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C. orientalis morphs

taper

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I now have 6 new morphs. I was wondering on how to set up a tank for them. I have about 25 more that are going to morph soon. Is it okay to leave them in their tank and just add slate for a land area, or should I set up a land area with soil and such with a bowl of water? They are in small 6 liter rubbermaid containers right now with about 2 inches of water with some rocks and plants that they climb out of the water on.

Also any info on how to feed these little guys would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance
 
A

achiinto

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There are some people able to keep the morphs in the water stage, however, you will need to lower the water level and increase a lot of vegetation, such as java moss. You will have to have enough vegetation that the morphs is always partially in water and will be able to stick it head out of water.

If just putting rocks in the water, your morphs might drown and die.

I personally setup a land based tank with black sand mixed with cocnut fiber and including a small water dish. I raised 50 morphs that way. hope this helps.
 

taper

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That does help. What kind of food did you feed them. Up until now I have raised them from frozen blood worms, feeding individually from tweezers.The ones that haven't morphed are eating them still, but the ones on land haven't eaten yet. I am very limited on tiny food to feed them here.

I put flat slate in there tanks, but I think I will move them to a land set up. I worked hard to raise them and I really would be heart broken if some drown. If I put the frozen blood worms in a dish do you think they will eat them. I might be able to order in some pin head crickets. Thanks
 

Jennewt

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Hi Cole, welcome to the forum. I haven't raised orientalis, but I have raised 3 other Cynops species. In addition to possible drowning, another problem with keeping them in the adults' tank is that it's hard to find a way to feed them the kinds of food they need in that setup.

Ian has outlined the two methods that various people have used successfully: shallow semi-aquatic packed with plants, or fully-terrestrial. The choice between these depends on your preference, but also on what kind of food you have for them. Also, some groups of Cynops morphs (even within the same species) may have a stronger or weaker preference for staying on land versus being raised with water. My preference for Cynops is to raise them kind of like dart frogs: soil substrate and fruit flies as food. But I've also used the semiaquatic method.

There have been cases where people have managed to train Cynops morphs to eat frozen bloodworms from a dish (or from a "pile" on a piece of paper towel), but I've never managed to get them to do this. If it doesn't move, they usually don't recognize it as food without some training. Another option is to feed them the bloodworms by dangling it from a toothpick; most of them will learn to eat this way, though it takes time and patience. Most other options require live food.

This is a page I wrote for C.p. morphs, but it should be fairly applicable to orientalis:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/Cp_juv.html
 

taper

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Áll my larva are separated into their own set up according to size. I have their tanks with about half land- Large flat pieces of slate and half water, with the water level at about an inch , with lots of java moss and elodai. I did manage to get a few of the morphes to eat the frozen blood worms from tweezers. I have been feeding with tweezers since I took them off brine shrimp.

I think what I will do is turn 2 tanks into a soil based set -up and leave the other half and half and see how they do, until I can find them good keepers who will look after them. I really only wanted to keep a couple of them.I also do not forsee myself breeding any more in the future as the only male in my adult tank died for unexplained reasons, and raising them are alot of work. Thank you for all your help.
 
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achiinto

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I have raised my morphs with a mixture of Springtails, fruit flies, frozen bloodworm and eathworm.
At the beginning, the morphs will stop eating for some time, even as long as 1 month. By those time, I would feed them springtails and fruit flies. Since these are smaller and moving, which might increase their appetite. Then later, I switched to feeding frozen bloodworm with tweenzer. In this case, it was very difficult, it took a long time every day to feed them. However, the result was great. Then I started feed diced earth worm pieces, this will be easier and healthier for the morphs, since these are nutritious and smell good.

Then, after 1/2 year on land, I started introducing the healthier and bigger morphs back to water. Which the feeding in water was much easier.

the good things about raising the morphs on land (sands and coconut fiber) was that I seldom need to clean up the tank.
Sometime the water in the water dish evapourated and drop back to the substrate. Which then, as the water accumulated, I useda syringe to remove the water from the substrate, which partially cleaned the tank. In the case of using soil, I think you will not be able to clean the tank like the above method.
I have also kept some amount of springtails in the tank, which helped the cleaning. I also had lot of plant in the tank.
 
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