Skinny female T. karelinii (infertile?)

I have a female T. karelinii who is about a year and a half old. She has always been on the small side and I have been forced to keep her separate from my other three adults because they were constantly picking on her. I feed her every couple days, just like my other newts but she continues to remain extremely skinny. Never putting on fat like my other adults. She also never went gravid when my other females did (and appear to be doing again, twice in one year!).

I was wondering if anyone else out there has ever seen anything like this. My theory is that she is infertile at the level of not producing eggs, and maybe does not gain the weight required for that? Or, she just has an extremely high metabolism (sometimes she looks even skinnier than my male who also stays much thinner than my females). My last theory is that perhaps she is still a juvenile and has not entered the adult cycle of egg production and weight gain? Again these are all just guesses based on the assumption that there is something different about this female.

Let me know what you think. I will try to get some pictures.

Here is a comparison photo of the skinny female, and one of my other females. The skinny female had been eating for about five minutes at the time of this photo and my other female ate yesterday and had just been placed into the container for the purpose of the picture. This is about as fat as the skinny female gets. She does eat as regularly as the other adults who, as you can see, eat very well. You can notice in the second picture her interesting coloration of being covered in blue spots. This, in addition to her size, distinguishes her from the other newts. Two of the other females I gave away had that coloration, and my male had spots for awhile (they have since disappeared). I don't think the coloration is that important though. I don't know. I am just telling you everything I know.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Being the owner of two that you gave away, I have noticed a difference between the two. One has been in the water since day one and has (as far as I can tell) never left the water. She has also become plump and gravid. The other hates the water. I have a floating island and that is where she spends most of her time. It takes some very crafty tricks to get her to eat anything and she has not developed in a plump manner. i now have a male who is in full breeding mode and has been both in the water and on the island. The island girl has not developed the large tail as most do during the breeding season while the other has.

Would these issues that Patrick and I are dealing with be typical of the species or just individual temperments?

eldaldo said:

My last theory is that perhaps she is still a juvenile and has not entered the adult cycle of egg production and weight gain?

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I'd go for this theory- it's still pretty small, and less than two years old. I'd not even be 100% sure it's a female at that size.

It's not that skinny, keep feeding it up and it should be OK.

I know that we are sure they are female. At this stage in their life it is almost impossible to not know what sex they are with the distinct differences between the sexes during the breeding season.

You are right that we should keep feeding them though and see what happens.

I guess that is all we can do. I agree with Travis though, the juvenile theory is my last resort. I just feel like she should have developed by now. Especially in captivity, with the amount of food I have been supplying her.

Travis, you mentioned that yours stays on the island all of the time. Have you noticed her being bullied at all? Mine spent a good deal of time on land when I was keeping her with the other three that bullied her. I put her in her own tank and she returned to the water and started eating a lot more. Not that it has really made much difference to her size.


Yeah, I feel bad Travis. I feel like I sold you a bum newt. My only defense is that I didn't recognize this problem at the time. I hope that the other one has twice as many eggs to make up for it. How are your larvae doing by the way? I give mine another month or two before they are all morphed.

When I first got my female T. karelinii she would not enter the water and was difficult to feed. She could not hunt worms and her "attack area" was small. She seem like she had development issues. I removed the island when the temp was dropping. She could only rest with her head out of the water. Eventually she took to the water and started eating like a champ. She has out grown the male and has not stopped laying eggs for the last month. My male has grown a full crest but has not shown interest in breeding, all the eggs are infertile. Hopefully next season the male will get the lovin' feeling. I really like these newts. The male is Hopper because he bounces up and down when hand fed and the female is Lazy Daisy because she would lay on the floating cork island all day. I will take some pics and post them soon.