randok
New member
Hi All,
About 4 weeks ago I found a larva swimming around in my tank. I have a 46 gallon heavily planted tank with 2 adult Notos (N.v.v.) and 1 recently morphed young adult. Since I have alot of large river rocks at the bottom of the tank, I was unable to catch it and after a handful of attempts I gave up. It kept darting into the rocks (it's really fast!). I thought it was a goner.
Just now today there was a new sighting! Rather than attempt to catch it this time, I quickly took a couple of pics of it. It has definitely grown (I'd say it is about 1.5" head to tail) so it is finding enough food to survive somehow. I feed my Notos chopped up nightcrawlers, live blackworms and sometimes frozen bloodworms. The blackworms usually do not all get eaten right away and some of them are able to hide in the river rocks. So I'm guessing that the larva is surviving off of that or some other creatures that might be living in my tank that I don't know about.
Should I remove the river rocks and attempt to capture the larva? Or is it better to let it live in the tank until it morphs into a juvenile? The tank has 2 decent chunks of cork bark floating in it and lots of plant matter for it to climb onto when it is ready. This is the first time I've taken care of newts so I'm a little bit concerned that if I catch the larva that I may do something wrong and it won't survive (even after reading the guide on Caudata Culture). Here are a couple of pics:
closeup of the larva - it has more pronounced gills than when I first saw it:
and here's a shot of my tank. If you look close, you can see the feeder at the waterline on the left side. I put blackworms in there, and they eventually fall through. The larva has mostly been seen around this area at the bottom (usually on the driftwood hanging out in the java moss):
any advice is appreciated. thanks!
About 4 weeks ago I found a larva swimming around in my tank. I have a 46 gallon heavily planted tank with 2 adult Notos (N.v.v.) and 1 recently morphed young adult. Since I have alot of large river rocks at the bottom of the tank, I was unable to catch it and after a handful of attempts I gave up. It kept darting into the rocks (it's really fast!). I thought it was a goner.
Just now today there was a new sighting! Rather than attempt to catch it this time, I quickly took a couple of pics of it. It has definitely grown (I'd say it is about 1.5" head to tail) so it is finding enough food to survive somehow. I feed my Notos chopped up nightcrawlers, live blackworms and sometimes frozen bloodworms. The blackworms usually do not all get eaten right away and some of them are able to hide in the river rocks. So I'm guessing that the larva is surviving off of that or some other creatures that might be living in my tank that I don't know about.
Should I remove the river rocks and attempt to capture the larva? Or is it better to let it live in the tank until it morphs into a juvenile? The tank has 2 decent chunks of cork bark floating in it and lots of plant matter for it to climb onto when it is ready. This is the first time I've taken care of newts so I'm a little bit concerned that if I catch the larva that I may do something wrong and it won't survive (even after reading the guide on Caudata Culture). Here are a couple of pics:
closeup of the larva - it has more pronounced gills than when I first saw it:
and here's a shot of my tank. If you look close, you can see the feeder at the waterline on the left side. I put blackworms in there, and they eventually fall through. The larva has mostly been seen around this area at the bottom (usually on the driftwood hanging out in the java moss):
any advice is appreciated. thanks!