UK Crested Newts

02/01/2025

Northern Banded Newt (Ommatotriton ophryticus) coming into breeding condition.

31/12/2024

Proud dad and one of his offspring, just a few minutes old. S. salamandra gallaica (Grândola, Portugal).

30/12/2024

Great crested newt (T. cristatus) males coming into breeding condition.

28/12/2024

Clean-out day for the marbled salamander larvae, and one in particular stood out against the other 55. 🧐👀
(Ambystoma opacum).

26/12/2024

A nice surprise this evening. Four S. salamandra gallaica larvae in the water bowl.

25/12/2024

A Christmas present from our Triturus karelinii (Southern Crested Newts)... our first egg of the season!
🎄🎅🎁🥚

09/12/2024

Marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum) larvae growing rapidly on a diet of daphnia and cyclops - now moving on to mosquito larvae and whiteworm. (Ave. temp. 15°C).

08/12/2024

Some of the weird and wonderful Triturus carnifex colour morphs that we have bred recently.

New 2024 "World First" colour morphs. Melanoid-flavisic, pink-eyed flavistic, silver-eyed melanoid-flavistic, Triturus carnifex.

28/11/2024

It makes a bit of a change to be rearing larvae at this time of year. Can anyone guess the species? (They're not crested newts!)

16/11/2024

Salamandra gallaica, hypomelanistic (Serra de Grândola, Portugal).

11/11/2024

The crests are developing quite nicely on most species now.

25/10/2024

These two started life as typical flavistic Triturus carnifex - with dark eyes. Over the last couple of years, for some unknown reason, their eyes have turned pink. They now have the visual appearance (phenotype) of albinos.
They have been paired up for the coming breeding season, to see whether they pass on the trait to their offspring.

17/10/2024

A strange development in the flavistic melanoid carnifex. Melanoids usually have black eyes with no iridescence, but one appears to be developing shiny (iridophore) pigment in the eyes.

07/10/2024

Waiting for the show to start...
The Northern banded newt (Ommatotriton ophryticus) has one of the most extravagant crests in all of newt kind, once in full breeding dress.
This one just entered the water yesterday, and is beginning to show the early stages of crest development.

06/10/2024

It's that time of year again!
Every October these captive bred crested newts begin to develop their crests in preparation for the breeding season - much earlier than their wild counterparts.

05/10/2024

Fire salamander photo shoot!

23/09/2024

As if Hydra weren't already bad enough - killing newt larvae and daphnia, it's now been discovered that they can create cancer!

This Immortal Creature Can Create a Form of Cancer That's Contagious

Do not overfeed.

23/09/2024

Melanoid Flavistic T. carnifex.