Hongkongensis eggs question

G

Greewok

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
103
Reaction score
4
Points
0
Location
Illinois
Country
United States
I came home from work today and noticed one of my females hanging on to a piece of elodea like she was going for ride. I didn't think much of this at first since they like to hang on and around it. When I went to feed them, something caught my eye on one of the branches. It appeared to be an egg, upon further snooping around, I managed to find seven more what I think are eggs. What's throwing me off is the size of these eggs, I thought they would be larger. They look to be in the 3-4mm range or so. Also, the yoke is multicolored with 3/4 of it dark brown and the other 1/4 white. From what pictures I have found on the eggs, most peoples Hongkongensis eggs are all white? Is it possible that my female is holding on to them too long and they are a little bit more developed, or are they duds? I will try to snap a photo this weekend.
 
Congratulations, you have newt eggs! When they are first laid, the egg will have a dark side and a light side. After the first day or two of development, they will look more uniformly off-white, as the single egg becomes many cells.

See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/series_Phk.shtml
 
Congrats! Good luck with them.
 
Just a small update, the female still has been laying eggs since last Thursday. I would say there is another 30 in with the parents. I pulled 12 out originally from the tank. It's hard to get a good look at the eggs I pulled out as they are wrapped up pretty well. From what I can tell so far the eggs are starting to take on an oval shape and are becoming a solid color. Hopefully in a few days I will know for sure if they are fertile or not.
 
They are fertile, going to pull some more from the parents tank and separate them.
 
Congratulations, well done.
 
Great job! Your females should continue laying over the next couple of weeks.
 
Nice work. Make sure the water quality is kept good throughout development to prevent premature hatching.
 
Well, today my other female started laying eggs too :wacko:
 
Excellent news, and thanks for the video. Are these newts recently acquired? If you've had them for a while, do you have any breeding tips?
 
That's great news! I loved your video, good luck raising hoards of hongkong babies;)
 
I walked into my study yesterday and saw my female hongkongensis laying on her side on bottom.I flipped out and thought she was dead,but when I looked closer,I could see she was locked onto to some floating weed(don't know what kind) and was doing what can only be described as a humping motion. Laying eggs!

My hongkongensis apparently laid eggs sometime last winter as well..but I only found out when I discovered two tiny juves in the tank. They didn't survive, sadly, but I'm hoping I'll have better luck this time. I too could barely see the eggs and was surprised they were so small. I see about a dozen so far. The female is huge,at least 6 inches,and she must be loaded with eggs.She seems to be most actively laying at night.

I've done nothing out of the ordinary,but did do a massive water change/filter cleaning last week, which may have helped. The male has been in spawning condition for a month and was being very aggressive towards her. He is not aggressive most of the year.

I'll attach a pic of the big girl I took today.

GE
 

Attachments

  • Supertanker hongkongensis feb 2009.jpg
    Supertanker hongkongensis feb 2009.jpg
    217.3 KB · Views: 439
Congratulations, Gord! That's wonderful news.
 
fantastic! I remeber a few years ago, on this site, when breeding this species was pretty much unheard of. Well done!
 
The egg laying continues.She's having trouble with cabomba..but is trying like heck! Looks like a couple dozen eggs.Fingers crossed.
 
Update...

I found 3 or 4 of them last night floating at the surface. Looking closely at them, their gills have shrunk a lot. I added a few branches and bigger pieces of wood breaking the surface before going to bed. When I woke this morning, they were out of the water crawling around, much to my surprise!

Now the fun begins :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Shane douglas:
    with axolotls would I basically have to keep buying and buying new axolotls to prevent inbred breeding which costs a lot of money??
     +1
    Unlike
  • Thorninmyside:
    Not necessarily but if you’re wanting to continue to grow your breeding capacity then yes. Breeding axolotls isn’t a cheap hobby nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It costs a lot of money and time and deditcation
     +1
    Unlike
  • stanleyc:
    @Thorninmyside, I Lauren chen
     +1
    Unlike
  • Clareclare:
    Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus Japanese . I'm raising them and have abandoned the terrarium at about 5 months old and switched to the aquatic setups you describe. I'm wondering if I could do this as soon as they morph?
     +1
    Unlike
    Clareclare: Would Chinese fire belly newts be more or less inclined towards an aquatic eft set up versus... +1
    Back
    Top