Malnourished Water Dog

[NaterPotater]

Holy cow, what an improvement. Nice work Do you hand feed him?

 

[supergrappler]

Great work on bringing your water dog to good health. He looks amazing!!!! It might even be neotenic.

 

[ANash96]

Update: its been a while since I posted any updates on the Water Dog and since he has now begun to undergo Metamorphosis i figured now is a good time to do one lol. Not a lot had changed from my last update till about a week ago, the only changes that occurred was that his body continued to fill out and gain mass, i did not get a exact measurement on him, however he is close to 7 1/2-8 inches from snout to tail. he has been on a steady diet of 1 earthworm per day and was always eager to eat. the only early sign of metamorphosis that i saw a few months ago was that the bottom of his tail fin had started to reabsorb into the tail. About 2 weeks ago i had noticed that the fin that started at his neck had started to reabsorb and since then has completely been reabsorbed. today all this is left some fin left near the back of his tail. About 3 days ago I noticed that his gills are starting to recede as well as his facial structure is changing. He accepted food up until 3 days ago, I have heard this is normal to reject food during this time so i'm not overly concerned. Tonight I shined my flashlight into the tank to see him laying on the bottom with just the tip of his snout out of the water, I'm guessing hes breathing in air through his nostrils. I plan on taking pictures everyday throughout the remainder of his transformation and keep you all updated! Its funny to look back at the night i saw him at the petstore, by all appearances he was knocking on deaths door, and so i went back the next day and got him out of there, for the next couple of weeks i was unsure, not only of his survival but also exactly what he was. at the time he was so emaciated that i myself as well as others on this forum were unsure of exactly what he was. I remember the first couple of weeks being the hardest, battling on and off with fungus that had developed from the 80 degree Fahrenheit water at the petstore (the terrarium glass was actually warm to the touch where there was water on the other side of the glass, there was also what looked like a heat lamp above the terrarium). fortunately through fridging him for several days he overcame the fungus and it was all uphill from there, easily doubling his mass every few weeks for the first few months of recovery. for the past several months its just been a waiting game, waiting for him to make the transition onto land, and now that the time is finally here i'm excited as well as a bit proud that hes come so far from when i first got him!

the pic on the far left is from June 22nd before he really began changing. the middle collage is from July 1st. you can see that the fin that tapers down his back is greatly receded in these pics. the collage on the far right is from earlier today, here you can see that his gills are receding, eyes bulging, as well as fins continue to recede towards the tip of the tail.