Tylototriton kweichowensis

(This newt belongs to Mr. Toshisada Yamazaki)

(Message edited by TJ on August 04, 2004)

Nice animal Tim. That buddy of yours keeps kweichows? Has He bred them?

This is a different buddy from the one with the N.strauchii barani. He has had the above pictured individual (the one on the far left in the following picture) along with two others for about three years, but hasn't bred them to my knowledge. This one is amazingly "friendly" and will follow your finger in the tank and look up at you from the tank -- expecting food. It's plump, being a much better eater than the other two. The one on the far right is problematic. He's feeding them crickets mostly, though my understanding was that they favor waxworms. I don't have any further details as I was focused on his Cynops!

They are big time beggars. As soon as I approach their tank,all eyes are on me, in the hopes of nightcrawler pieces

Dave, I have another friend who has bred T.verrucosus, T.taliangensis, T.kweichowensis, and T.shanjing, and will visiting over the weekend (and bringing with him some T.kweichowensis larvae for me to raise). If you have some specific questions, please list them here or mail them to me at timtim@gol.com

This thread has been moved over here from the Photo Gallery

Fantastic Tim. I just sent you an e-mail with some questions and since there are more then a few people attempting breeding, I'd like to post any answers or suggestions your friend might have. I envy your getting the kweichowensis larvae and hope that some of us in the States will be as fortunate soon. Baby pics as soon as possible please. Thanks Tim

(Message edited by dln on August 06, 2004)

Here's basically what I e-mailed to Tim. Anyone else have any other Kweichow breeding related questions (or even answers to these questions)?

I currently have 2 tanks set up for breeding kweichowensis. The tanks are 40gallon long tanks (48” X 12” X 17”). Each tank has 2 males and 3 females. Each one has half water and half land setups with a water depth of 6 inches in one and 8 inches in the other. Water areas have elodea plants for depositing eggs, and rocks, so the water portions have easy entry / exit. The land areas are dirt with some moss and hides. Temperature wise, the range is from about 68 F nights to 73 F days. For food, I mostly hand feed them parts of night crawlers and some wax worms. In an effort to stimulate breeding, twice a day I sprinkle the tanks to simulate rain.

My questions are:

What’s right or wrong with my current set up?

What is the normal breeding season for them? (I’ve heard early May to Early September)

Can you describe your set up for breeding them?

Are elodea good plants for the kweichowensis to deposit eggs?

What temperatures do you use for breeding them?

Do Kweichowensis require formal hibernation?

Are my water depths good?

Any information or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Dave, he said that the eggs would not be deposited on elodea. Like E.andersoni, they are laid near the water, but not in the water -- namely on moss on a slope leading to the water's edge (though sometimes in odd places like the shelter base). He said that while there's nothing wrong with having half water, half land, it would probably be better for you to reduce the water portion. He said his own rule about water depth is to make it as deep as the length of the longest newt. As for cooling, yes, it's effective to have a cooling period, though best not to let the temperature dip below 15C. And yes, when the temperature is brought up again to stimulate breeding, it's probably a good idea to sprinkle the tanks to simulate rain like you do already.

Anyway, I have a tank that I set up in expectation of receiving a gravid T.taliangensis on the basis of what I know about E.andersoni. He saw it and remarked that it would make a good breeding tank for either T.taliangensis o T.kweichowensis, except for the water being too shallow. I could post some pics of that setup to give you an idea, though it's not something I'm proposing as the appropriate setup for that species or others. Alas, the kweichowensis I received turns out not be gravid after all, so I will be converting the water portion to land.

(Message edited by TJ on August 08, 2004)

This info helps out a great deal Tim. I appreciate it.

Dave, here's some pics I took, not originally intending to make them public , of my amateurish setup for a gravid T.taliangensis. One problem with it, aside from the water area being too shallow, is that the water has soaked up to the topsoil, making it too damp for this species.

(Message edited by TJ on August 08, 2004)

One thing he suggested would be to move the shelter to the water's edge like so:



But he said the newts would prefer a much lower shelter than this.

Lots and lots of good advice. Thanks Tim. I'll rework my setups this week.

Apparently, at least one of my kweichows is particularly interested in the new moss bank. We shall see.

ugh-some of the photo links are lost-so i cant see the pics! on the top photo of the set up tim-i see you use what looks like an inverted basket as the starting point for your land area -here is another idea that works ok for me. (this is instead of siliconing a barrier in place) i take a closed bottom planter or shallow plastic tray. fill the bottom with rocks to weight it down and a layer of charcoal -then put in the soil and mosses and other plants-this leaves a distinct barrier and it wont become water logged. rocks can be put up against its edge to facilitate getting in and out of the water. the benefit to this is that it can be moved from tank to tank and re positioned in the tank.

Interesting, Paris, though pics would help By the way, the plastic container is not siliconed but just held in place initially by the rock. It's an amateurish setup but seems to be working for now. I am surprised to find the newt in the water area, which is filtered by a small Fluval, every now and then. She's seemingly healthy, feeding on waxworms. Wish I had a male to keep her company...

Tim

Do you perhaps know at what level of humidity the animals are kept outside the breeding season by that friend of yours? And at what level of humidity they reproduced?
And another thing, those 2 kweichowensis on the right on the second photo seem to have ulcers on their heads. (could also be lighting).

Greetings
~Mark

Hi Mark. The person who owns the newt in the first photos in this thread is not the same person who breeds this species and who gave me some of larvae and morphs I don't know what either of them does about humidity. I'll try to remember to ask the person who bred them next chance I get though.

Ulcers? Hmmm...the one on the far right sure looks like it has one.