Cynops Pyrrhogaster / beginner

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idontthinkso

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Hi people,

I have questions about my C Pyrrhogaster

My tank is 100x30x40 with 1 female and 1 male. Pyrrhogaster.

Now, my question is how many could i have in that tank ? (im thinking about 6, my guess is 10 are max.)
And do i need more female / more male ?

I'd like to have them breed together too later.

Second thing: what do i have to monitor ? Hp ?
Im using light 10 hours a day, is it important to change while its winter, or only when they are breeding ?

Hope to hear from you .

Thnx
 
I would start off with 4 animals, if you stock the tank to the maximum and they do breed, and they will if cared for properly you will have no room to keep any of the offspring!
I think temperature plays a bigger role than photoperiod in conditioning them to breed but shortening day length slightly throughout the winter might be a good idea.
 
Hi, thanks for your message.

As far as i know my animals are still not sexually mature. So i was wondering if it matters or not (the light) while they are still young.

And about male/female i meant whats the best amount of females compared to males?

Also for fish you have to monitor a lot of different things such as water hardness, the pH, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates, is this also important for newts ?

Lately i have replaced about 1/4of the water once a week.

Really glad to finally have these animals but i couldnt find the answer yet to these questions :eek:
 
It pays to understock a tank so even though you could probably keep up to 10 animals, 6 sounds good. It will make maintenance much easier.

The sex ratio doesn´t seem particularly important. As long as you have more than one male and female, your chances are excellent.

It is a good idea to monitor ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as well as hardness and pH depending on your substrate/decorations.

You should reduce a bit your water changes. In such a large tank with so few animals, you probably don´t need to change more than 10% of the water every two weeks.
One important thing is to stuff the tank full of plants....and i mean FULL.

The photoperiod is fine now that it is winter, but you´ll want to adjust as the seasons move. To be honest you can maintain a 12 hour cycle year round....these newts breed very easily, they don´t need much of a trigger.

One last thing, if you are going to get more newts, make absolutely sure you acquire captive bred animals (directly from the breeder is best). Even so, a quarantine period is highly advisable.
 
Thanks for the amazingly fast answers :happy:

To provide the new newts a quarantine period i need another tank, which i dont have.. can they be kept in a curver box as well ? And how long do i have to keep them seperated ?

And to get them breeding do i have to cool down the water ?

Ye, about the plants...its pretty difficult to see my newts now and then because of all the plants im having :D:D
 
Is that like a large tupperware? If it is then yes, no problem. Try to get a big one. 60l or more would be ideal.
A quearantine of about a month should be sufficient. If any issues arise, it can be extended.

It´s not strictly necessary to cool this species down to trigger breeding. The variations of room temp seem to be enough. You can cool them, though, if you like, and this does successfully trigger breeding, it´s just that they are very likely to breed either way.
 
Breeding the newts is not so much a matter of a trigger, but making sure that they are in breeding condition. That means optimal housing, and lots of good nutritious food (earthworms!!). If you have enough plants that you rarely see your newts, that means you have happy newts ;) I personally like the fact that I can only see them when they choose to show themselves, but if you'd like to see them more often, try planting the taller plants only at the back most and sides of the tank, and only in one layer so you can see them hanging out there. Then choose shorter plants for the middle and front.
 
Its basically just a big plastic box
I have already exactly planted them as you said, thanks anyway :cool:

I think i know enough by now, oh just 1 thing.
If i feed them frozen Cyclops they cant find them because they are so tiny and i dont see them eating them either, so iwas wondering how you guys feed such small animals when they're frozen.

Best is live food of course.

For now i only give them earthworms (1or2 earthworms per newt once a week) and daphnia as live food.
 
If you're comfortable feeding earthworms that's really all you have to give them as they are the very best possible staple :) Although having live daphnia in the tank won't hurt, and your newts wont lose weight between feedings since they can always "top up", and a varied diet is always best. Daphnia contain carotene too so it might even improve the newt's coloration :)
 
You mean just earthworms only as food, or earthworms only as live food ?
Still dont know exactly how much earthworms to give them , the newts are 10 and12 cm.
 
What I meant is that if you fed them nothing but earthworms, they'll be nutritionally complete :) Of course a varied diet is always encouraged to keep interest levels high. Here's my feeding regimen for my newts and it's worked quite well!
Every 2-3 days I feed them about their body length in earthworm, or as much as they will accept. Aside from that though, my tank has a population of pond snails, red cherry shrimp, tubifex and bloodworms (shrimp and snails are self sustaining though I add the worms every few weeks). This give the newts a chance to practice their hunting, and to snack whenever they get hungry. Of course, those co habituating live food isn't enough to provide them proper nutrition, and will easily be hunted to extinction, hence the earthworm feedings :)
 
Ok, awesome :D Bet it looks pretty cool with all those animals :D:D
Can you help me out with the Cyclops ? Can i feed the frozen Cyclops on land ?
 
idontthinkso said:
I think i know enough by now.
Click to expand...

Oh, that´s definitely a mistake. Accumulating as much information as possible can only benefit you and your animals. Don´t be lazy about learning :p

You can feed frozen Cyclops with tweezers, but to be honest, there´s not much point to it. There are better options like larger fresh-water crustaceans and isopods.
 
I would stick to live food. Earthworms are the best staple of course, but in The Netherlands it shouldn't be too hard to get your hands on live blood worms (rode muggenlarven), white worms (enchytreeën) or tubifex. Check Salamanders - De Nederlandse Salamander Site and as where you kind find these in your neighbourhood. Chances are that there are some fellow keepers near where you live with some good tips.
 
Yeh true, if i'd live to be 100 i still wouldnt know all there is to know hehe :happy:
You're right about other food, i'll try to expand my horizons ;)

Thanks man !
 
@ Niels thanks for helping, ive been on that site for 1 month now (im that new boy with c pyrrhogaster lol)
 
yeah it definitely is trippy! and I'm enough of a geek to even observe worm behavior hehe. They usually hang out in the sand with their head sticking out, pulling it in when something approaches. IT's so cool to see the newts adapt, staying rock still till the worms re emerge, then striking super fast! I've never tried feeding Cyclops, but like azhael said, there are a lot more choices, that are more easily offered, and fill your newts up faster meaning less effort on your part :)
 
Do you study worm behavior too ? :wink::wink::D
To see salamanders hunt is amazing , nothing like it !
 
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