The newt larvae are finally fully-legged, active amphibians. They have started eating blood-worms, gaining fat, size, and color. It wont be long until they grow lungs.
I finally have enough to say about the newts that i am going to start posting about them again.
Day of Hatching
2 days old - Gills expanding
1 week old
2 weeks old - snout grows
3 weeks old - Front Legs!
4 weeks old
2 months old - Back legs
2 months old
Y'all might be wondering why I dont keep them in the 29 gallon aquarium. First of all, in order to get them to metamorphosis into red efts, they need to feel like their vernal pool is drying up, also, The banded killifish would tear them to pieces. The reason why there are so many amphibians at Nupsee Pond is because it dries up annually, so their are no fish to eat the eggs, larvae, and tadpoles of the newts and frogs. Some of the wood frog tadpoles died during metamorphosis because they had their arms and legs torn off by the fish.
I also was guilty knowing that the there were still a few larva in the aquarium, continuously evading my net, when i added in the fish. as soon as the fish settled in, the newt population in my tank dropped down to zero.
I think the next stage of their development is metamorphosis. When mature newt larvae realize that a vernal pool is evaporating, they will absorb their gills, their skin will become hydrophobic, bright orange, and extremely poisonous, the larva will start gulping for air as it's lungs develop, and it will loose a quarter of it's body weight during it's difficult transition from aquatic organisms to terrestrial organisms. At this point the newt will be called a "Red Eft" and the only objective to this 3 year terrestrial phase is to help the population spread to new bodies of water. If the eft can not find a new suitable body of water before it becomes an adult, it will use a biological compass to navigate back to it's larval home. As an adult, it can survive well either in the water, or on land, and switch back and forth. Every February, aquatic adults living under the ice will reproduce and create the next generation of larva.
I now watched as their gills shrinked. After a few days, they were terrestrial. I had bred adult newts, and raised the babies.
