Looks healthy and happy- good to see.
I have 7 efts at the moment. Still trying to find the right food for them... got some bean weevils and some tiny crickets, aswell as fruit flies, blood worms, white worms and chopped earthworms. The older ones are interested in food and I've seen them eat a few times, but if I try to feed them with a cocktail stick it just scares them, mine are quite timid, a few like to roam about. I'm at work during the day, so cant really tell. I am concerned about their eating though.
One morphed last night and I think I've another today.
The one today though still has huge gills, but it's doing the gasping thing and trying to reach the top. I couldn't really tell if he/she was morphed yet in the tank, so I put the moss it was in and some tank water and gravel in a bowl to see. Still has really big gills, but is doing the gasping thing. I might just leave it in the bowl until later when I think it will morph, water temp is currently 16/17 oc, should be ok right? If I put it back in I might not catch it again..... now I've stressed it so much :s
Most of them seem to really freak when they are morphing (which I can understand), but they tend to go to the opposite side of the tank where there are no plants, that's no where near the ramp to get up to land area, then they really seem to start panicking- so I have been staying up late( when I notice) to wait until I can catch them. Then I put them in a sterile glass ashtray with some tank water and a gravel slope, put it in the terrestrial tank and wait for them to emerge.
Some bad news from my adults tank where there are new newt larvae developing/ eggs- have found Damsel Fly larvae- the first I found by chance, no idea how because it was so small, but so glad I did- removed it and released it in a pond far far away from my house. Since then I have found another 2, which I ended up having to kill as one kept burrowing deeper under my gravel and I had to grab it, and then one that had developed a bit more was bigger, more gross and white. I killed it because I tried catching it and being nice, but it swam into plants where some newt larvae were chilling and I spent like an hour or so trying to find it after because it was so well hidden, once I did I just grabbed it with tweezers. Not good. There is bound to be more now- worried- not only because these things are awful and will eat the newt larvae, but they've also eaten all the little bugs that were sustaining the newts.
By the way I didn't want to kill them- I would've tried to put them in the pond like the first one, but they were being difficult and I had to choose.
