Monster-sized C. pyrrhogaster

[TJ]

16 cm!

 

[TJ]

Here she is from the bottom:

 

[benjamin]

She yours?

 

[paul]

Hi Tim!

You know my question?

Right - what origin?
Interesting information - thanks for sharing.

Paul

 

[TJ]

Benjamin, yes, I've had her for about 3 years now. Beautiful creature, she is

Paul, yes, I indeed predicted your question

Problem is, this is one of my "lost" pyrrhogaster -- one of the ones that I knew the origin of before but lost the information when my computer crashed. I think it's either Niigata Prefecture or Akita Prefecture, so she'd be intermediate or Tohoku race. Pretty sure it's Niigata though, a village in the southern part of the prefecture by the name of Makimura (?).

Tohoku can get quite bulky. The only pyrrhogaster I've even seen this long is a female I have from Kagawa Prefecture of Shikoku Island, though she's not nearly as chunky. I posted a pic of her somewhere before, I think.

 

[TJ]

Besides the female shown above. I have two much smaller males said to be from the same origin. Here's one of them:

sorry for the dog hairs

(Message edited by TJ on February 28, 2005)

 

[TJ]

And here's the other male:

 

[jesper]

I have no experience of C.pyrrhogaster but sasayama can become huge right? Do you have any monster-sized newts of this "race"?

Nice pics as always...

 

[benjamin]

Have you ever thought/are you thinking of breeding for size?

 

[jennifer]

Tim - Interesting newts. I never cease to be amazed at the "different looking" C. pyrrhogaster you come up with.

Ben - Large size is often a feature of "old age" since newts continue to grow (slowly) throughout their life. Thus, breeding for size would be difficult.

Another complication is that size in captivity is usually a function of the type of food plus the personality of the newt (eager eater versus shy). If someone selected their CB offspring based on size, they would most likely be selecting for personality and food preference.

(Message edited by jennewt on March 01, 2005)

 

[TJ]

Hi Jesper. No, I've never seen any Sasayama that big. Would like to though!

Here's a pic of the one I mentioned earlier, from Shikoku Island.

I was wrong before when I said earlier that she was about the same length as the first newt pictured in this thread. She's actually 2 cm shorter at 14 cm.

Ben, in any case I'm not breeding pyrrhogaster (and not wanting to at this point in time). They lay eggs sometimes but those are eventually eaten. I have a few juvies, but that's about it.

Jen, going by what you said, it would be interesting to know the length of the pyrrhogaster kept by people who say they've had them for 10 or 20 years even. I think Paul B. has one he's kept for a long, long time.

 

[jennifer]

Regarding age/size, I can tell you that my very old Notophthalmus v. dorsalis were very long. After having them for 15-20 years, the remaining ones were about 4-4.5 inches (10-11 cm). For Notos, this is unusually long.

 

[paul]

My largest Cynops pyrrhogaster is a sasayamae female. Kept approximately since 20 years, and was adult when imported. It has a total length of nearly 15 cm.
Here it is:

Paul

 

[TJ]

That's really amazing Paul, as is Jen's achievement.

There is a report of a Cynops pyrrhogaster having lived at least 22 years in captivity. See:

http://www.pondturtle.com/lsala.html#INDEX

(CINO seems to be: Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden though I'm not completely sure)


(Message edited by TJ on March 18, 2005)

 

[paul]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Tim wrote on Friday, 18 March, 2005 - 09:07 :</font>

"There is a report of a Cynops pyrrhogaster having lived at least 22 years in captivity."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

The oldest C.p. I know is kept since 35 years

Paul

 

[aaron]

In Washington DC, there is a really run-down, poorly setup "national aquarium". In their collection, they had a pyrrhogaster, appearing to be of the sasayamae race, that was at least 8". It appeared to be very old though.

 

[TJ]

Paul, according to the report, the newt was alive at the age of 22 in 1992.
If it's still alive today, that would put it also at 35!
Same newt?

Aaron, that's over 20 cm -- what a monster!
Do you have a pic of it?

 

[paul]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Tim wrote on Friday, 18 March, 2005 - 23:41 :</font>

"Same newt? "<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Not the same Tim!

Paul

 

[aaron]

Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pics of it-I brought the digital camera and forgot the extra memory sticks. Used all the memory for touristy stuff.

The newt was nicely displaying its length right in front of the glass, so I took a pen and marked the length on my arm. I measured it when I got back to the hotel.

 

[mattias]

I had a group of Cynops pyrrhogaster sasayamae with three 16 cm large females some years ago. I have pictures, but not showing the length on a scale though. I think its not uncommon for sasayamae to become 18 cm, right?

Many years ago they had really large 18+cm Cynops pyrrhogaster at the Berlin zoo together with Bombina orientalis. I didn´t belive my eyes first. Really nice animals!