JACKPOT!

[SubRosa]

Have you ever watched a gambler mechanically feed coins into slot machine, awaiting the payout that never comes? That's how I've felt the last several years, mechanically collecting an Eastern newt egg mass from a local 4 x 4 rut and putting them into the water feature in my bog garden, waiting for the payout that never came. Until, JACKPOT!

 

[DragonsEye]

Congrats! Are they typically difficult/ highly sensitive requiring extremely specialized conditions? Or do you think local predators kept gobbling up the young?

 

[SubRosa]

Congrats! Are they typically difficult/ highly sensitive requiring extremely specialized conditions? Or do you think local predators kept gobbling up the young?

More likely the latter. It's just about time that any young from the first addition will be maturing into adults, so hopefully they'll breed next spring. They're pretty good about returning to the pond they were spawned in to breed.

 

[bluemax]

I've seen the adults kept in aquariums but being from the west I've never seen the 'red elf' stage. How fun!