Triturus Dobrogicus going aquatic

[terry]

I forgot to add one more picture to the tail whip section here it is:

So sorry. This was one of my favourite pics depicting the male during his courtship. The male's crest has grown somewhat since this picture was taken. I'll update on that another time!
Greetings,
Terry

 

[terry]

Ok so i decided to show the comparison of how much the crest has grown since earlier in October.

Here is what he looked like then:

Here is what he looks like as of today:

One more!

So The females chooses the male with the largest crest? I guess size does matter!

Cheers!
Terry
p.s. I forgot to mention that the male kept expanding his throat occasionally to show the colours. Perhaps emphasising on the throat patterns. "Throat spots are larger in males than in females. A possible function of the conspicuous throat coloration"(abstract from Geographic variation and taxonomy of crested newts (Triturus cristatus superspecies): morphological and mitochondrial DNA data
J. W. Arntzen , Graham P. Wallis ) Appendix and Plate III.
The article is here:
http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/ctz/vol68/nr03/art04


(Message edited by terryschild on October 25, 2005)

 

[felipe]

Very beautifull triturus!!! Impressive! Could you post a picture of the full aquarium?? I see that you dont use rocks as substrat.. how do you fix the plants?

 

[jeff]

I gotta say Terry, that is by far the most impressive male Dobrogicus I've ever seen. It's no wonder your female is laying eggs, that guy is a real stud!

 

[mike]

This is a great photo series! Keep up the good work. Mike

 

[terry]

Thanks for the comments folks!

Felipe, The plants are in little terracota pots. These weigh them down. The Garden center where I bought them sold them this way. I do not use substrate for this setup. Easier to maintain and good for observing spermatophores and so on!
Here is a photo of their setup.

Jeff: Thanks. The male's crest has grown somewhat since the picture was taken. I'll post another photo at a later date to show you it's progress.

Mike: Yes it is always good to keep a good visual record of how the newts behave. I hope the photos offer a glimpse of T. dobrogicus to those who do not posses this species or do not get to keep them.

Cheers all!
Terry

 

[terry]

As with the marbled newts, my danube newts have laid more than enough eggs than I could count and here are some shots of the developing embryo.

Hope the larvae turn out fine! I cannot wait till the first larvae hatch!

 

[felipe]

You is a lucky one! There is any way I can make my male develop a bigger crest???

 

[terry]

Hello Felipe!

I do not decide nor control how large the crest of the male gets, Felipe. However, I ensured that it get5s sufficient live food so it could grow a high crest. It seems to work. Usually older individuals will develop larger crests! So do not worry if your male has a small crest! it will take time to grow a large one when it is ready! keep it well fed before it goes into breeding is all i can say.

Here is what he looks like now

 

[TJ]

Wow! I hadn't noticed this thread until now. A very impressive set of photos of some very impressive animals

Good work, Terry!

Do show us how the embryos develop and how the larvae turn out....

 

[jeff]

That <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Terry Schild wrote on Friday, 04 November, 2005 - 10:31 :</font>

"Usually older individuals will develop larger crests! So do not worry if your male has a small crest! it will take time to grow a large one when it is ready!"<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

It's kind of like our facial hair!

 

[felipe]

Maybe this is the problem!!! My triturus is too young! He will have this yellow/orenge back too??? This coloration is so beautiful! Hes is black...with a little white strip in the tail!

 

[terry]

A small update on the development of the dobrogicus eggs. this is what they look like now:

here is a close up of that larva:

I guess it will not be long now!

 

[terry]

The Danube newt larvae are surely developing fast!
Here are some new photos I made this morning:

Here is the one which was but a little embryo a few days back ( see above posts)

And a close up of the self-same embryo:

As you can see pigmentation is forming. Hope this one hatches soon!

 

[terry]

The male's crest has reduced. I was observing it today and noticed the crest being smaller and slowly being reabsorbed into the newt. I guess the warm autumn weather has done it's work and the newts have a time to rest once more till a proper spring comes.

As for the Larvae? None have hatched yet but so far all of them have developed pretty well and I merely had a loss of 12 eggs to mold or deformaties. Right now I ask myself. Are the remaining 50 over larvae able to make it to their metamorphosis? Wish me luck and strength

 

[emanuele]

hi terry!
i've sent you some private messages, but you did not answered... i would be interested on animals like yours, or even in eggs-larvas. can you write me an e mail emaETtheflies.it ?thanks a lot!
Ema