O. ophryticus juveniles

[Jennewt]

I received these animals as morphs at the end of last summer, so they are less than a year old. They started out very tiny, so I'm pleased with the amount of growth. I started with 14 and now have 10, and I'm less pleased about that!

They are quite variable in color and in size. I think it's probably time to separate the larger from the smaller ones, as they are eating different sizes of food.

 

[Azhael]

Nice Jen.
Exactly the same thing here...huge differencies in size and color.
By looking at the pics, i can´t help but notice something i observe in mine....do you think the lighter ones are growing better in average?
Also, would you please tell me how big is the biggest one of them?

 

[coendeurloo]

Those are very good looking Jen, how are you keeping them? (temps, humidity etc?)

 

[Jennewt]

The largest one appears to be about 8-9cm, but I'm just guessing from looking at the top photo.

They have been kept in my basement, which was around 74F (22C) last summer, and about 58-60F (14-15C) all winter. They are in a plastic tub with a secure lid. The lid has many small holes for ventilation. Our air is naturally very dry, so I think the humidity inside the tub is low or moderate. The soil moisture is basically what you see in the photo - slightly damp, not wet. I add water to the soil on one side, so there is somewhat of a gradient.

When I first got them, I had them set up on a substrate of coco-fiber/soil with a layer of damp leaf litter. I think that the leaf litter is the reason that some of them died - too much moisture all around them. Since moving them to plain, flat soil they are growing better and all looking healthy.

 

[coendeurloo]

here you can see the difference between the one that is probably going to die and the healthy O. ophryticus nesterovi. I think I underestimated the level of dryness they required. Giving them the option is not the good way it seems.

 

[terrytherat]

I keep mine on wet paper towels with a cork bark stack, the bottom is always wet but they go up to get drier,
I have got 10 from 2006 and 10 from 2007 and i hav'nt lost one of them.
There are huge differences in their growth rates and i find that the lighter ones grow faster too.

 

[Azhael]

Congrats then Terry.
I think it´s really curious that there are such differences...
Specially the light ones growing better seems really weird yet fascinating.
At least in my case..the smallest darkest one eats very well, while two bigger brothers are sometimes very tricky.

 

[josh]

jenn, they are looking great!!!! i am very happy they are doing so well for you.

-josh

 

[Jennewt]

Update

Here is an update about 1 year later. They have all grown considerably. Remarkably, the smaller ones have caught up to the larger ones. I had them separated by size for a while, but it's no longer necessary. My original group of 14 dwindled to 6, but these all seem healthy and robust, and I haven't lost any in the past 6 months+.

I must say I still feel rather intimidated by this species, given how touchy they are to keep alive. By next year at this time, I will need to decide how to keep them as adults, and I feel very uncertain about what kind of setup(s) to use and when to try to get them aquatic.

 

[coendeurloo]

Re: Update

Those are looking very good Jen! My group was doing very well, no losses. Unfortunatly they all died after feeding them curled wings fly maggots. I was devastated, especially seeing how good it was going with that group and how much I've learned on succesfully keeping them. It's really hard to lose a group to such a random incident.