C. orientalis egg?

[stefanie]

I picked up two cynops orientalis just over a week ago. I noticed this in my tank a few days ago and didn't think much of it because I thought I had two males.

Looks like an egg to me. Would really appreciate a second opinion though because I really wouldn't know haha. It was half dark and half white, but is now turning more white-ish.

 

[ian]

yep thats an egg ,might be a good idea to put some pond weed in for the female to use. The male will also eat the eggs as she lays so if you want to keep them take them out asap.

 

[cameron]

Definately an egg.

 

[stefanie]

That egg is currently in a plastic cup on it's own in about an inch of water. How would I tell if it's fertile or not? I really don't know which of my two C.O. are male/female. One does look more round and has been hiding where land meets water (where I have fake plants) I haven't seen either grab a hold of anything to lay an egg(s) I have a bunch of pothos in there. The egg I found was actually attached to the side of the bowl seen in the picture. I have to do a water change today, so I will inspect their hiding
spots.

I've posted these in another forum, but if you have time to take a closer look, I'd really appreciate it.

This is my suspecting female due to behaviour

Here's the other. This ones cloaca looks smaller to me though.

 

[jennifer]

Take another photo of the egg in a couple of days. At that point it should be obvious if it is fertile or not. As it doesn't have a "shape" yet, I'm already inclined to say it's infertile, but hey, don't listen to me, I obviously screwed up on sexing your adults

For egg laying, cynops prefer small leaflets that they can fold around the egg. Anacharis/egeria is the perfect aquatic plant for this, but most also are happy using plastic strips:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/eggstrips.shtml

 

[stefanie]

hahah, no worries Jen. Now I know I have one of each, I just don't know who is who yet. We put plastic stips in the tank this afternoon and discovered this while doing a water change

So that makes 2 eggs in total so far...

 

[gord]

I changed my C.Orientalis set up completely a few weeks back and lo and behold..eggs appeared. I'd never seen them before. Sadly they were infertile.But it's amazing how a big water change/habitat change can trigger egg laying.

GE