The  last additions are three marbled salamanders, Ambystoma opacum. They appear to be two females and one male. Their current size is about 10cm which means theay are fully grown. They were bred last year in Germany. These fossorial animals are very shy and spend most of their time hiding. We hope that they will get used to our company and become more visible.

Four marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus) arrived today form a breeder located in Madeira. They are this year's babies and will stay fully terrestrial for the next couple of months, after which we will start introducing them to water. They will eventually live together with Fernando, our original marbled newt, and hopefully the group will breed in the future

Our first Cynops pyrrhogaster larva climbed on land on the 7^th of September, less than two months after hatching. The newtlet, named Matsuko,  is eating well. Another one followed on the 30^th of September. There is a stump of gill still visible on his neck.

Our first larva hatched on the 17^th of July and another one today.

Plenty more eggs are developing. The larvae will be fed baby brine shrimp (artemia) with some other food items added later.

See more newt photos here.

After months of waiting, we finally discovered the first egg today from one of our Japanese fire-bellied females. It look s fertile and the newt should lay plenty more so we will try to raise little newts.

New horsefield tortoises (hatched July 2009) were named Risoni and Linguine.

They will live with Tortellini once they have grown a little.

Sadly, one of our marbled newts died today. We don't know what was wrong with him -  he just stopped eating and became very weak. Hopefully we will be able to get a new friend for Fernando soon. We miss you, Alfonso.

Newts stealing shrimp food

Today we got new newts -  2 Marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus). Their names are Alfonso and Fernando. They morphed in June and are currently about 5 cm long.

On 21 October, Aki, Yoshi, Hiro and Naoko moved to their adult habitat after living in a small vivarium for a couple of months.

The tank is 90x30x37cm (36x12x15") large and curently has about 10 cm (4") of water. The water level will be increased gradually. They seem to be enjoying their new place so far, especially the vegetation. Aki, who had been terrestrial in the previous vivarium is now in the water with all the other newts.

The newts are now about 10cm (4") long which means they are almost fully grown.