Feeding Cynops Tadpoles

So I've had three c. orientalis for about three years now, two males, one female. I never thought about breeding them before, didn't think it was possible without manipulating their environment more than I wanted to. Suddenly, on Thursday I'm feeding them and notice 3 babies! So I've segregated them from the adults into their own tank, and proceeded to the aquarium store to buy a set up to grow some brine shrimp larvae from dried eggs. Anyway, after growing them for about a day and a half they were finally hatched so I added siphoned some out of the hatchery, filtered out the salt water, rehydrated them in fresh, dechlorinated water and unleashed them into the tank with my 3 tadpoles.

My concern is the quantity. I only put in a little bit I thought, but I've got literally hundreds, possibly THOUSANDS of larvae in with my babies now. I'm worried that they might overwhelm my tadpoles. Should I be worried? Or will they be ok? If it is a problem, how should I get rid of this horde without disturbing my babies?

Don't worry about it! The brine shrimp will be dead in a few hours anyways.

Brineshrimp do not present any danger to the newt larvae as far as I know. They must be taken out after a while (probably less than 2 hours) though, because they can't survive for long outside salt water and start dying, which pollutes the water for your newt larvae. It's best to schedule your daily cleaning after you've fed the larvae. The brine shrimp should be offered in a high concentrations because newt larvae aren't that good at hunting...as you may have noticed :happy:.

There is a very interesting thread about raising Cynops babies here, you might find it useful. Also check out the Reproduction and Rearing section on Caudata Culture.

I had problems understanding your message at first and had to read it a couple of times - the little baby newts that come out of eggs are usually referred to as newt larvae, sometimes people say newtpoles. Tadpoles is usually reserved for frog babies. Freshly hatched brineshrimp (artemia) are called baby brine shrimp or BBS.
I am no expert but this is the "terminology" most people seem to use

Hi there,

I raised my newly hatched larvae on BBS without any problems, the only thing you have to be cautions about is that they will not be sufficient to feed your growing larvae for long. You will eventually need to go to something larger in size or you will notice that your babies won't be growing.