A. maculatum larvae

[katebutton]

Back in early April I collected an A. maculatum egg mass and soon after the little larvae wriggled out and have been doing great since. They've been growing fast, and now are around an inch to an inch and a quarter with fat little bellies. Just recently, two of them (out of 27) started absorbing their tail fin and gills. Isn't it a bit early for this? The other 25 don't show any signs of doing this anytime soon, and I was under the impression spotted sals didn't morph until late summer. (I know that there are other factors that induce morphing, but they're obviously not affecting the other larvae.) Also, I don't have any prior experience with larvae going through this transition- what steps should I take from here? I've taken the two almost gill-less larvae out and put them in a tank that's propped up so they can escape the water, and it seems like that's what they want to do, but when is it okay to move them to a more fully terrestrial setup?
Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Greatwtehunter]

If they are well fed then you'll always have a few early morphers, (is that even a word?) or at least I do. Sounds like you are doing everything just right so far. I leave mine in an aquatic setup until I see them sitting completely out of the water. Once this happens then I move them terrestrial with no problems.

 

[Gregarious]

Hi katebutton, I also got some maculatum eggs the first week of march. Justin took a group of us out for a whole week of herpin in virginia. It was awsome, hats off to Justin. Long story short the eggs hatched in the end of march. I have raised them in tupper, around 6 per, and 1 to 2 inch's deep roughly 6x9". They have been veracious eaters and have not been biteing each other. They started to morph just a few weeks ago. I selectively pull them out of the tupper and put them in 3" of moss with 1" of water in a sealed container. This keeps them from drowning and keeps the humidity high. They just lay around for about a week in there and then I transfer them to a tank with moss and dirt and start offering pinhead crickets. They seem to start getting color about two weeks after they go into the moss and dirt tank. I raised around three dozen and have about 12 that have not morphed yet. I kept them at around 68 deg the whole time. good luck