Ambystoma tigrinum

[Chinadog]

Goof grief, they don't hang around, do they! How big is it at this point?

 

[Bellabelloo]

It's just over 5''. Once you spot the caudal fin starting to reduce it goes quite quickly, especially the gills. I reckon this one will be on land tomorrow. The others that are similar size are not far behind.

Meanwhile the ones outside vary from 1 to 2 inches.


Only 4 hours later and I have seen this one hauled out on a rock. Prior to this it's been rising to the surface to breath air.

 

[Donna001]

Amazing.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I was hoping to add some photo's of the newly morphed tigers lolloping merrily through their new terrestrial home... but instead they have decided to remain in the water :errr:
I suspect they are waiting for it to be cooler. At the moment they prefer to stay submerged with them occasionally popping their noses out of the water.
During feeding and spot cleaning ( not that it is spot cleaning... they are mucky little things) they have started splashing the water more. Maybe its a way to distract potential prey... it certainly works on curious 7 year old male children
They are still feeding, but consuming less. The smaller non morphed larvae are now a little braver and they nip in an take food from under their noses. Out of this small batch a few have still gills.
The outdoor larvae have now been split between two tubs. One group ended up in the daphnia tub .. with in the week they seem to have consumed the lot. They are now on whiteworm. They other tub has various aquatic insect larvae and Blackworm . Growth rates are much the same.

 

[sde]

They look great Julia! They are are lot darker and have less patterning than i had imagined they would, how long til they usually lighten up and start getting their stripes?

 

[Sith the turtle]

They look great Julia! They are are lot darker and have less patterning than i had imagined they would, how long til they usually lighten up and start getting their stripes?

This may not be too truthful for most other tigers, but it took Pirate 2-3 months for his color to really come in. By that stage, he was already 6-7 inches

 

[Bellabelloo]

I had to look back through this thread to see what Hopalong's colour was like and she was very dark too. Only one so far has the faintest of spots coming through. It took a few months too develop to a more recognisable tiger pattern.

Meanwhile with the adults, I see far less of them, the odd coloured adopted tiger is still spending most of its time in water. He appears to have taken up residence behind some bricks that I added for them to access the water/ land.

 

[Bellabelloo]

They are steadily developing their yellow spots. Despite land areas, they are still refusing to come onto land, in fact I have never seen them even try :/ Maybe they are waiting for the last 3 of this batch to loose their gills.

 

[Bellabelloo]

Thought the adults may be feeling a little left out, so while feeding them tonight I took a few pics. I was hoping to lure Hopalong out, but she was hiding too well.. will look another night.

 

[Bellabelloo]

All are still aquatic, worm munching little tigers. The photo of the one the rock, did not get there by itself , it hopped back into the water . This weekend I'll put them in a more terrestrial set up.

 

[Chinadog]

There's still no sign of any of mine changing, I thought the warmer weather might have started some of them off, but not yet though.

 

[Bellabelloo]

All of the indoor juveniles have now been placed in their terrestrial tub. The substrate is a garden soil and leaf litter mix. There is cork bark and stones to hide under and a water dish for them to merrily leap in and out of. This has been outdoors for maybe 6 months or more and has a rather healthy population of woodlice.

 

[evut]

Julia very kindly let me have one of her little (ok this one was the biggest) tigers. Today I conducted an excavation and placed the salamander into its little shed. A couple of worms surfaced at the same time so I placed them in as well. I was hoping the tiger wouldn't be too upset but I wanted to see it after it had been hiding for a few days. I guess it wasn't too upset...

 

[Sith the turtle]

Beautiful!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I have maybe one left to morph now. It seems far too happy swimming merrily in its nice big tub, being fed daily ad generally nurtured There may also be one in the adults tub too, but not seen that one for a while now.
The rest are great, crazy little beasties. They are much bolder now, and when i lift their lid off the tub, they come running.

 

[Mark]

All of mine are out of the water now. For the first week they hid in their hides, unsure what to make of their new world, then they realised that when the lid opens they get fed, so now they all sit on top of their hides staring up at the lid impatiently. When I appear they crawl up the walls and launch themselves at each other, biting limbs and tails. It’s total chaos. At times I’ve been unable to feed them because I’m laughing too hard at the crazy scene in their tub. I think they are going to be a lot of fun.

 

[RG]

Hello Julia
I've partly read your story. There are some young animals died of your first newts (1st June 2013)
What I've noticed that one came out of the metamorphosis with paralysis in its limbs.
When I look at your picture of 25th June 2016. It seems that there may be one with paralysis in his behind legs.
It is the third photograph the animal which his head against the stone lies. I'm curious if this is so.
I ask this because I have one experience with paralysis of Andersoni larvae. I plan to start a Discussions here about paralysis. I call this disorder Ironside like the TV detective from the 70's

 

[Bellabelloo]

Hi RG.
All these larvae/ juveniles have developed well and with no visible deformity :happy:
The one I refer to as Hopalong, came from a batch of eggs that where sent to me. She did eat the few sibling's that hatched with her, which was rather annoying. She thrives and is as active as all the others, sometimes she is had to spot amongst them as size wise she is the same. She entered the water during their breeding time this spring, but I removed her as I did not want to raise any of her eggs. I have no idea why she has this stunted, immobile limb.
Mark, I am very glad to read that your animals have all now come onto land. Definitely very entertaining animals

 

[Bellabelloo]

The juveniles are now around 5'' nose to tail tip and less inclined to eat daily. I find them out and about lurking all times of the day now.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I still have at least one larva that has not morphed. It is quite merrily swimming around the water section in the adults enclosure. I have tried catching it as it does occasionally have one of the adults spending a lot of time in the water too. It's round 5'' long now.