Cynops ensicauda popei embryos & larvae

[john]

These Cynops ensicauda popei embryos are just finishing tailbud development and the photo was taken today. Thank you to a certain someone!

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[john]

That's a young Daphnia in the upper left corner (out of focus though).

 

[paul]

Hi John,
great photo!
I try to make such pic, but was not able in this quality.
Paul

 

[john]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the compliments. If it helps, these are the details of the photo:

Camera: Nikon Coolpix 4500.

Focusing Distance: 2.5 cm.

f number: ~10 (and the optical zoom was at about 50%, the so-called "sweet spot" for macro).

Lighting: The in-camera flash was used but not to light the subject (the embryos were far too close to the camera lens). Instead, a large external speedlight/flash with dual output (small front speedlight as well as the main output) was used to light the subject, triggered via remote slave operation using the camera's flash. The speedlight provides ambient lighting using bounced light from its main output and direct lighting from the front small flash (above, slightly behind the camera at about 60^o from the horizontal axis to the left - the camera is facing the subject from the right rather than directly facing the glass in order to minimise reflections). The output level of the speedlight was tuned until the photos looked about right (one of the great advantages of digital as I'm sure you know).

The in-camera settings were ISO 100, low contrast, no sharpening (I do sharpening on the computer as it's far superior to the camera's algorithms) and +0.7 exposure compensation (necessary for the 4500 due to some quirk from the low contrast setting).

Best regards,

John

 

[paul]

Thanks John for this information. I will try again.
Paul

 

[i.]

You guys seem to know a lot about photography. I'm having a problem, a lot of the time when I try to photograph my animals they appear right in the camera viewport but on the actual picture they appear higher and many times halfway out of the picture. I suspect this has to do with the water, sort of like when you put a spoon in a glass of water and it appears twisted when looking from the top. Do you know how to avoid this?
thanx
-Isa

 

[john]

Isa, non-SLR cameras don't show you exactly what you're taking a photo of because the viewfinder doesn't have the same view as the lens (hopefully for obvious reasons - look at the front of your camera). This becomes very apparent when you take photos of something close to the lens. If you have a digital camera, frame the shot with the LCD screen, otherwise you're just going to have to use your best judgement to take account of it.

Good luck.

 

[i.]

thx, I 'll try this out.
This is a great picture up there, thank you.

 

[TJ]

Wow, really cool pics, John! Like Paul, I've tried but haven't succeeded in taking pics like that, so those details will come in very handy!

The other day, I was checking out a book called "How to Photograph Reptiles and Amphibians" but the price it was being sold for here in Japan was more than three times the price at Amazon, and it didn't have sufficient info to justify the price asked.

Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0811724549/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-7919346-7778354#reader-link

 

[john]

Hi Tim, glad you like them . I have no idea if that book is any good I'm afraid :/. It's not very expensive from amazon though - can you order it to Japan?

 

[john]

Same batch of Embryos but on January 6th:

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[john]

Note the left adhesive balancer visible on the central larva. I would estimate that these larvae will hatch within 36 hours.

 

[john]

This is a Cynops ensicauda popei larva a handful of hours before hatching:

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And this is one shortly after hatching (note the pale yolk in the belly):

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These photos were taken today.

 

[TJ]

Really nice ones, John! Several more to go, right?

 

[john]

3 left to hatch of the original 14. I expect they'll have all hatched within the next 24 hours. They seem to take a long time to absorb their yolk though - some hatched last Saturday and as far as I can tell they still have yolk in their bellies. I certainly haven't seen any of them feeding yet.

 

[john]

I was lazy tonight so I didn't spend too much time taking these photos. However, I hope you like them

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The larvae are now 10-14 days old.
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[TJ]

Beautiful pictures and beautiful tail on that larvae! Wow!

 

[john]

Here's an update nearly 3 months later. You can see from the second picture how large they are. My guess is that the average individual is 45 or 46 mm long.

I was waiting for one to pose like this for a long time:

The rest of the photos aren't so "oooh-ahhh".

This is all 13 in a bowl while I cleaned their aquarium today. One of them is nicely lined up with the ruler:

Two side views (different animals) to show the beginnings of spots:

 

[john]

So Tim and everyone else, how far off metamorphosis are these guys?

 

[nate]

That's a tough call John, I've had Cynops larvae stay large like that for several months, despite feeding generously and mild temps. I'd guess another month still.