More larval Texas Barred Tiger Salamander photos

More photos of one of my Ambystoma mavortium mavortium larvae. Taken tonight, he/she wasn't in the mood to cooperate (give me axolotls any day in that regard). These make my previous effort look rather amateurish (which I set out to do!). Enjoy.

Gorgeous pictures of A. m. mavortium. Did you collect only a single larva or is this one just the better model of the group? The color is just amazing on these animals.

yes, agreed the colours are stunning! love the pics as well, show off the colours and characteristics perfectly!

Alex

They seem to have iridophores with the xanthophores, so they don't look that shiny yellow until light hits them. I collected 3 larvae, and they all have the same colouration. This one is the model simply because his fins are intact. The other two have imperfect fins, probably due to fish in the pond they came from.

Actually, if you have Petranka's Salamanders of the United States and Canada, he makes several references to specimens that were collected from the same pond as these guys back in the 1970s. These are the "large-bodied" Ambystoma mavortium mavortium he talks about a few times in the species account. They come from a population that was once largely neotenic, at least until a decade or so ago. I suspect these three will metamorphose though because there is a large population of goldfish in the pond now, as well as turtles, and I found no neotenic animals.

Excellent shots John, I'm sure you have said this is a thread somewhere else and this might be a bit off-topic, but may I ask which camera + lens you shot these with?

Check my profile.

Here's a subsection of the first image at 100% (i.e. original size).

What a beautiful looking creature!
I wonder if it would ever be possible to breed Axolotls of this colouring... I've been looking at all the different morphs of Corn Snakes recently. It left me wondering whether with selective breeding, how many variants of Axolotl colouring could breeders create?

I think it's possible but it would be a lot of work.

Yea, especially becuase its one of the rare Enigma Axolotls