metamophase

[vistajpdf]

I just read Eileen's thread on her morphs and the concerns that followed and I have to tell you that I'm totally dreading this phase - esp. w/ my concerns w/ the older larvae I wrote about yesterday. She wrote that she had 3 C. Orientalis "surface" and moved them to a terrestrial tank. What exactly does "surface" mean? Could it be that "Newty" had actually surfaced? My guess is that he's only 6 weeks old so I wouldn't think that would be possible and the gills are still quite frilly looking. But, he was up amongst the plants and then went vertically in the water after a brief normal-looking swim. Since no one seemed to post on this behavior, let me know what I'm looking for as far as the morphing stage and what "surfaced" meant? Is it obvious they want to breathe air? I apologize for all the questions but I really want to do the best thing for these larva.

Thank you,
Dana

 

[Greatwtehunter]

As long as you're still seeing gills it's not morphing. You will notice the gills shrinking as it gets closer to that stage. Larva tend to hang out in plants more for a security feeling than something actually being wrong with them.