Raising C. pyrrhogaster fully aquatic.

[Chinadog]

Couldn't resist snapping this little guy chasing mosquito larvae around near the front of the tank, didn't see him catch any but it looked like he was almost enjoying himself!

 

[Sianita]

The wee guys look amazing! Congrats on your success. I'm currently raising 4 but on wet paper towel. I am going to attempt raising them aquatic once I can get the smallest 1 fattened up. He/she refuses to eat chopped earthworm
Can I just ask what tweezers are you using to feed them? As I am running out of patience now as mine point blankly refuse to eat out my tweezers. In actual fact I have never seen the wee 1s eat. But you can't miss it when they've got a full belly haha

 

[Chinadog]

Maybe this thread should really be called how to try to raise them fully aquatic, then fail and give them some land areas so they can please themselves! Anyway, the tweezers are just normal eyebrow tweezers from the chemists, nothing special at all although i now use cocktail sticks most of the time as they can be bent and shaped to offer the food under leaves or weeds where the babies feel secure and are most likely to feed. after a while most have learnt that disturbance means food but i still have one or two that are shy and need to be fed with the light off with minimal fuss. What kind of worms are you offering? I've found that normal small earthworms are their favorite by a long way, they will eat Dendrobaena worms only if they are very hungry but red compost worms are never accepted so it may be best to offer normal earthworms until yours are feeding more confidently. I will try to get some pictures of how i feed mine if i can!
Hope this helps!

 

[Sianita]

As far as I'm aware I am feeding them normal earthworms (little ones that I buy from my local pet store which i still need to chop up for the wee guys) 3 of them seem to love them but theres just the 1 little guy that hasn't touched them the only food I'm sure he ever ate were flightless fruitflies but I had a hard time getting them and keeping them alive long enough lol
I'm not sure what those other worms you mentioned are so I'll go and research
I am defo going to try feeding them with tooth picks thanks for that. Hopefully they will transition well to an aquatic set up and then I'll post pics
Thanks

 

[Chinadog]

Here are a few recent snaps, they seem to be growing very quickly at the moment!

 

[Azhael]

They look fantastic, well done Once they hit a certain size, growth is explosive, before you know it they´ll be fully aquatic and showing the first signs of maturity.

 

[Chinadog]

Thanks, I'm very proud of them! i had my heart set on getting them to have nice red bellies but they look so healthy as they are i'm not going to start messing with their diet now, if i can raise all 10 to maturity i'll be over the moon

 

[Chinadog]

For the last day or 2 i've only been able to count 8 babies, I was starting to think i'd lost 2 or they'd drowned but i found them this morning! Until now they have stayed near the surface while in the water but these 2 must have been on the bottom or deep in the plants for days! they don't seem hungry so i guess they were just exploring!

 

[imheretowatch]

wow thats awesome! i have just done this with my newt efts as well though i kept them on land for a week since its much easier to fatten them up then i put them in an aquatic setup and 4 out of the 5 efts i had are now aquatic!

 

[Chinadog]

Got a few snaps yesterday when I had to round the babies up so I could work on their tank and remove out of control duckweed etc. Sadly one managed to escape and died last week but the remaining 9 are eating well and growing steadily. The escapee must have made a break for it at feeding time when the lid was open so its lesson learned there. Before they went back I put them in the same tub they were in at the start of the thread just before they morphed to show their growth over the last 4 months or so

 

[ChristianV]

Update?

 

[Chinadog]

Nothing to update really, They're still eating well and growing steadily! One of them is being treated separately for a skin sore with Neosporin ointment in it's own quarantine tank. There's no sign of the illness on the rest of the group so i'm hoping it's just bad luck!
I'll get some photos as soon

 

[Chinadog]

I got a snap of one of the babies shedding the other day. I like how their markings seem so much sharper on their new skin after, it's almost as if they're in HD for a day or two!

 

[Chinadog]

I had to dredge the out of control duckweed out their tank today so I rounded up the youngsters to check them all out and make sure there was no sign of the skin problem. Thankfully the whole group are free from the sores and back to full health!
Their growth has been slower over the last month or so due to the lower temperatures, but they are all eating well and the bigger ones are quite tame now. I put them back in the same tub again for a few snaps before they went home to their de-duckweeded tank

 

[Chinadog]

It's been a while so I thought i'd update/bore everyone a bit more! All the babies are now mostly aquatic, so much so that I've been gradually raising the water level over the last few weeks, They have been quite cool over the winter so their growth has slowed down, but they are starting to look more like miniature adults! There's been no more skin sores or other issues, and although they aren't much bigger, their appetites seem grow by the day?!

 

[Azhael]

Ah, they are entering that phase when they become killing machines. You´ll be amazed at how fast they´ll grow from now on. Before you know it they´ll be eating chained goats in the rain.
They look fantastic and so does their tank, congratulations

 

[Chinadog]

Yes, they seem to grow almost overnight, then spend two or three weeks eating to catch up before the next spurt!
I think their eyesight might be a bit keener than T Rex!

 

[velasco13000]

how long usually till these species are aquatic normally? and these guys are beautiful!!!

 

[Chinadog]

Two of them have been pretty much aquatic since they morphed, the rest were more reluctant but now they seem happy in or out of the water. Over the last few weeks they have started diving into the water when startled instead of trying to hide on land, so I think that's a sign of them feeling more at home there.

 

[velasco13000]

The coloration on these guys is really amazing...what would be the major diffrences between these guys and C. Popei?