Triturus marmoratus

[william]

here are a few pictures of my Triturus marmoratus, if you can, can you help me sex them, i'm fairly sure i have a male and a female, with one which could go either way.

this one i'm sure is female:

all three together:

finally some shots of their tank:

the last picture is my favourite shot

enjoy!

 

[francesco]

Mmh it looks like you have 3 females there

I like the set-up anyway

 

[william]

really? in the third picture, the one being trodden on, that's the one i think is a male...

 

[francesco]

Can't see any crest on his back. What about his cloaca, is it more swollen than the others?

 

[mark]

They look like juveniles to me, what size are they? - Don't males develop crests only when adult?

That tank puts the plastic tub I keep my marms in to shame... very nice.

 

[terry]

Males develop small crests even when sub adult, albeit small. I cannot see clearly from the photos if they are all female but the one in the first photo is certainly female. In sub-adults and adult males there is a sort of broken stripe: that is orange stripe with black interruptions. There could be a male in there somewhere! Look at Leonardo's picture here and the male is on the right:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/cgi-bin/show.cgi?tpc=985&post=70325#POST70325

Very beautiful setup, will. I love it!

. Could you post an overall view of the tank from the side? What is the depth of your water area?

(Message edited by terryschild on October 24, 2005)

(Message edited by terryschild on October 24, 2005)

 

[william]

thanks for the comments, the water area is 15cm deep, with a gradual slope leading up to the land. i'll sort out some more pictures of the setup and suspect male

Mark: they are fairly young, they had only morphed about 6-7 weeks before i bought them back in january.

 

[william]

the tank is so large that i have to take several pictures of it:

this is the "male" i couldn't get anymore photos today as he kept on running away so they are all blurred or contain half a tail, i don't want to stress him so if this isn't good enough i'll get some more pictures soon.

BTW all thier cloacas look the same, but they are still young so this may not say much, non of them have any signs of a crest either.

 

[mike]

Heya Will, Nice setup you got there. Spacious with uncharted territory at the other end .. heheh

 

[terry]

Ohhh very flashy! too much reflection there mate but nevertheless shows the sheer size of your tank! Wow! Now THAT is what I call a tank.

 

[rubén]

I would say 2 females/1 male but nobody can be sure. At this age ( are still youngs ) the most obvious difference could be the length of the tails by comparison ( shorter in males ).

 

[william]

Tery, I know

i can't get a good angle because i was up against a wall when i took that picture, there is more of the tank on the land side, but my camera is now officially broken

Ruben, i'll compare the tails for you

 

[terry]

Your camera broke?

What did you do? drop the camera? Tossed it into the tank? LOL!

Nevertheless mate. That is one impressive tank size for three juvies. Lots of space! I like it. You did not mention the size of your tank mate? What is the total size/ volume of this tank? And last but not least, I LOVE the last picture in your first post. Makes me wish I was a newt in your tank

 

[william]

it is a lot of space for them, but i hope to use this as a breeding tank for them and their offspring, fingers crossed!

the tank is about 65 british gallons

that picture is also my favourite

 

[terry]

Well Good luck, you are most definately going to have to wait till the grow up first HAHAHAHAHA!!!! You most certainly have enough space for that!

On a lighter note: I better remove the entire clump of water plants into another tank. The egg production is driving me nuts!

 

[william]

incase anyone was wondering the floating plant is Aponogeton distachyus it is growing in our pond and as an experiment i got loads of different water plants to try them out, this one is the only one that really thrived, so the others were taken out. i can tell it's happy because it even threw up a flower! (which by the way have the most amazing scent!)

 

[mark]

Do you mean the mossy looking plant in the water? It looks quite prolific.
Here are some of my marmoratus (sorry for hijacking)
Is that food??

I'll have that, thank you...

I want to live in Will's tank...all I have is this plastic leaf.

 

[josh]

lol very cool pictures also your tank looks HUGE

 

[william]

Mark, i mean the floating plant with the big green leaves. in my last picture you can see the flower on the far right.

as for the aquatic moss, i've no idea what it is, this tank used to have lots of british freshwater fish in it, the fish all eventually dies, and it was left with just the odd minnow in it for a while, the moss started growing then, and it covers all of the tank bottom, it grows quite quickly. it looks like java moss, but it isn't.

BTW great marms Mark!

(Message edited by will_j on October 26, 2005)