Question: Help! Unexpected babies!

J

Jesthing

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
New Brunswick
Country
Canada
Display Name
Jessica
I just got back from a vacation and my newts(CFB) made babies! I have two CFBs but I didn't even know if they were male/female until then. I found some eggs and 2 hatched larvae. I moved them to a separate container so they wouldn't get eaten. I will get a brine shrimp hatchery as soon as I can. I was only able to find about 10~ eggs in total. I read that CFB could lay a lot more eggs than that though.. Does the egg laying occur over a long period of time? How often do they reproduce? I'm a bit worried as I only have one aquarium.. any advice would be really appreciated!
 
Since it's their first clutch (presumably) only a few is expected, your CFB also might be too young to be breeding and the female could only produce that many. Regardless, if you don't want more, Seperate them. It's the only thing you can really do to ensure you have no more eggs.
Keep an eye out, she may lay more. Generally they only have one breeding season per year, but in captivity they can reproduce where ever whenever given the right conditions.
 
Yeah, I read that and the article and the one about appropriate foods. I guess I could always get 2 smaller aquariums and house them separately to prevent further breeding.

How long do newts take to reach maturity?
 
Not sure exacttly, but I'd imagine they take around 6 months or so. But again that doesn't make it safe to breed them. Basically the appropriate age (again not sure for CFB) would be around 1 1/2 years.
If you mean when would the larvae morph, it would be in around 4 months time after they hatch.
 
Sorry, I meant the larvae.. so I could know how long I could keep those together before I had to worry about them trying to breed with each other too. I'll just separate the "mature" newts now and the babies later I think.
 
Well once they've hatched, you'll have about 6 months, mabey more. Not sure you'll need to seperate them until you see that they are sexually mature, so look for the tell tale signs of that (you'll need to otherwise you could be putting males and females in the same tank again).
 
Once the larvae metamorphose into juvenile newts, C.orientalis under goes a terrestrial eft stage which can last about 1-3 years on average. Once at this point though, there are methods of keeping the efts in a semi-aquatic set-up, which is much easier than fully terrestrial. Like Ian said, I would still be on the lookout for eggs, as the female can lay on and off for a period of months even.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks a lot for the advice :]. I will put the female in a smaller separate tank (they are currently 2 in a 20 gallon) and watch carefully for eggs. I am just assuming the one that more plump is the female.. Since they seem to have the same size cloaca.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
     +1
    Unlike
  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
     +1
    Unlike
  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
     +1
    Unlike
  • Clareclare:
    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
     +1
    Unlike
    Clareclare: Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus... +1
    Back
    Top