Raising Newts, Releasing Adults.

On the 3rd, I brought some native plants back from Puffer Pond. I planted them, they looked great. I then had a jar just filled with Copepods as well as any other microscopic life was in the beaver pond. I realized the larva might benefit from the live food. Up to that point, they had been living only off of whatever tiny organisms were in my aquarium (nothing visible to me). It appears they fed based on the dark blobs in their body. You can see food being digested through their skin similarly to shrimp.

On the 17th, I released the adult newts that are the parents of the larvae. I am going to replace them with fish over the summer. They made great and very educational pets for me, but i had to clear up tank space in order to add fish. I let them go on the riverbank of the same vernal pool they had been collected in: Nupsee Pond.

On the 27th, I checked on the vernal pool. It was not well populated with caddisfly larvae and Wood Frog Tadpoles. I collected 2 caddisfly larvae and a bunch of Tadpoles. I placed them in the container with the Newt Larvae. This will be interesting because they all undergo metamorphosis into a terrestrial animal, and would all grow up alongside each other in the wild in their shared natural habitat, The vernal pool.

There was also tons of tiny invertebrates swimming in the water from the vernal pool. They should provide more food for the Newt larvae. The caddisfly larvae are interesting because they start off naked, like a typical caterpillar or mosquito larvae, but build a case that is used like a snail's shell, out of debris. This particular species used pine needles (fallen from the trees near the pond). The wood frog tadpoles are the result of the wood frog breeding nights (featured in March 2021).