Deloustali juveniles

[juraj]

A year old and 6cm long specimens. They live on chopped earth worms.

 

[chris]

Wow! lovely pics of lovely animals!
Chris

 

[sergé]

But...they will not get nice orange bellies this way. You can see that as larvaes they didn't have any Daphnia's else they would have been more orange.
But that's just a slight remark, they look very healthy, and that's much more important!

Sergé

 

[paris]

serge,
what is a good land food that can help with orange bellies?

 

[juraj]

Maybe they will some time

.
Except earth worms I put small amounts of tiny crickets and woodlice (porcellio). But... do insects and terrestrial crustaceans contain more carotene than earth worms ?

 

[ralf]

One can dust the feeders with tiny amounts of carotenoids to enhance coloration.

 

[paris]

i guess one could gut load the feeders too (a lot easier than teaching a newt to eat carrots!), but i was wondering -if in nature they are on land at this size, what natural food do they consume to add to the colour-or is it assumed that the colour is from food they consumed during a crucial period as larvae?

 

[william]

lovely animals, i think yellow is a refreshing change from the usual orange/red firebelly. I'd keep some like that unless it is essential for them to have carotenes.

 

[jennifer]

Juraj, very nice!!! You must be one of the first people to breed this species in captivity.

Paris, I've been dusting fruit flies lately with Nekton-Rep-Color. It's a reptile vitamin/mineral supplement with carotenoids. It could also be used on crickets, woodlice, etc. In the US, they sell it at blackjungle.com and nyworms.com.

 

[tomas]

The first was Czechoslovak scientist Ivan Rehák, in 1979 or so. He has been keeping and breeding them successfully till today, I think.
Rehák, I. (1981): First reproduction of vietnamese newt (Paramesotriton deloustali) in captivity. Živa 29 (6): 231.
Only in Czech language...

 

[tomas]

And second article from the same author:
Rehák, I. (2002): Vietnamese newt - dying jewel from Tam Dao. Živa 50 (5): 223.
Again only in Czech...

 

[juraj]

Oh,
I forgot to add that these are not bred by me.

 

[frank]

Hi,

I am always a bit suspicious about adding artificial xanthin derivatives (for enhancing reddish colours) to the food. At least in birds, this can lead to severe liver problems. In my newt offspring, I either use Daphnia during rearing or I just try to manage to have yellow bellied animals...

 

[tomas]

Juraj,
who did breed them?

(Message edited by tommy on June 22, 2005)