When will it happen? (Tylototriton verrucosus)

[dawn]

I've been reading the care sheets on my newt about how when they become adults they are aquatic, but as juveniles they are terrestrial.
My Elektra is about a year old. She's not interested in any water deeper than an inch or so.
How old is when will she want a deep tank?

 

[dawn]

I also have another question about my Elektra. I knew she was responsive but I didn't realize she would eat from my fingers or that I could feed her earthworms (I've been feeding her crickets and blackworms from a bowl). Inspired by all this learning I've been doing from this site, today I tried to feed her a small earthworm from my fingers and she ate it! I'm still glowing from the love. Then anyway after a few minutes she opened her mouth wide open and it looked like she yawned (or was she burping after her big meal?) I never saw that before except for yesterday, a while after her cricket meal, she also did that. Anyone know what that's all about?

thanks for any input.

 

[jennifer]

Hi Dawn, I moved this post here, as it was misplaced in the Tylototriton section of the forum. I assume Electra is your Notophthalmus eft?

Congrats on the hand feeding, worms are the best food, and hand feeding is a good way to know that they are eating.

Yes, newts yawn.

I think the conventional wisdom is that eastern newts spend 1-5 years as efts. Regarding water, watch for the eft to change to the adult coloration (more greenish, less orange). At that point, you can try putting it into a more aquatic tank. Even adults can remain terrestrial, however, so you may at some point need to "push the issue" if you want it to be aquatic.

 

[dawn]

HI Jenn,
Sorry, I should have been more specific. No, I was talking about my Tylototriton verrucosus. I've been looking at people's pictures of them and have been reading here that juveniles are terrestrial and adults become aquatic. I had no idea they were aquatic! The first time I ever saw an Emperor Newt was in a zoo, and I can't remember which zoo. I thought it was the most beautiful creature ever, and since then I wanted one (actually, the one in the zoo was much more orange and looked like the shanjing. I just recently joined the forum and I didn't even know there were all those different kinds of Emperor Newts, I thought Elektra would get more orange when she grew up). Anyway, they had on the sign that the one they had was quite a few years old and they had it living in a terrestrial set up with just a little shallow pool of water. So I always assumed that they were terrestrial like a fire salamander, and I never read otherwise. Not that there's a wealth of information in your standard newt/salamander books on Tylos. I have been learning so much here! Until recently I had just two pools in her tank with about an inch of water each. Since I read about them being aquatic about a week ago, I replaced one of the pools with a 4 inch deep pool to see if she was interested. She didn't seem to like it at all and wouldn't go in it. So I switched it back. So I'm wondering when she will become interested in the aquatic life. I have Notophthalmus newts and have raised some from egg through juvenile to aquatic adult. They were good about letting me know when they were ready to change. But I knew sort of when to expect it and what to look for. With Elektra, I'm clueless. Thanks for any help!

 

[gord]

Dawn:

When I got my two adult verrucosus two years ago+ I assumed they were the same as shanjing and kept them terrestrial.They did ok..but just sat like lumps.Once I found this forum, I learned that they will go aquatic if the water is warm (72-74 F). They've been fully aquatic for a year and even laid eggs (duds sadly).But they never stop swimming in the water and eat like fiends.

I highly recommend you look at the archived threads on the tylototriton forum. There is much info there.

Good luck.

Gord

 

[dawn]

Thanks! Elektra is anything but a lump. She is constantly exploring the terrarium, in and out of her pool like the cats want in and out of the house, and now eating worms out of my hand (two today!) When I feel stressed, just looking at her little face melts it all away. I'll spend more time reading old posts on the tylo forum.
By the way, her pool stand is made from a dishrack from the dollar store that I cut up a little. I was inspired to do that by something similar I saw in a picture of someone's tank here on the forum!

Can someone put this back on the Tylototriton forum? thanks also.

(Message edited by jennewt on December 21, 2006)

 

[jennifer]

Oooops... back to the Tyloto section!

 

[TJ]

Yeah, so please everybody, do put the species name in the thread title whenever possible. It may look like most people are already doing that, but to a large extent it's me (or possibly another moderator) editing the thread titles...