C.orientalis larvae update

[vlcuXX]

Hey everyone i just wanted to show how my firebelly newt larvae look like at this moment please let me know if they look good , been feeding entirely on live white worms.

There they are ^_^

 

[Molch]

they look good - one thing to consider is mixing in food other than whiteworms (e.g., blackworms, bloodworms, Daphnia, brine shrimp), for the development of belly color. If fed on whiteworms alone, their bellies will likely stay a pale yellow and not become orange as in the adults.

Cute lil' numbers, aren't they?

 

[Joost]

I use Canthaxantine after morphing (from the manufacturer Oropharma) normally used for coloring birds. For a few weeks (1-2 a week) and they will have a very beautiful dark orange belly.
Also bloodworms and blackworms are very lack in carotenes, so these food items will not give your newt a orange belly. This doesn't count for Daphnia, Artemia, shrimp etc. They are rich in carotenes, but still Canthaxantine turns out to be much faster and better results.

 

[vlcuXX]

Thanks for the advice guys oh and Molch im definetely bringing bloodworms into the diet but i need to let them grow a little bigger cuz when they see a bloodworm they think its like godzilla or something oh and atre they capable of eating frozen food now that they have front limbs and for some reason i only got 5 babies well 4 eggs that i found and hatched with my supervision and 1 i found in the adult tank (found aonother one but couldnt catch it but yea im prolly gonna mix some blood worms in their diet and some black worms i cant buy live bloodworms but blackworms i can find alive sometimes and im just too lazy to hatch brine shrimp cuz of all the work you gotta do and dont wanna make a hatchery , dont get me wrong i would do anything for my babies but i already got whiteworms so yea, and i cant get daphnia live so ill stick to white,black, and bloodworms.:frog:

I kinda like to have a couple with yellow bellies anyways aslong as it does not pose a health problem

 

[Azhael]

The lack of red coloration is not a problem. Some people consider it an integral part of the species´s appearance and so want their CB animals to look just right xD Others simply offer a diet rich enough that the larvae develop the color anyway, whitout any extra effort.
All in all, there doesn´t seem to be any evidence that lacking the coloration has any effect on the newt´s health. It simply means there aren´t enough carotenes in their diet to accumulate in the xantophores of the skin, but probably enough to remain healthy (some of these compounds are vitamins).

Joost is right, there is a big misconception regarding bloodworms and red coloration. While they do have some carotenes, it´s a tiny proportion, not quite enough to make a significant impact. The deep red color of bloodworms comes from haemoglobin which has absolutely no value for caudate coloration.

Canthaxantine and any other commercial powder provide great results, and very fast if used in the right moment, but should be used carefully. There is a risk of overdosing with any commercial powder. The risk with canthaxantine seems to be low, but there are other products which use other carotenes (like vitamin A) that can be really dangerous and cause liver damage among other things.

 

[corientalis]

I use Canthaxantine after morphing ....

Hi, Joost! May I ask you how you use this product exactly? I'm using Nekton-rep color for months with no obvious change in color. I dust springtails with it every second day (feeding daily). It may sound too much but I'm not sure if the juveniles eat enough before those critters clear themselves from the vitamin dust (I fed them just before bedtime as they start to move and eat mostly in dark). I also dust the frozen food of a large one every other feeding from a forceps, no success.
So should I use this Cantaxanthine stuff the same way or may I use a more specific method? Mixing it with "turtle pudding" as at least the large one can be handfed?