Update on CA newts

[Roughskinned]

Hey all! I’ve had my group of CA newts for a while now, and am finally beginning my quest to breed them! While there has been next to no information on exact breeding cues, I have essentially been trying to mimic the weather of an area in their native range of California. I’ve kept them relatively drier for the past few months, and while in August I had them at about 72 degrees, their enclosure has gradually dropped to 63 and it will be getting lower. The rains in CA just started this week, and with their arrival I have installed a rain chamber-like system in their enclosure that will drip water across their tank throughout the night. It will stop in the morning, and my goal will be to make this system rain every time it actually rains in CA, so that I can copy their frequency. Additionally, I have their lighting connected to a smart plug which I have set to match the light cycles of the same area of CA.

while nothing crazy has happened, they appear to be gradually spending more time in their water area. This so far has been relatively small and shallow, but can comfortably fit all 4 newts. Later in the season, when the newts would have arrived at their water bodies in CA, I will be giving them a massive water area that’s 3/4 the size of their entire enclosure.

wish me luck!

 

[Roughskinned]

Update: Hello all! last week, the newts hit 55 degrees and I’ve been changing their water with 40 degree water or so. Today, I expanded their water area so that they get the impression of a raised water level, and now, their set up it about 40 percent land and 60 percent water.
I put all the newts on the passageway to the water area, and all ventured in. To my extreme surprise, a suspected pair (based on size as one cannot really tell genders in their terrestrial form, which is what they are in right now) actually went into amplexus! The female swam around in this way for about 3 minutes, and then she started to leave the water area. After about 10 minutes, all the newts had left the water area for dry land.

While I do not think it is cold enough yet to stimulate full on breeding, this gave me lots of hope that what i have been doing could be working. I hope that from hear they begin their aquatic phase and actually get down to it.

 

[Roughskinned]

Hello everyone! An update on the taricha torosa:
Some things changed this week. While the temperatures in my state have gone up in the past week (hopefully they will go back down) the light cycle has been consistently changing to simulate the winter. The two suspected male newts have both entered the water! They have both developed noticeably thicker tail muscles, but despite this fact, they haven’t developed any noticeable tail fin and have not bulked up yet, which is somewhat odd. Their skin does appear to be smoother however, and like I said they haven’t left the water since they entered. Both of my suspected females appear to have swelled with eggs, though they have not entered the water themselves. I suspect, and hope, that they will enter the water as it gets colder.

also - would this thread be better in the species discussion forums?