Noto larvae

[warrior]

I had about 15 Notophthalmus Viridescens larvae for a few months and now have just 6.As they get bigger and begin to look like a baby newt they die.I have no idea as to why as they wer'e eating good and growing since hatching from eggs.I've heard they are hard to raise but thought I was doing everything right.I've raised other species of newts from eggs to adult but Noto's are very tough and frustrating!Anyone have any ideas why they are so hard to raise?Why are they ok from hatching and then all of sudden die after looking healthy and almost a newt?

 

[Jennewt]

I don't know why, but I had EXACTLY the same thing happen with a group of Notos that I raised some years ago. Just as each of them got close to morphing, it died. Ultimately, none of them survived. I never had that happen to other groups of Notos I raised (even from the same group of parents), so it's always been a mystery to me what went wrong.

 

[EasternNewtLove]

I have had issues with my notos. I had two batches this year. The first group, all of them died.the next group I thought I would have better luck with because I could get them much better food. I had about 50 in each group. The second group, I have 6 left of. I think a fungus must have kille a lot of them because they seemed very healthy and were all eating. Maybe the issue is food? I had even feedi mostly daphnia to the second group, but then later fed mainly mosquitoes larvae, blood worms, and black worms. Maybe they need a large variety in the diet to keep them alive? I can answer your question really. I've heard that metamorphosis is hard on them so maybe your group was just too genetically weak to survive the stresses of it?

 

[JTinker92]

did your larva look like this?