C. cyanurus larvae (Part V)

[TJ]

 

[john]

wonderful pics (as always) Tim!!

 

[katie]

great pics!!!!

 

[joseph]

Tim: That third picture MUST be overexposed...no?

 

[edward]

An updated picture of the light colored larva, it is now about 3 inches in length (total length)

and a metamorphed sibling for comparision.

Ed

 

[TJ]

Wow, very impressive beasts you got there, Ed! I'll be hitting you up for eggs one of these days!

I still haven't had one morph, though there are many on the way...

Joseph, it's really light-colored but yes, the flash made it seem even brighter than it is in that pic.

Thanks John & Katie

 

[edward]

Tim, it is becoming an impressive beast. If it keeps growing at this rate it may retain its gills when it matures.
I'm suspecting that it will color up at metamorphosis as (at least in anurans) pigmentation disruptions can occur in the larva that can rectify at metamorphosis.

Ed

 

[TJ]

An inventory reveals approximately 80 advanced-stage larvae:

(what look like green markings are actually from algae on the glass)

This is the one with the most interesting pattern:

Here is the darkest of the bunch:

(Message edited by TJ on March 09, 2006)

 

[garrison]

Wow, talk about color variation. Maybe live in a variety of habit colors in the wild to retain such phenotypic variation?

 

[jennifer]

Nice looking crop of larvae, Tim! All that color variation must serve some purpose. It's also amazing that the color of a specific individual can change over time.

 

[TJ]

Interesting, eh? That's it, I think, there's a wide variation in color even in specific individuals. I showed a picture above of the prettiest one at the time, but there are ones now that are even prettier -- same group. I should isolate one of them to observe and show the changes in its colors (and patterns too, if that's the case). Here's perhaps the lightest one (picture taken this time without use of a flash):

 

[TJ]

Here's another light one:

 

[TJ]

 

[TJ]

 

[TJ]

 

[danny]

Im jealous Tim, you have great animals and they are growing so fast. I have some C.o larvae that hatched the same time as these guys and they seem sooooo far behind in development. I wish I knew your secrets!

 

[TJ]

Thanks Danny. Still, I would have expected to have at least a few morphs by now. I keep predicting "this week" or "next week." Their cheek spots are forming and their gills are decreasing in size, but they still have a ways to go.

Secrets?

No, nothing I haven't mentioned or shown here. I think they're do especially well because their setup suits them --t's roomy, well-planted, there are lots of worms to eat in that "special" gravel I'm using originally made for raising ornamental shrimp (I'm unsure what benefits it's providing but I like it anyway), and half the water is changed every two dayss, not with fresh water but with cycled water from a very large well-planted tank. They were initially fed brine shrimp hatchlings, then live tubifex worms and now frozen bloodworm. Almost no deaths in this setup (I seem to recall one or two a while back). I first had losses with cyanurus hatchlings when I kept them in small plastic containers. The best advice I have to give is to keep your larvae in with lots of plants and keep a close eye on water quality

 

[TJ]

 

[mark]

Tim, what the heck do you do with all those newts??? You always seem to have stacks of larvae on the go... sell them locally perhaps? More importantly, where do you find time to look after them all?!

 

[TJ]

Hi Mark, I give 'em away, trade them away, but I don't want to sell them and never have.

Last weekend, for example, I parted with 6 Hynobius nebulosus that I raised from egg sacs last year, along with 6 Hynobius lichenatus -- though I kept about 10 of each. The previous month I gave away to another hobbyist all my Hynobius tokyoensis. I was raising Echinotriton andersoni from eggs while helping with somebody's captive breeding project, and returned most of those that survived. It's difficult to find local takers for Cynops species because nobody wants them unless they have extraordinary coloration, and I don't ship animals abroad. But with these C. cyanurus, I plan to keep 1/4, give away 1/4, and trade away the rest for at least several adult cyanurus to add to my gene pool. The marbleds, by contrast, are in high demand in Japan so there are always takers for them.

As for care, the hynobiids are a breeze to care for as they only need to have their containers rinsed out and substrate changed once a week or so. One only needs to add plenty of crickets once or twice a week, though I feed waxworms by hand when I have the time. I have a pretty smooth system for feeding waxworms to the Cynops morphs and juvies -- half of them one day and half the next. If I miss a day, then I do them all in a single day. Every container gets checked daily though. Larvae are also a breeze.

It's all pretty time consuming, but in a pleasurable way

(Message edited by TJ on March 09, 2006)