C. pyrrhogaster larvae & morphs

[Tim Johnson]

What's with these? They look almost like Eastern Newts. Quite different from my C.e and C.o larvae. These are my first ever C.p larvae & morphs. Is this typical coloration?

[Tim Johnson]

The one in the pic above hasn't quite fully morphed. Maybe by tomorrow. Here's a pic of the first one to have morphed (only one so far). Not as colorful as the one above but also showing white lines on the body (and in this case, the top of the tail).




And here's a larvae that's likely to turn into a colorful morph as well.



Would love to see any pics of other people's C.p larvae for comparison!

I don't have any pics for you, but those are very similar to new C. pyrrhogaster morphs I've raised and so I'm assuming they are typical. The stripes will turn red within a few weeks.

Hi Tim,
some images of this year's C.p. morphs.




.

Can't really see any distinct differences between the different races, rather between individuals.

Ralf

[Tim Johnson]

Nice, Ralf! Very interesting. By the way, in my posts above, I kept saying "larvae" when I meant "morphs".

Hello,
at my three pyrrhogaster groups I see the following tendency for differentiation with young animals of the different forms:
- Most sasayamae have only few red belly, large parts of the belly is dark. They have the highest tendency to red stripes on the back.
- My Tohoku pyrrhogaster all have red belly. No, or only very few black parts there.
- The Kanto have the same tendency to the belly coloration like my Tohoku, but lowest tendency to red stripes on the back.
But of course – we can not generalize the tendency of some animals to others.

@Tim,
from which of your pyrrhogaster groups are this breeding - the south Kyusyu group?

@Ralf,
the belly of this breeding – is this one of your sasayamae?

Greetings Paul

Hi Paul,
yes it is the belly of one of my sasayamae. The Kanto and Tohoku pics are from animals I got as larvae from you.
Maybe you should give me more larvae next time so I can see more differences, ha, ha, ha . What do you feed your larvae, since markings on my animals are rather yellow than red.

Ralf

Hi Ralf,
o.k.!
This year my juveniles are more yellow than red.
The reason – to much larvae and not enough "red belly food"; but not enough larvae to give you more due to the high interest in my breeding from other Cynops friends.
But in the last years I made some tests. I obtained red bellies with metamorphosis by Daphnien and Mexican brook flea cancers.
One C.e.popei larva for example I only feed with this Mexican brook flea cancers. The result was a fantastic red colour in the belly during metamorphosis. Now, one year later, I still can see the difference to the others.
Paul

Hi Paul,
just kidding about getting even more animals from you. I very much appreciated your last donation and (as you know) my raising facilities are about to burst anyway (it's been quite a fertile winter and spring ).
So you made good experiences in feeding Daphnia and Hyalella azteca to your larvae to enhance coloration. I still cannot convince myself to feed any of these precious Mexican Hyalella I got from you. Think I'll wait a bit more till the culture is even more numerous.
I am trying to "spice" up some of my white worm cultures with red (sweet) pepper powder (rich in natural carotinoids) to improve red color in some of my juvenile newts. I got the idea on a different forum (www.agurodela.de), anybody else on this forum have any experience with it? Don't want to use any industrial products like Canthaxanthin or artificial Astaxanthin.

Ralf

Hi Ralf,
that’s the problem with this Mexican brook flea cancers (Hyalella azteca). They are not very productive.
An other question to your pictures. From which are the respective pics?
My tip:
Sasayamae, Sasayamae, Kanto, Tohoku, Tohoku (above to down)?

Paul

Hi Paul,
close but not close enough .
1. Sasayama
2. Sasayama
3. Tohoku
4. Kanto
5. Kanto

However, your browser should also give you the names (image descriptions), when moving your cursor onto the picture.

Ralf