Paramesotriton die while metamorphosis

Can anyone help please?

My friend bred this newts and shared the eggs among us friends.
Now,they die while metamorphosis,at all places !
>
> When they reduce their gills they die.
> They don´t drown,there are many possibilities to leave the water,the
> water level isn´t very high,and there are many water plants to climb on.
> Temperatures are about 20 celsius.
> I´ve been breeding newts for over 25 years now.

Thanx !

Sorry to hear this. I had one similar experience (but in my case, other people raised the eggs to adulthood without problem). I can think of 2 possible explanations:

1. Pathogen. It is possible for a pathogen to be carried silently in the adults, eggs, and larvae. During metamorphosis, animals are more vulnerable.

2. Mutation. If the parents were just 2 animals (or an inbred group), there could be a recessive mutation that hits at metamorphosis.

how long do you leave the animals before removing them from the morphing setup?
I lost one of my P. fuzhongensis metamorphs recently as it went unnoticed in the morphing tank, and (because they are so "aquaphobic" at metamorphosis) it dessicated, even though there was a tank of water for it to swim in.
Chris

The landphase in paramesotriton is in fact the tricky phase Chris, so this does -unfortunatelly- not surprise me...

Henk
I have found that, at least with hongkongs, the landphase, although more difficult than the aquatic phases, is not too bad. Once (or if...- thats the trickiest part) the morphs start feeding they seem to do well.
I currently have 13 morphs, the eldest coming up to 2 weeks old. There is one left in the water.
Chris

One has made it so far !
We´ll see what happens.
I figured they need to be put in some very dark corner to feel more sure.
So I tried it with the darkest corner in the room and it worked.
Well,of course,I ´m aware that this experience doesn´t prove anything,but I carry on with the others this way.
Maybe it´s the light on the window sill,however,the sun rays didn´t touch them.

The parents are caught in Hongkong.
I forgot to mention that it´s P. hongkongensis.

(Message edited by Paskkal on July 17, 2005)

Well rasiing hongkongensis can take up to 5 years before they reach adult stage... inbetween much can go wrong. One of the difficulties is the skin-change. They need some kind of hard thing to wrub the skin off and at the same time moistening can work. Honkongensis is indeed one of the easiest to raise wart salamanders although P. delosutali , however rare it seems, seems to be easier too from what I have heard (hope I amy one day life to tell).

How do you keep Paramesotriton FUZHONGENSIS ?

I hibernated them with 4-10 degree for 8 weeks and now,in Juli, I give them a dry period with only 4" water level.
They live aquatic for the most time of the ENTIRE year,only at night I see them sometimes at land.
I hope they will mate in fall.

I keep three adults (1.2) in a four foot aquarium with water depth about 8 inches (20cm). 'walls' of flat rocks provide crevices, and I also have vallisineria sp. and java fern in the tank. Substrate is sand mixed with pea gravel. There are two floating corkbark islands with devils ivy/pothos (phylodendron I think) growing hydroponically on top. The animals rarely se these, and when they do it is usually a sign of poor water quality. Summer water temps are 20-22 C during the day with a 12 hour photoperiod. In the Winter, water temps go down to about 16C. The male first becomes sexually active November- December time and eggs are laid mid spring.
I feed my animals earthworm, bloodworm, Gammarus, Hoglice and occasionally lamb/beef heart strips.
Chris

About 25 have made it so far !!!!!
Maybe light really has something to do since I noticed that the guys don´t dare leaving the water during the day if it´s too light.They prefer staying in the water.But I also noticed that they drown very easily not to compare with Triturus or Lissotriton!
So I put them in dark corners while metamorphosing.Water level is about 1-2 inches (2,5-5 cm),with lots of waterplants that reach surface.
Now their in a regular terrarium and eat like champions !

Light doesn´t seem to affect the larvae this much that they die.As I said,it seems to make them very timid.
Since a lot of larvae have made it,we decided to keep some on the window sill,because it seemed too unbelievable that light could have been the reason for the death of some of them.
So it can only be the drowning since all of them made it on the window sill (without being directly hit by sun rays of course !).
As a resume with about 70 healthy morphs I can say: They drown very easily and the water level has to be very low,also has to be overcrowded with water plants.Darker Corners in the room help to make them not too nervous and shy.

Some of you guys mentioned that it takes very long until they´re able to mate.
Well, we ´ll see,because they grow very fast,and if it will go on like this,it doesn´t seem to take longer than Triturus or Cynops...

(Message edited by paskkal on September 09, 2005)