Apaunus

[david]

My captive breed apaunus juvies I picked up last year are settling in nicely and hopefully are the start of a good breeding colony for next year.

 

[sergé]

Hi Dave,

would you please use the full name of the animals you mention; Triturus alpestris apuanus, makes the information also readable for newbies...

greetings,
Sergé

 

[alan]

A few weeks ago I was confident that my CB 04 Triturus alpestris apuanus would spawn this Spring. Now I'm not quite so sure (although the weather has cooled off a bit here recently), but they may do, later in the year.

 

[mike]

Hi Serge'

You mean Mesotriton alpestris apuanus don't you?

 

[pin-pin]

These are beautiful animals Dave, good luck with them!

 

[pamela]

Very beautiful newts!

 

[jennifer]

Here is another one from the same batch as Dave's.

 

[rubén]

Hi Dave
Nice breeding group. But... as far as I know, Mesotriton alpestris apuanus in captivity life many times develops a yellow belly, due to the diet. I'm amazed that you have pretty orange bellies. How do you feed them, Dave?

 

[sergé]

Feed them Daphnia (or other crustaceans) and they will become nicely orange (works also perfect for many other species!)...
p.s. Mike..I still have to get myself used to these names...I am getting old ;-)

 

[rubén]

Thanks Serge, I heard before that Daphnia and gammarus contains carotenoids. I try to feed my Mesotriton alpestris apuanus with red mosquito larvae ( frozen ) and Daphnia magna ( live ), and they doesn't have a yellow belly as I saw in other newts, but I hope to obtain a little more orange bellies: Even if I know that is not a serious deficiency or an scientific problem

 

[david]

Hi Ruben, Serge is right. I feed mine mostly live blackworms and chopped night crawler worms, but I toss in the extra live magna, that I feed my larvae. That might account for the orange.

 

[michael]

Hi All,

Is it still possible to turn adult "yellow bellied Mesotriton" into red-bellied or is this color change only possible with subadult ones?

Has anyone experiences with belly-color-change in Bombina orientalis? It should be the same mechanism but everyone claims its only possible with subadults.

 

[sergé]

My experience only accounts for juveniles raised that way. I think when they are older they are more diffucult to color. By the way this topic has been around on Cynops once before as well.
For Bombina it is exactly the same thing; feed the freshly metamorphs with Dapnia in a thin water layer and they will eat them. I did it with Bombina maxima and made them nicely orange.

 

[rubén]

Thanks a lot to all_

So... better feed them with daphnia when are larvae to prevent this deficiency when adults.

 

[caleb]

It is possible to feed adults to deepen the colour, I've been doing some experiments with this recently.

I've seen noticeable changes in an adult male alpestris fed on waxworms which had themselves been fed on a diet with added carotenoids ('Carophyll Red'). I'm still trying to find the best concentration to use, as the changes were not as great as I'd hoped.

If you want to use naturally occuring food to improve the colour, freshwater shrimps (Gammarus) are just as good as Daphnia.

 

[alan]

My alpestris, regularly fed Daphnia and bloodworms among other things, are pretty orange anyway and I'm not sure I could make them darker if I wanted to.
Colour feeding (waxmoth larvae gutloaded with 'Carophyll Red') certainly works with adult Bombina orientalis though, as Caleb says.

 

[rubén]

Thanks to all: I hope to find Carophyll Red.

 

[sergé]

I know from someone who keeps Cynops that he feeds his adults with small pellets of Japanese origin used for Lionhead Goldfish which contain also carotenoids and that gave them very nice red bellies. So if your animals are willing to eat pellets...you can also try that.

 

[ralf]

Besides the most natural way of feeding various live or frozen freshwater crustaceans I have also had good results regarding belly colour of various species using frozen adult Artemia, the careful dusting of food items (expensive!) with a mixture of Astaxanthine, Canthaxantine and Luteine (available as powdered or liquid feed additives for ornamental birds like canaries and/or fish) as well as feeding selfmade pellets made of Cyclop-Eeze (a small crustacean available as powder with a high content of natural carotenoids) and Agar-agar. Another potential method might be the stuffing of worm bits with carotenoids respectively matters containing high levels of carotenoids. Haven't tried the last one as yet, though.
You might want to conduct an internet-search for suppliers of carotenoids. Here is an example for such a supplier http://www.aquakultur-genzel.de/.
Bloodworms are red because they contain haemoglobin, which probably doesn't contribute much to belly colour.

 

[alan]

Rubén, Carophyll Red is available from:

http://www.haiths.com/static/Carophyll_Red_TM.html

http://www.1066.net/southernaviaries/list1.htm