first got them and then changed our mind and said they were rough skinned newts. They all came from the same egg sack we found in a pond. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

As Xavier said, Rough skinned newts lay single eggs. The only species in Washington that lay eggs in a sack are Northwestern's, Long toed's, and Tigers.
Was the egg sack jelly loose, and were the eggs far apart within the sack? Or was the jelly dense, firm, and the eggs closer together? If the latter than its a Northwestern, if the former it could be either Long toed's or Tigers, unless you are on the west side of the Cascades, then the former would be long toed's.
 
Hmmmm, i do not recall exactly what it looks like. I think I have a picture of it on my school computer, I will check in the morning. Thanks for all the ideas.
 
We cant find a picture. Do any of you have a picture of the two thats a good example of the difference in the eggs between the two?
 
This is the best picture we got and its not very good.
 

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Awesome good to know. Now we can do some research on them. Do they like to return to water much during adulthood? I have attached a picture, our biggest one disappeared for a couple days but we just found his again and it looks like his gills are disappearing.
 

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tyjorg said:
Awesome good to know. Now we can do some research on them. Do they like to return to water much during adulthood? I have attached a picture, our biggest one disappeared for a couple days but we just found his again and it looks like his gills are disappearing.
Click to expand...

They don't really return to water that much, just ample room to burrow, and hide, would be fine. You could add a water dish if you like, I get some use of it with my similar care tiger salamander
 
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