Larval Texas Barred Tiger Salamanders nearing metamorphosis

John

John

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I must admit I'm pretty proud of these photos. Taken tonight (when I should be in bed). Ambystoma mavortium mavortium. These are 16-17 cm long, nearing metamorphosis. The first and last photos are 1 animal which is nearest to metamorphosis (note the fin depth reduction and increased barring). The middle photo is the animal I have posted photos of previously here and here, which is obviously not in the mood to metamorphose yet.
 

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Are the colors more or less maturing from the tail forward?
 
Alex - thank you.

jcb118 said:
Are the colors more or less maturing from the tail forward?
Click to expand...
Jonathan: it certainly looks that way. I'm very new to this - the closest I have been to keeping larval tiger salamanders was when I once raised an Ambystoma opacum larva (which I got from a member of this forum in the UK). Unfortunately at metamorphosis there was a problem and I lost the little guy. I hope this doesn't happen with the tigers. Obviously I have raised a lot of axolotls over the years but these are distinctly different, and obviously metamorphosis is a new issue to me for this genus.
 
Regarding Jonathan's question, the 3 larvae have since metamorphosed (they all lost their gills by about 2 weeks ago). The colour did indeed develop from the tail forwards, but what I find most interesting is that the colour also develops from the bottom up - this happens after the tail to head appearance of colour bars/lines, and then the colour intensifies from the belly towards the dorsal area. One of them has nearly full intensity now but it's possible to almost see the changes in the other two. I'll take some photos in about 2 weeks when the colour has peaked. The largest of the three is nothing short of stunning - I don't think anyone on the site will have seen a barred that looks quite like this (unusual patterning and high amount of yellow-cream coloured areas).
 
Thats great that they morphed without a problem. What do you plan on doing with the adults? Oh yeah, could we see some pictures of the newly morphed guys?:D
 
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