Repashy Superfly on Coloration?

[jasper408]

I had been feeding a particular individual a staple of fruit flies cultured on Repashy Superfly, a fruit fly medium. I had completely forgotten that it contains a small percentage of Repashy SuperPig, but surprisingly, it seems to have for a particular C.e. popei individual that had been only eating fruit flies(picky eater).

Below is a picture at around four months old, and to the right is one at around six(brown paper towel). It is hard to show through pictures, but take my word that there is a noticeable increase in how bright orange the stripe is. In addition to that, there are noticeable brightness changes to the tiny spots surrounding the dorsal line, as well as a marked improvement to the spot directly above it.

Growth could have been a factor, judging by the increase of gold spotting. However, caudates do not synthesize carotenoids themselves, so I'm ready to chalk it all to the SuperPig and the carotenoids that filled in those areas so vibrantly.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised with the change and how so little carotenoids seems to have done so much. Thoughts?

 

[Coastal Groovin]

The gold spots are highly variable in that species so the Repashy most likely has nothing to do with it. The orange stripe could be from the food but you would need to start feeding it to more animals while keeping a control group that is not fed Repashy to get a more definite idea of what caused it. Your highly colored newt may just have better genetics from the start.

 

[jasper408]

Oh, I meant the orange spotting surrounding the dorsal line, not the gold. It is hard to see because of the camera and how tiny the spots are. Essentially, it looks as though the spots that were unoticeable previously are now evident (to the naked eye at least). Genetics did play a role in creating those orange areas initially, but I’m guessing it has to be the SuperPig that filled it in.

The orange is highly variable among individuals. However, I’ve never seen orange “grow” before- individuals either had it or they didn’t. It was never meant to be an experiment, but I am very interested in doing so in the future. That control group will just have to wait. I am, however, feeding higher concentrations of Super Pig to a chenggongensis/cyanurus pair that would be nice to see results on. C. ensicauda seem to not appear to be red, even in the wild, but cyanurus seem to. Any change from an orange to a red on an adult would be telltale, control group or not.

I have high hopes for this product because it seems to be the only commercial product with a variety of carotenoids with Astaxanthin. In the future, I would also like to test out feeder foods fed with NatuRose, a high concentration of just Astaxanthin.

(As you can probably tell, I am very interested in the use of carotenoids. Haha.)