N.v.louisianensis - Finally some eggs again!

Niels D

Niels D

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A little village called Terheijden
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Last year we didn't get any eggs from our animals, probably because of the fact our male got some mold and our own offspring males were too young. This year my gf found a couple of these:
IMG_5081_zpsa1118390.jpg

Happy....... Joy!
 
Re: Finally some eggs again!

Nice, but which species? Notophthalmus, I guess?
 
Re: Finally some eggs again!

Oops, sorry. Forgot to mention that it's indeed N.v.louisianensis. I thought that our own F1 males weren't old enough and our wild caught male didn't make any move towards the female, but one of the young F1, a specimen without red spots, started to show off. Alas we lost two females last year. We put our remaining animals in a tank with a larger terrestrial area with dirt and plants. The females that died didn't leave the water during the winter. Maybe the bigger piece of land helps them to leave the water. Luckily we still had a female and now she started laying. Hopefully we can raise enough animals to make two extra 3.5 groups and turn our current 3.1 group into a 3.5 as well.
 
Re: Finally some eggs again!

You're very lucky that female survived! This does seem to be a delicate species of newt; some people do really well with them, but most have lots of mortality and health issues. Hopefully these eggs will turn into more robust CB animals....good luck raising them!

Will you rear these efts aquatically or terrestrially - you found before that they grew more quickly in the water, but perhaps this mortality thing might suggest rearing on land is better in the long term. WHat do you think?

C
 
The females that died were all wild caught animals. All larvae we kept for ourselves were males and they're doing fine. I think it doesn't matter if you raise them aquatic or terrestrial, because there are no differences between the animals raised in these two ways. The animal which was the smallest in the beginning grew up to be the biggest though and he was raised terrestrial. He grew this big after he went into the water. I also think that CB animals are way more stronger than WC animals when it comes to Notophthalmus animals which are sold in Europe.
 
I´ve seen the same kind of high mortality rate (for apparently the same reasons) in CB as people report in WC animals. Something is definitely odd about this species in europe...their propensity to develop fungal infections is abnormally high.
Regardless, congratulations for your success, Niels, i hope you raise hordes of the little devils!
 
I've lost a lot of animals, mostly females, in three years. Most of the animals died in the summer, though temperatures are cool. Another breeder I know also complains of the high mortality regarding to both CB and WC animals. Especially females die when they remain in the water for too long. He puts his animals in a terrestrial setup as soon as the females have stopped with laying eggs. I try to give them a really large terrestrial are within they're tank.
 
You might be onto something. I kept a group of CB N.v.viridescens and the majority did well while terrestrial, however shortly after some became aquatic, they started dying. I gave the rest to a friend so that he could keep them in an outdoor enclosure (five stars accomodation if i may say so) and again, once they entered the water it didn´t take long for them to start dying off. The odd thing is they could choose that time...
Perhaps the fully aquatic aproach that most people take with adults is not that great of an idea.
 
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What is your water chemistry like? Hardness and pH? Tannin content? These may be important, as for other species (the classic ones being Mantella and Dendrobates tads). There seem to be some populations that remain aquatic year round, or almost so, in the wild, so I don't think just being in the water can make that difference. Water chemistry could. This would explain why animals don't choose to leave the water, but survive if only allowed to stay aquatic for the shortest possible time...
 
That could be a reason, but what would cause the fact that the males can stay aquatic throughout the year without any problems? Do they need other requirements?

The water in almost all my tanks is PH 7/6 and DH 3/4 without using any water conditioners. I do water changes with rainwater.
 
I don't know if this is helpful, but I've noticed my female dorsalis begin to get thin and less active if I leave them in the cold basement (less than 62F) for too long. I always bring mine up into the main house from the basement in the spring and summer. They do well at normal summer house temps: 72 - 78F.

I know it's conventional wisdom that newts must remain cold, but many of these species are from the southern part of the US, where it gets pretty darn warm during the summer. But then, I've never really had to deal with the die offs that other people seem to experience.
 
Thanks for the input. I don't have a cellar, but due to the fact that my house is well insulated it doesn't get any warmer than 25 C except on very hot days (>33C). We don't get those very often in The Netherlands though. Our animals experience warmer temperatures in the summer for that reason. Due to an open window winter temperatures are pretty cold between 7 and 12 C btw.

What I know is that since I gave the animals a bigger terrestrial area and (forgot to mention) the fact that the entire new tank is bigger as well, there haven't been any losses. They're in a 80cm long tank filled up to 25cm with water. There's a filter pump "boxed" in a plastic container, which is hidden underneath the river sand substrate (like in all my tanks). The water is guided through a tube which ends up spilling the water over the background, which I made myself. Tubing and wires are hidden behind the background. The water flows over this background, where Java moss has already started to grow, to minimise the current. The setup looks a bit like the one I made for T.verrucosus, except for the fact that there's a waterfall in it with cork bark instead of a terrestrial area:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...89961-my-t-verrucosus-tank-just-finished.html
 
Interesting discussion. How does this specie live in the wild? Do the females move to land or do they remain in the water?

One thing: there are almost no different temperaturezones in the average aquarium filled with water, whereas in a terrestrial tank, especially a reasonably large one such as yours Niels, newts have a choice in mini temperaturzones. Just like they would in the wild.
 
I haven't got much knowledge about how they live in the wild, but I do know that some population go on land during the winter and that others stay in the water throughout the year. I believe their lifestyle resembles that of L.vulgaris a little.

Nvlouisianensisegg03042013_zpsdcb13cfa.png

Nvlouisianensis03042013_zps56f228b9.png
 
After only three fertile eggs we got a bunch of infertile ones and I'd lost hope that we would get any more larvae. Luckily the female did start laying eggs again in which we could see devellopment. She's on a laying spree at the moment. Happy...Joy!







 
Just looking at them every day gives me the impression that they don't change that much during the devellopment. When I look at these pictures I see they change a lot, though not dramatically of course. But still...
 
They look great! They remind me very much of my Lissotriton larvae, which don't seem to change at all and then are suddenly tiny terrestrial newtlets. How many larvae did you end up with?
 
I've ended up with 20 larvae. Alas a lot of eggs were infertile, maybe because of the fact that it's the first batch of this female. Hope I can manage to raise all of them into adulthood.
 
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