Rearing metamorphs

[corrina]

Cute babies. I'm down to one now that I've decided to keep for myself. The others went to a friend of mine, who keeps several reptiles and amphibians of her own, and I miss them already *wipes a tear away*. I know they have a good home though. My baby Metallica is kept on damp paper towel with hiding areas, a shallow water area, and fed live blackworms. And boy, does he love them. You look like you have been doing fabulously with yours. I find that with warmer temps, like mids 60s to the low 70s works best with them eating and morphing.

 

[danny]

I remember you talking about how you had two more juvs coming up, but I have a feelings these are keepers

They have lots of great colouration in them, and my favorite is the little one on the red rock

Hopefully the two I got off of you are a 1.1 pair and I can hopefully get some beautiful babies of my own in a couple of years! Great work Duncan!

 

[TJ]

So how are people's aquatic-raised morphs doing now?

Any further experiences to share in this very interesting thread?

Updates folks, updates!

 

[joeri]

I still have 4 which are doing very well. They still find food in the water, but spend most of the day on land, or half on land.

Only 1 is in the water all the time.

But last years morfs are finally heading into the water - yay. (erm... not last years, in spring they are 2 years old)

 

[frank]

I am raising C cyanurus (a batch from 2004 and one of this year) completely aquatically. The animals from 2004 have reached maturity now. By the way: Ed: have all your juvenile cyanurus this bright dorsal stripe? None of mine (and I raised some 80) show this.

 

[TJ]

Perhaps I shouldn't be speaking for Ed here, but Frank, I think those pictures of Ed's above that you're referring to are of C. pyrrhogaster

 

[edward]

Thanks Tim, those are indeed pyrrogaster pictures (I wanted to try rearing them the same way I did the cyanurus and see if they would revert to the aquatic phase as quickly).

Ed

 

[frank]

Oops, sorry, my mistake.

 

[duncan]

Hi All,

Thought I'd share an update of the two juveniles from the Sept. '05 post. The larger, more gold, of the two stays almost entirely aquatic and has increased significantly in size compared to its sibling. The smaller "red stripe" individual has amazing coloration but has barely grown at all. It stays almost entirely on the one rock that is just above water level and only ventures into the water to eat a small amount and then gets out. Since this time I've had a few more juvies morph out and have a few larvae on the way but none of them have near the colour of these two.

Duncan

 

[TJ]

Hi Duncan.

Congrats on having successfully raised so far such amazingly colored popei. Those are some true beauties -- and I've seen some real beauts in my time! They're both stunning, but the second one is outrageously so!

I look forward to seeing more pics of them in the future.