Kaiseri eggs (F2)

[Davo]

I purchased 6 kaiseri juvs in 08( charity auction), they were bred by Alan cann.
I was not planning on trying to breed them until next year so they have been kept in a lge plastic container terrestrial set up, fed well with a plan of cooling them at the end of the year. About 4 weeks ago i noticed 3 of them were maturing 2 female and a male, they were always in or under the water bowl so i introduced a couple of inches of water and the male started tail fanning within days. I was not ready for trying to breed them but had a 2oo ltr tropical set up in the living room.I removed the fish, newt proofed the hood, kept the external filter running and lowered the water to about 12 inches. I added a lge cork island and some hydrocoarbonat to the external filter to raise the ph and cabonate hardness (read sludgemonkeys article).I also keep the lights off as they seem much more confident in natural light.
So far 9 eggs and female still laying,dont no if they are fertile yet but fingers crossed!
Female is not fussy what plants she lays on.
The newts were not cooled down.
Aquarium temp is 68f
ph 8.0
gh 60ppm
kh 40ppm These readings were done on api test strips so may not be 100% accurate.
Thought i would share an unexpected egg laying and will hopefully get some photos on soon!

Cheers Martin.

 

[Mark]

Re: Kaiseri eggs

My animals are from the same batch as yours. They too are pumping out eggs and fanning like crazy. Good luck with yours.

 

[Davo]

Re: Kaiseri eggs

Good luck with yours too, have any of the adults eaten any eggs or have you removed them?

 

[Mark]

Re: Kaiseri eggs

I've left them in situ for the time being. The adults seem to ignore them. I'll pull the larvae out - if they make it to larvae that is. Perhaps someone with experience of this species can comment on the egg eating potential.

 

[ajc]

Nice Most of my adults do not eat eggs or larvae if they are kept well fed.
When the eggs hatch, the larvae don't do much for up to a week, but when they start to feed, make sure they get plenty of brine shrimp/sifted Daphnia so they develop good belly colour.

 

[Mark]

Thanks for the info Alan. Without wanting to hijack Martin's thread, here's a photo of a freshly laid egg. The eggs are small and mostly lack pigment. Thin slate stone is stacked in piles on the tank floor and eggs are squeezed into tight gaps between the stones. From what I've read this is how eggs are deposited in nature.

 

[uwe]

brilliant photos!

Congratulations to both to the breeding!!

Uwe

 

[Davo]

Got 28 eggs out today with a turkey baster, i have left some in there that are a bit difficult to reach as i did not want to disturb them to much as they are still laying!
The first egg that was layed has fungus and has been removed, so far the others seem ok.
I have not put on any egg photos as Marks are excellent and my eggs look pretty much the same.

Cheers Martin :happy:

 

[froggy]

Fantastic news. Congrats to you both - please keep us updated on how the larvae do!

 

[Mark]

Quick update on mine - of the first batch of eggs only around 50% of the eggs began developing. Today I noticed that nearly all of the developing eggs had been eaten . Odd considering my group are fed frequently and showed no interest in the eggs till now. Top tip - remove eggs in future!

The females are still very gravid so I hope to get another spawning.

 

[Davo]

I have lost 33 to fungus so far. I changed to co-ops own bottled spring water and the losses slowed right down, may have been a coincidence but i now have 40 eggs developing well and about 40 more recent eggs from another female. The more recent eggs are smaller and have a minimal amount of jelly like coating than my first batch, but they look ok. Eggs that i cannot reach in the large tank have not been eaten by the adults. The females are still laying but have slowed down considerably.They lay there eggs on anything from plants, rocks and cork bark.

Cheers Martin :happy:

 

[SludgeMunkey]

No problems with oophagia here. I keep finding larvae in with some of the adults still.


I had a pretty big die off due to fungus here too. By switching over to heavily planted pond tanks, this issue stopped. (Trust me when I say keeping planted tanks with high water hardness was a bit of a challenge at first!)

I have not found any more eggs for nearly two weeks now. I pray that my females are done for the season.

 

[callina]

Hi,

pardon me, but I have a really silly question.:uhoh:
When I look at my N. kaiseri in comparison to my axies, I aks myself how big the eggs of the kaiseri will be. What is the size of kaiseri eggs? They must be very, very small.....hardly to be seen.

Good luck with your developing eggs and the larvae!

Tina

 

[SludgeMunkey]

If you are familiar with Cynops sp.- Neurergus kaiseri eggs look very much like them in size and shape. They are a bit smaller than Ambystomid eggs.
http://www.caudata.org/photoplog/index.php?title=&n=3251

 

[callina]

Thanks Johnny, so I´ll have a chance to find the eggs, when my kaiseri are laying (next year, maybe - I hope)

 

[Davo]

Saw my first larvae wiggle inside its egg today :happy:
I still have about 40 good developing eggs and about the same from the second female, still early days the fun will start when they hatch!

Martin

 

[SludgeMunkey]

Be ready. They do not eat for the first few days, but once they start, they are machines! Mine wiped out quite a few copepod cultures in the first week. I am feeding six times a day, and they still look a bit skinny to me.

 

[Davo]

First egg hatched today! :happy:

 

[RobM]

How are these getting on?

 

[Davo]

So far so good,
adults have been removed from lge aquarium to a terrestrial setup. The male would not leave the females alone and eggs that i had missed were hatching in the aquarium so the easiest way was to remove the adults. I think the females will be glad!
The first larvae to hatch have grown considerably( trebled in size) and sludge monkey is right they are eating machines i have never had larvae eat so much. If you plan on rearing them get 2 brine shrimp hatchers and lots of eggs beforehand.I have brineshrimp eggs hatching evey 24 hrs at the moment.Sifted daphnia also being eaten.
Dont want to tempt fate, losses minimal at the moment (3 larvae).
Sent some eggs onto a very good mate.
Lge batch being reared in 200ltr aquarium,external filter,Uv sterilizer. The rest in small batches in small aquaruims no filters, with live plants, small daily water changes, scuzz sucked away in turkey baster, nothing special really just good housekeeping.I am feeding little feeds( turkey baster half full) 3 or 4 times a day.I keep a small amount of sifted live daphnia in each tank as back up food.
Larvae have changed colour from a white to a gold with black peppering with pink bellies! :happy:

Cheers Martin