Pleuro offspring

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the P.waltl that I'm raising. There are about 20 of them in a 45 gallon octogon tank that I haven't cleaned in over a year. I started by putting old tank/tub water in the tank until it was full, then it got a decent population of Daphnia magna and cyclops. I added plants and a bunch of waltl eggs, and I've gotten very mixed results. The largest of the larvae is about 1.5 inches long, but the smallest are just over a half inch. I haven't added any food to the tank for the larvae since I put the eggs in (I added a few blackworms when I put the eggs in, which have since multiplied). They're only feeding on the micro foods in the tank. I've began to set up a couple other "pond tanks" like it to raise more larvae with ease.

That is really neat Jake. Do you filter that tank at all?

Pic look great by the way.

I haven't ever filtered the tank. I just keep lots of plants in it and keep a light on/off it for a 12/12 hour cycle.

I need to try that method. That seems quite beneficial to the larvae's development.

It has proven very beneficial to a select few, but others don't seem to be growing, and they'll probably become food for the bigger ones soon. I've raised axolotls and C.pyrrhogaster using the same method.

In the later stages of larvahood, Pleuros are capable of eating a huge amount of food. I can see this method working well for the first month or two, but at some point you'll need to add larger food (or arrange things so that the blackworms are easy for the larvae to catch).

Overall, seems like a nice easy method to try. I've certainly found that larvae in big "old" tank setups do a lot better than larvae in new clean setups.

This summer I raised T. grans, I. alpestris, and A. maculatum eggs by the [scummy] "pond water" method. I had very good results. It's so low-maintenance! Though I didn't really know how many larvae I had until they morphed.

its a method i've used for years and years and wouldn't use any other although i do add food after a month or so as they grow. I tried my first batch of shanjing the sterile way and lost nearly all of them, the next batches i used the seeded pond water methed and hardly lost any.

how scummy are we actually talking here? is this green water? how big do these pond-tanks have to be to work?

When I found out I had eggs, I took water from a pond, put it in a 5 gallon tank, (actually, more like 1/2 pond and 1/2 my treated water) and put the eggs in. But every week I'd go to the pond and skim with a brine shrimp net for food, and also gather algae with it. The tanks quickly became a bit murky with all kinds of sediment, leaves, and stuff, on the bottom. Most of the time it was all settled, and you could see the larvae, but never be sure of how many. You can see the state of my tank in these youtube videos:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yngF91AN-KY
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3Shu0y51j-U
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2K43Zt8ri3g
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=_W6MRToRfgE

Well, I mean to say, I only added pondstuff until they were big enough to eat blackworms, first chopped, then whole. That's why the larvae are jumping in the videos; I just added worms. I'd tap on the glass and then offer them, after a while some of them got the idea that tapping meant food, and others just followed. At that point, I did little water changes once a week, just little ones (they were only 5 gallon tanks), only because I wondered if maybe wastes were building up, but I didn't test the water or anything. I think all the larvae that morphed are very robust.

I´m keeping my cynops orientalis in the parent´s tank...so far they are growing extremely fast compared to my previous experience. The juvenile i have from the last breeding took 6 months to morph...this time i have a couple of 2 months old larvae that are aproaching morphing time. You get less animals (egg and larvae predation) but you get better quality in my opinion...
I hope i can raise any future offspring this way...not only it is eassier but you also enjoy the sight of them growing in a natural place (not a plastic tupperware), and you know you´re geting the tough ones.

Jennewt said:

In the later stages of larvahood, Pleuros are capable of eating a huge amount of food. I can see this method working well for the first month or two, but at some point you'll need to add larger food (or arrange things so that the blackworms are easy for the larvae to catch).

Click to expand...

Yes, I know they'll need a lot more food later in life, but I've had very poor luck with the younger Pleuro larvae in the past two years, and these are my first successful ones. Last year I gave 10 eggs to a friend, and he kept them in a nasty "pond water" tub, and two got to be a good size and he gave them back to me. I can raise them in tubs without problems after they reach about an inch in length, but for the larvae, this tank has worked wonders.

When I was younger I did something very similar. One summer I kept every kind of tadpole and salamander larva I found in a ten gallon with pond water and plants. A few months later I had two A.maculatum morphs and a bunch of P.crucifer and R.sylvatica froglets.