Housing P. Deloustali individually where can still see each other.

[noneofmany]

Since I've been doing a little reading on Paramesotriton captive care and would like to try breeding them (their so rare in captivity is seems like a shame for someone to get them and not breed them), I need some advice on how to house them individually.

My plan is to keep the males alone in 25 gallon aquariums while the females would be together in a 75 gallon tank.

I assume three females and two males would be the simplest minimum number for breeding purposes and would leave just thee tanks with same care requirements.

However, I also don't want the males in the tank with the females any longer than they need to be so until their ready to go they will remain separated.

The thing is I don't know how their going toit's time to mate with the females unless they actually know their there and that their females.

I'm worried they wouldn't have time to recognize each other until their nose to nose and would just fight without even thinking about it.

So I thought of having their aquariums right next to each other in such a way that they can look at each other and be aware of the other animals presence before their put together.

Has anyone tried this or some other method to keep them separate them without causing catastrophic surprise when their put together?

what about chemical signals? Would it help If I put some of the water in the females tank into the males?

Or better yet, a segmented tank. Something that keeps the newts in the same water system of a very large aquarium but still lets them see and smell each other.

How do you avoid warty vs warty aggression without making them unfamiliar with each other?

 

[Jennewt]

Are you sure you have P. deloustali? These are pretty rare. It may not be necessary to house males and females separately. If you kept all 5 in a well-furnished 75-gallon tank they would probably be quite OK.

When breeders keep the males and females separated, there is no problem with "recognition" when they are put together. The animals come into breeding condition based on their health status and temperature cues. Smelling the opposite sex has no influence as far as I know. Do you have a plan for how to get them cold enough in the winter?

 

[noneofmany]

Are you sure you have P. deloustali? These are pretty rare. It may not be necessary to house males and females separately. If you kept all 5 in a well-furnished 75-gallon tank they would probably be quite OK.

When breeders keep the males and females separated, there is no problem with "recognition" when they are put together. The animals come into breeding condition based on their health status and temperature cues. Smelling the opposite sex has no influence as far as I know. Do you have a plan for how to get them cold enough in the winter?

I actually don't have them yet. But I've seen that people who look for them enough seem to get them eventually. Of course, these set ups are applicable to other paramesotritons as well. So if I can find a hong kong warty newt, or better yet, a guangxi warty newt, I'd use the same kind of set up.

Right now I'm actually just getting started on designing the tanks (75gl, 40gl, and several 20gl), and looking for someone in Washington who actually sells caudates.

I would like to mention that right now I'm mostly looking for C. e. popei due to their legal status. I just want to be prepared if I find something else that would be preferable before I commit my tanks to one species.

As for cooling. I will need a heater to warm the tanks in the summer, but if I lower them in the fall or winter the temperatures in my room will bring down the water as low as I want it.