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1st C. pyrrhogaster metamorph of the season

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heather

Guest
The first of my larva metamorphed last night, and I am very excited! Looks like I have several more that are close. So one down, about 4 dozen to go...
Heather
 
C

cameron

Guest
Good Luck Heather!
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J

jacob

Guest
Hey Heather, one of the larvae I got from you metamorphosed 2 days ago. You have four dozen left?! How many eggs where there that hatched?
 
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heather

Guest
I lost count of the number that hatched, Jacob. I separated about 50 eggs from the adults and sent maybe half of those off to other newt lovers. But I have no idea how many hatched that were left in the adult tank. Right now I have 22 that are close to metamorphosing that are separate from the adults, with shrinking gills and getting more color. But as far as the adult tank - no idea how many. I have counted around 17 that are pretty big and about 5 of those have lots of yellow color. But there are TONS in the tank that don't even have rear legs yet. Someone contacted me last week that was interested in larva so I decided to fish out all the rear legless once to ship off. I got to about 13 and decided to give up and there are still some swimming around in there that I couldn't/didn't catch. So I guess my adults are rather prolific
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J

jennifer

Guest
Your female was without a male for years... she's making up for lost time! Congratulations on the morph.
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heather

Guest
Thanks Jennifer. And I think you are right about my female - she must be awfully happy to have some male company!
 
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heather

Guest
Sorry to bump this thread, but now that I have more metamorphs (about 13) at what age is it safe to ship them off? I would like to get some to new homes before the summer heat really sets in around here.
Thanks,
Heather
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Thread bumping is perfectly acceptable if you have something new to say or ask.

They are ready to ship as soon as the gills are completely gone.

C.p. morphs are not the easiest critters to deal with. You either have to force them to be aquatic by providing nowhere that their skin can get dry (but enough land to prevent drowning), or raise them terrestrial. This might be helpful:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/Cp_juv.html
 
H

heather

Guest
Thanks Jen, that little article is already in my "newt notebook", where I keep printed articles that I feel I will reference a lot. I have been keeping them terrestrial, though I would prefer aquatic but am worried about drowning. Guess I should try it with a few morphs, though.
Congrats Jim! Is this little morph "Gigantor"? Good luck with it.
Man, aside from all the water changes raising newts is exciting - you get pumped about the first egg, and then the first hatchling. A few weeks later they get back legs, and then cute tiny little morphs! Aww, I am such a nerd....

Heather
 
J

jim

Guest
Yup, Gigantor morphed out first, the second one crawled out today and the rest look not too far behind. I have some flightless fruit flies on the way, but they won't be here until Tuesday. I hope they don't get too hungry between now and then.
 
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heather

Guest
Nice, Jim. I have had 21 morph, but two have died since morphing
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I have removed three from the parent tank that are very large, at least one third bigger than their siblings. I don't think I will ever raise larvae outside of the parent tank again - I think they do so much better in there than in the plastic shoe boxes. I am offering mine blackworms and whiteworms, and should be receiving a springtail culture from M. Shrom soon.
 
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