My 2 lined colony -pics!

i was cleaning out their tank last night- i do this once a year so i can get a head count. i counted 14 adults-some are new morphs, i found 2 dead new morphs in a thick tangle of roots-dunno why though.
here are some pics of the adults-these were collected in maryland in 2000. the pictures arent great due to their small size and the limitations of my digital cam (it a video cam)






they have been breeding since i got them-i will have a post of their set up in the enclosure section(its a seepage set up)there are many many babies in there of different sizes so i decided to pull as many out as i could while cleaning the tank. here is a pic of a baby before taken from the tank-its very dark at the bottom of the tank

and here is a pic of them in the bowl before i placed them in a baby only tank-i counted about 40-50 larva at different stages of growth. its odd since the eggs are laid under rocks and will drop off the rocks and lay on the bottom before they hatch-easily prey for the adults in the tank, i really never saw eggs since i moved the tank here a year and a half ago-but these babies are since then.

wow paris they look great. i know that they are small so how big of an enclosure do you keep them in. I tried to keep a colony of redbacked salamanders but the adults kept eating the hatchlings. ive always found the aquatic plethodontids fascinating.

its a 29 gallon tank-the sides are a bit scratched so pics are bad through the glass. i am posting the enclosure pics now.

i wish i had me some of those aquatic plethodontids, since i live in the sandiego area, which is very dry and desert like, i kind of miss out on aqlot of the aquatic plethodontids. Plus i think the only aquatic plethodontids in california are protected. Jsut out of curiosity, can they be neotenic(paedomorphic)?

no they will morph to the land forms- i dont know if there is any record of neotenic forms-nate would be one to ask on that issue. all of mine change over-i just have no idea how long they live or when they die (unless i clean the tank) but i am glad they are a stable breeding colony-now that i set the babies aside i hope to have more live w/o becoming food for their parents.

ok my curiosity has been puicked, are these found in maryland? were di you get yours, did you catch them or did you find them through the pet trade?

i paid for a collection permit and got them myself in maryland. they are very common back east.

Paris, great shots and I think you may try to imporve the quality of those shots by means of a noise reducing programm.
I have tried this out on one of your shots and this is what it gives.
The programm is free of charge , it is Helicon's noise reduction

henk-
i ran it through a 'sharpen' function in adobe photoshop 6 -this can sharpen features but it does so by dropping some of the image out-sometimes it makes the image grainy and i dont use it - ill try the one you mention though.

Well Paris, the best wy is in fact ot use both and first sharpen the image, then you get those noise spots too, there you can then eliminate with a noise reducing software like the one I metioned or otherwise Noise Ninja (which is one of the better ones)

so paris, what are you going to do with all fifty babies when they morph?

some more pics of the larva in their new tank. i saw one that had full adult colour and was fully on top of the plants-but when it saw me it dove under and wouldnt sit for pics. there are many who are 1/2 the size who will sit near the water level and even up a little on plants. in the old tank there are at least 10 i missed -you can see how easily it blends in.

here are a few pics of them where they hang out at the top -not many strolling around on the bottom


occasionally some will try to climb up the side-despite being far from morphing.

new update- i just found my 3rd new morph of them in the tank yesterday. i now have 2 set aside in an escape proof deli 'tank' (its like the 1/2 gallon size deli cup!) i had set the first one back into the parents set up -there are still some little ones in there too. looks as if these ones will all morph within a year -and that is alot!

Sounds great Paris! Have any info on the exact location on these guys? I was chatting with Nate and he mentioned the possibility of the 2 line mess being split into new species. They are very cool critters nevertheless.

Thanks!

most came from 1 location near timonium MD, but 1 i believe came from virginia-where is the split going to be?

Maybe contact Nate on that one. I'm pretty unsure, but many of the populations are different from each other in behavior courtship etc.

According to Nate, they are bislineata for now. On the other side of VA is cirrigera. But the populations have yet to be studied enough to be split up....and I doubt they will ever be finished.

Whats the story of the VA sallie?


(Message edited by fishkeeper on August 20, 2004)

found it with a few red backs in a mud puddle under leaves on a well used horse trail far from any normal habitat you would envision for them. i was a little higher than the middle of the state and near the applachans-ill have to look at a map to remember where i was - i know it was in forest and i met a ranger at the station there to ask about collecting...i may still have the brochure somewhere....

Paris,
I have Northern two -lined also and i was wondering how long it should take for them to morph? And if you have any suggestions for taking care of them? I have them in a 10 gallon with a screen and filter and some live plants. Should I change this setup? I have had them for two months and they are about an inch long. Thanks for any info!

katie-
ill address your email here -but nate also is very much into these guys, so maybe he will interject some here too. the screen top will be an issue unless it is a tight fitting home made one - the commercial ones out there have gaps and this will allow for escapes -these guys can climb glass (the live on stream sides). they feed well on small crickets and blackworms (live). i keep my new morphs (those that arent in the tank above) in a large 1/2 gallon clear deli cup -it has small gravel across the bottom and java moss spread across it -live blackworms live in this and they pick them off when hungry -they also get small (pinhead)crickets and large fruit flies too. i can try to get a photo soon. for these the most important thing is a tight fitting top - id allow for shallow (1-2) inch water -a bubble stone through the screen -the a stack of thin rocks (like slate) and a generous coating of java moss up the rocks and down into the water-this will grow to fill the gaps and create another place for them to hide in. for the sake of helping to discourage climbing -id place the rocks in the center of the tank.
they are fairly easy guys to care for. i checked the caudate culture section-there is a care sheet with more info, here is the link

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Eurycea/Eurycea_sp.shtml

Thanks for all your help! My dad made me a lid. It is 100% escape proof! I made a new home for them and they love it!