E
edward
Guest
A long time ago I noticed that if I provided them with little to no land area and fed them only in the water C. cyanureus would come out of the water for a very short period of time and then basically revert to an aquatic lifestyle. (they would also morph at a larger size, occasionally as large as an adult C. orientalis) As a result of this the larva would grow extremely rapidly and reach reproductive age within about a year.
After reading Sparreboom's articles on rearing this genus, I noticed that he pointed out that if you set them up like I had the cyanureus you could rear the larva aquatically so I decided to try this with a different species, C. pyrrogaster (of which Jen was kind enough to send me some eggs). This species is easy to rear to metamorphosis but metamorps at a small size when it becomes more labor intensive to care for resulting in most people only rearing small numbers. I took the batch of eggs (which was probably about 30 eggs) and set them up in a larger rubbermaid container with a 12/12 photoperiod. Post hatching the larva were fed on chopped blackworms (and I suspect there was some cannibalism but I did not actually note any) daily. Larval growth was rapid and the larva metamorphed. Again I provided some haul out spots via floating plants (in this case Java moss) and provided no food to the larva above the surface. After two weeks the first larva began to feed underwater and all but 4 (out of 20 metamorphs) were feeding underwater on chopped blackworms. These four held out until they were noticiably skinny before converting to aquatic feeding and as a result were much smaller than the others requiring them to be seperated into another container. The metamorphs do not stay in the water all of the time and appear to submerge and feed and then come back out of the water. The growth rate on these is to my memory less than that of cyanureus but is more than what I anecdotally remember from trying to rear them conventially on land. Even if it is initially less the resulting lessing of labor in rearing the metamorphs should make more than make up for any slower growth periods.
I suspect that this may be an adaptation for the metamorphs who move onto land and are unable to find food or a habitable niche.
Ed
As a postscript in a moment of carelessness I lost most of the metamorphs by forgetting to make sure the lid was tight when I wasn't going to be home for several days and the majority of the metamorphs escaped and were not recovered.
At some future date, I would like to rear two batches side by side to see if the growth rates are different and not just my wishing.
Ed
After reading Sparreboom's articles on rearing this genus, I noticed that he pointed out that if you set them up like I had the cyanureus you could rear the larva aquatically so I decided to try this with a different species, C. pyrrogaster (of which Jen was kind enough to send me some eggs). This species is easy to rear to metamorphosis but metamorps at a small size when it becomes more labor intensive to care for resulting in most people only rearing small numbers. I took the batch of eggs (which was probably about 30 eggs) and set them up in a larger rubbermaid container with a 12/12 photoperiod. Post hatching the larva were fed on chopped blackworms (and I suspect there was some cannibalism but I did not actually note any) daily. Larval growth was rapid and the larva metamorphed. Again I provided some haul out spots via floating plants (in this case Java moss) and provided no food to the larva above the surface. After two weeks the first larva began to feed underwater and all but 4 (out of 20 metamorphs) were feeding underwater on chopped blackworms. These four held out until they were noticiably skinny before converting to aquatic feeding and as a result were much smaller than the others requiring them to be seperated into another container. The metamorphs do not stay in the water all of the time and appear to submerge and feed and then come back out of the water. The growth rate on these is to my memory less than that of cyanureus but is more than what I anecdotally remember from trying to rear them conventially on land. Even if it is initially less the resulting lessing of labor in rearing the metamorphs should make more than make up for any slower growth periods.
I suspect that this may be an adaptation for the metamorphs who move onto land and are unable to find food or a habitable niche.
Ed
As a postscript in a moment of carelessness I lost most of the metamorphs by forgetting to make sure the lid was tight when I wasn't going to be home for several days and the majority of the metamorphs escaped and were not recovered.
At some future date, I would like to rear two batches side by side to see if the growth rates are different and not just my wishing.
Ed
-- Tim)</font> 
