T. carnifex egg viability

My colony of T. carnifex have started to lay eggs after 3-4 years of trying. I have not seen any promising eggs that are going through morphogenesis. The ones that seem to be taking shape, the larva turn white. I know from Patterson's book that this species has a genetic trait that 50% of the eggs abort during the neural cord developement. I was expecting this, but was hoping some would progress. I have two gravid females and three courting males. I was thinking maybe the first few eggs were infertile due to they never progressed and turned white. Then tonight I found some that has actually progressed (started morphogenesis) but they do not look viable. Their tank is well planted with elodia, java moss, and water sprite. I thought the elodea would be their first preference, but to my suprise, they are laying on the water sprite and some java moss as well. I'm doubting my plant material now. Any input with plant material, temps., lighting etc. would be beneficial. Their tank gets 12 hours of light and stays between 59-63F. Should I try new plants, modify the light, or even cool the tank a little at night to replicate normal drop in temperatures at night in the wild? Thanks for your help.

whoops...I listed the wrong author...I meant Griffith's book on European Newts...

Well, congratulations for your success. Firstly, I reckon that everything seems all right in your setup. Though on plants matters I do have elodea and java moss which work great for small European newts such as t.boscai, t.helveticus… I do have those plants in my t.carnifex setup though females doesn’t seem to be interested in them, they look for bigger leaves and any plant with bigger leave will do fine. Nowadays my t.carnifez are infecting with eggs the plant ‘cardamine lyrata’ which is a fairly easy plant (tropica supply those plants). I hope this helps you
Best wishes

Congratulations, Al! My crested newts oddly preferred plastic strips to real plants. Cut some strips from a plastic trash bag and attach them in a cluster to a small rock with a rubber band, and use it like a "plant". But, whatever is available, they will lay eggs somewhere!

When you say "white", do you mean inner part is white (like in Yago's picture), or do you mean milky/fuzzy white? If they are not milky or fuzzy, that might be the normal color for the larvae. Good luck!!!

Thanks,
The eggs have an inner white zygote, if no development occurs, they turn totally white, then get a fuzzy fungus growth after 3-5 days. Some do start taking shape...I need to wait and see. The pic that Yago provide of the egg looks identical to what I'm seeing. Thanks all, I'm thinking of trying plastic stips and larger leaf plants...couldn't hurt. They are not as voracious eaters for the past couple of weeks, refusing night crawlers. There setup has a host of live black worms and the newts are shedding skin. I have used beef heart in the past to give my gestational females a higher caloric food, but my beef heart sources have dried up. I throw some sinking fish pellet food periodically (a couple) that gut loads the black worms...it seems the black worms are reproducing more than the carnifex I'll keep you posted.

Hi Al,

what do you mean by 'do not look viable'?

It's not unusual to get infertile eggs, these will almost always get infected with fungus very quickly. This will make them go white and fuzzy as Jennifer mentioned.

Fertile eggs will take shape, but 50% of these will die soon after, as you say.

If they are finding plenty of places to lay eggs, I would say that there is no need to change your setup, just let them get on with it.

If your three females are all laying, you should soon have more eggs than you know what to do with!

I think you right. The ones that don't progress are probably infertile, and the others are only going to have a 50% survival rate anyway. I might have worried too soon. Maybe after a few more weeks, the fertile egg numbers will increase. The males are continuing to court the females. Thanks for your input.