C. cyanurus larvae (Part V)

[ian]

Are the C. cyanurus morphs much bigger than C. Orientalis morphs? Since mine CO are too small to eat crickets. I have to handfeed bloodworm.

So it sound like there are lot of people interested it keeping Newt. Or is it just a small number of people that you know of?

 

[TJ]

Hi Ian.

I haven't had a C. cyanurus morph yet but they are already bigger as larvae than any C. orientalis larvae I've ever seen. I assume they'll be big enough as morphs to eat the smaller wax worms that can be ordered away for here (I order a new batch of the smallest ones ever 3-4 weeks). Do you have access to pinhead cricket hatchlings? They are pretty small, though delicate. I feed them to C. pyrrhogaster morphs, and those can be pretty small too. Still, if you can get yours to eat bloodworm fed by hand, that's an accomplishment and they'll grow pretty fast if fed often on it!

 

[mark]

Hi Tim, that’s an admirable attitude towards the hobby, which raises an interesting point. Many hobbyists in the UK that breed hard to obtain species i.e. rarer cynops sp. usually sell them at market prices i.e £30 per cyanarus, which in many cases leads to the offspring falling into the hands of trophy hunters or inexperienced keepers (not always the case but I’m sure it happens). It would be great if more people swapped animals or at least supplied animals to people who were committed to furthering the species in the hobby – after all that’s what a hobby is all about. An attitude like this would certainly reduce the demand for WC stock and help provide healthy captive stock. I know a few keepers act like this (Jennifer for eg) but they are few and far between – most people aren’t in it for the money, so why isn’t there more sharing? It would be great if there was a register of keepers/breeders who could club together to exchange animals (or at least sell them at a price to cover the bloodworms they’ve consumed + postage) and widen breeding groups without the need to shell out for overpriced animals. Probably a whole new topic in its own right….

 

[edward]

Hi Ian,

Cyanurus typically morph out a lot larger than orientalis. I have had them morph out at the same size as the smaller sized orientalis that you see in the pet stores.

Ed

 

[joseph]

Interesting photo series Tim! So your idea of raising larvae is lots of room, water changed for clean water often(not "new from tap" water), lots of plants and good food?

 

[TJ]

Hi Mark. Guess that's what the U.S. registry is there for, though I don't know how well it's been operating. There pretty much has to be a critical mass of "serious" hobbyists (preferably living close together!) for this networking to be effective. I've heard of some networking like this in France, for example. I'm pretty lucky to live in a city of over 10 million people, which gives me access to a small network myself.

By the way, I see no problem in others selling their animals to cover upkeep costs, or even to make a bit of profit for their hard efforts. I just prefer not to. Not that my hands are clean or anything, because I've bought plenty of animals. And I could see my policy changing if I found myself less able financially to support my hobby. And I too admire the efforts of Jen, Nate, David N., etc. to give people access to CB newts outside commercial trade!

Ian, indeed my largest C. cyanurus larvae is about the same size as my smaller-sized C. orientalis adults, and I'll try to take a picture of that to show you

Hi Joseph. Well, that's what works for me, but I am not approaching it in a scientific way, just trial and error. And I don't always give larvae lots of room, though they seem to fare better the more room they have. As you can see, I keep larvae in containers of various sizes:

The C. cyanurus were simply given special treatment as this species is relatively new to me and it's my first time to seriously tackle breeding them. But I really do like the low n' wide tanks for larvae like that one, and I'd get more if only I had the space for them.

(Message edited by TJ on March 10, 2006)

 

[terry]

Now that is what I call a newt factory Tim LOL!

Very wonderful pictures and thanks for the updates!. I had a tough time with my own larvae during the winter months. You have no idea.

I am really curious as to what the light larvae turn out to be when they metamorph.

 

[TJ]

Sounds rough, Terry.

The light larvae seem to be darkening up, I regret to say. I'll be sure to post pics of them when they morph

In the meantime, here's one that's just slightly lighter than the norm:

This thread is getting heavy, so I'll start a new one.

(Message edited by TJ on March 10, 2006)