What's going on?? (T.taliangensis woes...)

[paris]

in the past few months i have lost 2.1 of my colony, the last one i found today. they are in the same tank, similar set up to what they did fine for well over a year in. these are not drowning deaths, i find them just dead in a resting position on the land areas (no leaching of toxins/signs of distress in death). it is unfortunate that i find them so late after demise because i cant dissect them at that stage. the only thing that i can think has changed for them since the move is probably the humidity (its gone up)-any ideas? temp range is 64-70 F usually.

 

[jeff]

Sorry to hear about your loss. The only thing that I can come up with is that maybe a foreign pathogen was introduced somehow.

 

[francesco]

were they eating normally?

 

[paris]

oh yeah, they have been eating worm chunks and some crickets. none of them were thin. its odd. there is one thing i changed at the new location-i have a styrofoam platform in there instead of the stationary one they had before (there are other platforms in there too now-one is wood and does leach some tannins still). the room is definitely more humid (pics of that mess to post later!) i did use a different supplier of worms for a while. with most of these guys i believe they have parasites like the kweichows, so stress might be a factor that tips the balance against them. thing is i havent seen signs of stress that i would recognize.

oh, they also have their own feeding forceps and water syphon, and the water is now filtered with a box filter-before it was just a bubble stone.

(Message edited by paris on December 28, 2005)

 

[wouter]

It could very well be that these animals don't want any water area right now. At this moment the T. taliangensis in Sichuan should be in hibernation (3000 meters altitude in central China must mean snow).

I keep my taliangensis in a land setup all winter. From all the species of Tylototriton I've kept, this one seems really resistent to drought. An increase of humidity in the winter is probably not good for them, however I'm not really sure if that would be the only reason.

 

[foster]

Paris,
I am sorry to hear about your loss. My group of 3.1 seems to be doing well. You mentioned using separate feeding forceps. I had wondered
about the practicality of doing this myself however so far I have decided against it - all three of my Tylo tanks are touching against each other, the crickets come out of the same bin, worms out of the same cup, etc.

Wouter,
At least half of my taliangensis enclosure is land with plenty of cover however all four individuals frequently stay in the water. The temp in the basement averages around 62-65 F during the winter. I read the information on your website and was wondering if I should place them in a hibernation box of some sort for a few months. Comments?
Chip

 

[mark]

Well the humidity could be the problem. Here in the Netherlands I have heard of other people losing animals during the winter when they kept them at a high humidity. I agree with Wouter that these animals should be kept completely terrestrial during the winter, with just a small water dish.

Chip,
In the wild taliangensis hibernates during the winter months because of the snow. However I don't believe it's essential to completely hibernate the animals for reproduction, a temperature drop to 10 C should probably be enough. Below 15 degrees the animals will hardly eat but this shouldn't be a problem for healthy animals.