Still Unsuccessful Metamorphases

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Eileen MP

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Good evening,
I recently had 3 C. orientalis larvae surface. I placed them in a small plastic terrarium w/ moist paper towels (unbleached) on the bottom with moss on top. I have a feeding dish w/ live blackworms in the center, the dish is partially covered with a plastic card.
It's been about 14 days since they've surfaced. They're always in one corner or another, they rarely move to other places. They look very dry and skinny. The worms in the dish are untouched. I change out the dish daily to every other day, it looks like a waste every single time.
I'm so upset, it looks like these guys aren't gonna' make it either. Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated. :(
 
Is there any way you can try fruit flies, particluarly the Drosphila melanogaster variety?
 
how about just flooding them with food?

Live black worms in a dish or milk cap, fruitflies, white worms, pinhead crickets??? When ever i'm worried about animal eating but can't monitor the situation, I just throw tons and tons of food at them.

I've never raised larvae to metamophoses though so I have no experience. but if i had a baby lizard or sick animal that i couldn't monitor - that method generally worked.

Good luck.
 
Can they actually find their way into the water dish? If it's elevated from the "floor" of the container, they may simply not get into it. Can you just dump a pile of blackworms in front of them and see if they go for it? Sometimes they'll take live blackworms dangled from a tweezers or eyedropper.

Trying other live foods would be the best option, but not easy if you don't have those foods handy.

The only other option that comes to mind would be to try hand-feeding them tiny bits of chopped earthworm from a tweezers or toothpick. This takes patience, and a willingness to chop a worm.

If the juvs didn't "pig out" as larvae, they may have morphed too small to pull through. Of course, I can't see your juvs, but from your description I'm concerned that they may have morphed small to begin with and/or it may be too late to get them eating. It's worth trying some different things, though.
 
They are difficult to bring on sometimes but you could try keeping them in very shallow water with a lot of water weed like Elodea breaking the surface forcing them to remain semi aquatic. Put live blood worm or similar in the water and i find after a time they will hunt in the water. The water MUST be shallow or they will drown.
 
I would put in a clump of java moss...and then put the blackworms on that. Or otherwise get some well aged compost or part of a springtail/whiteworm culture and put it in with them.

At least IME I found that raising orientalis morphs semiaquatically did not work until they were at least a few months old.
 
I just wanted to say that C.orientalis juveniles are not the easiest to rear. It´s perfectly normal to have some losses, since some simply are not strong enough to make it. Try feeding them on very small waxworms...mine go crazy for them. After some time you can train them to accept bloodworms from the tweezers, and chunks of earthworm.
 
Thank you so much for your suggestions. For now I removed some moss so the newtlets get more exposure to moisture on the paper towels.

As for the feeding dish, it's very accessible, no climbing needed. The paper towels/moss is setup around the dish, so the feeding dish is even somewhat sunken.

I wanted to know for other live food (springtails, wingless fruitflies), do these go in the feeding dish too? Or on land?

Also, some have also suggested hand-feeding w/ tweezers. How do I do this? Do they need to be in water or as is on land?

EMP.
 
I posted a link to the picture below. The first picture is the first setup I had:
http://phantim.com/images/stories/2009/newt/newt1.jpg

After seeing how dessicated they looked, I now have this setup:
http://phantim.com/images/stories/2009/newt/newt2.jpg

This is so alarming to me, they absolutely hate going into the water area! They squirm right out when I've placed them there. They were so ravenous as larvae, it really breaks my heart to see them wither away!

I'm open to any suggestions/guidance.
 
I can reassure you that these problems are not unusual. OK, that probably isn't very encouraging.:(

Make the water shallower (and this probably means putting in fewer blackworms, but they only need a few anyway). They may be willing to "wade" for their food, but you can see that they are unwilling to "swim".

There were LOTS of good suggestions in the posts above. Are you unable to do any of them? It's fine to ask for more suggestions, but it would also be nice to know that you are at least trying some of the ones already offered.

I highly recommend getting some flightless fruit flies. Even Petco sometimes stock these, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. Get the phone and call some local pet shops. Use a cloth or paper towel between the container and the lid to prevent the flies from walking away. And try feeding the blackworms from an eyedropper, this really does work, at least sometimes. If you don't have an eyedropper, try a tweezers. Eyedroppers can be bought in the pharmacy department - sometimes you have to ask at the pharmacy desk, they aren't on the shelves.
 
feeding with eye dropper

Just a few questions re: feeding blackworms w/ eye dropper. Should this be done in water or on land where they're standing? How long should I try before giving up? They seem to get nervous the few times I open the lid to clean.
 
Where ever they are. Where ever they are most comfortable. If it doesn't work the first time, try and try again. you can't give up the first time, or the second or the 20th.

Good luck!
 
Wingless fruitflies

Hello,
Sorry for being such a dunce about this, but I got some wingless fruitflies shipped over today. They're crawling around in these tubes w/ some blue goo and a grate. Umm, how do I feed these to the newts w/out gettin' the stuff in the terrarium?
Oh yes, despite the moist papertowel/moss/water w/ food dish setup, I had to get rid of most of the papertowels and fill it w/ water, about 1/2 inch deep. They were looking way too dry.

which brings another question: will the fruitflies be okay in a more aquatic environment?

Eileen.
 
Re: Wingless fruitflies

The fruit flies are for feeding on land. Sprinkle them onto whatever island the newts are hanging out on. Remove any drowned fruit flies from the water, as some of them always end up there.

In most cases, you just sprinkle the flies out of the vial, and the blue goo stays put. If you are worried about it, you can sprinkle them into a jar, then sprinkle them into the tank.

What did you feel was "too dry"? If the newt's skin looks dry on their backs, this is normal. They are going thru a terrestrial phase of their lives and their skin become dry and a bit bumpy. They can still absorb moisture through the skin on their bellies, as long as they have damp towels or soil to live on.
 
Update

I was out of town for a good 5 days and returned last night. I can say that this really topped off my trip for the better. The blackworm dish was empty, the water in it was clean, I did not see any blackworms anywhere else in the terrarium.

And the newtlets were no longer hiding in a corner or plastered along the wall, but out, almost w/ bride on their "papertowel island." When not there, they're between their half/half on water/moss. They're definitely more mobile.

They no longer look desicated, but look well hydrated from head to toe. Their underbelly has a lot more orange, they even looked like they had grown a bit!

I changed up the feeding dish. And, once placed back, they seemed very interested and moved towards the dish after I had left.

Oh yes, though I purchased some fruitflies, I have not used them just yet, looks like they're finally starting to take to the blackworms.

Though I haven't seen it for myself, I think that they have just started to eat! I'll keep you posted! :D
 
Unsuccessful Metamorphases turned a success??

It has been a good 2 months since the guys have surfaced. I now have four of them. I was about to stand by my initial posting months ago. At first, only one of them seemed to be eating the worms. I saw that one side by side w/ the other. The other looked way skinny once again!!!

But purchased the fruitflies one last time and actually put them in there. Seeing all for of these guys is easily the most triumphant thing I've seen so far w/ them! They're eating, growing, and loving it! I want to thank everyone for their input, you guys helped saved lives!!!

EMP. :D
 
Re: Unsuccessful Metamorphases turned a success??

Heartwarming! Thanks for the follow-up!
 
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