Close to morphing time...

Sad to hear. Best off luck with the rest!

I love the two pictures with the coins, they really have an alien like look on those.
 
For those that have been following these little guys, here are today's pictures of the same three larvae. I decided to keep these three separate from the rest for photo purposes.

3589509678_967c8158d7.jpg
Fun With smoke and mirrors...

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That is 1/4 inch graph paper under the dish.

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Look at that ventral shot!

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There is a bunch of these guys developing more of a stripe on their belly like this one.

3589497804_c32ee7b598.jpg

All three little bandits together.


Interestingly, it seems as though the black blotches develop before the "fire" color on the ventral side, or am I mistaken and these guys are just really pale yellow? The pictures do not quite show the true coloration accurately...a certain teenager was playing with my camera....:angry:
 
They are entering the final stage. You can probably expect them to morph within a week.
The black dots appear first, and they take a little time to become fully defined. The belly is first pale yellow or cream because of the pteridines that are being synthetized in the xantophores of the belly. Red comes later, but bare in mind they´ll probably have a pale red, they are unlikely to develop the fully splendor of their coloration unless the diet is very rich in carotenes.
 
Wow.
Az, you called it.

The largest and most developed of the batch is showing a drastic reduction in gill size. The one that is now my avatar already has smaller gills compared to when that picture was taken. (At first I thought I had some conspecific nipping going on, but they are still perfectly symmetrical, just smaller.)
Very, very interesting!

Here it is: (little bugger went back in the water by the time I could get clear pictures of him...)
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I am so excited!
 
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That is so cool. The change from the first pictures are really showing.
 
I hope you don't mind me putting this in your thread Sludge but I just had my first c.o. morph tonight! I'd provide a picture but I dropped my phone into one of my tanks(don't ask). For those who have raised these before is about an inch and a quarter a good size for a new morph? I've been feeding my larvae twice a day on daphnia(sometimes some thawed bloodworms or whiteworms from Dawn, thanks Dawn!) so they haven't been wanting in the food department.
 
What are popei? I have never heard of them, where do they originate from?
 
VICTORY!


As some of you know, I am a big advocate of substantiated reports.

Here is some substance for you:

Hatched: 9-11MAR09 Found on Land: 11JUN09

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Here is the first actual terrestrial morph from the batch you folks have been following in this thread.
I got home from work to discover my light timer failed yet again, and this little guy was out and about.

This one has earned itself a name, although I must consult with the family first. I normally do not name my caudates, unless they are very special...

More later, I am off to harvest Drosophila and pin head crickets!
 
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Congratulations man!!
It´s such a joy to see your first morph....
Best of lucks in the following months :)
 
It almost seems strange seeing it like this; I'd grown accustomed to your pictures of larvae, and their feathery gills :p
Best of luck with the new morph!
 
I was just lucky enough to actually watch morph number two climb out of the water. What a rush!

The girls have dubbed the first morph "Diamond". Why I have no clue...:rolleyes:
 
Broke the record today, 8 morphs in 6 hours. There is only 5 left in the fully aquatic set up. Looks to be a grand total of 42ish terrestrial morphs, some of which are now a few weeks on land. All are healthy and eating like machines. As of this posting I have a zero percent mortality rate, excluding the nine I had to cull a while back. Still having a bit of trouble getting an accurate count due to the heavy planting of the rearing tanks.

Anyone want to see pictures of the new SludgeMunkey Army?
(Pictures to follow in a bit...I am armpit deep in tapecrete)
 
Wow, congrats. Can't wait to see the pictures!
Out of interest, what set-up do you use for larvae approaching metamorphosis? Do you transfer larvae to a tilted tub?
 
KarlJefferson29 said:
Wow, congrats. Can't wait to see the pictures!
Out of interest, what set-up do you use for larvae approaching metamorphosis? Do you transfer larvae to a tilted tub?
Click to expand...

Initial hatching and rearing was done in a ten gallon US tank. Lots of java moss and an airstone in place.

I then moved them into roughly 5 US gallon Sterilite tubs (based on each animal's SVL) with java moss and an sponge filter until they started showing signs of morphing, thickened legs, venter patterns, and a reduction of the caudal fin. All were sorted by size regularly.

Once they looked to be ready to morph, I moved them into a ten US gallon tank with a tight fitting screen lid. The water level was kept at about 6 inches, again heavily planted with java moss and a sponge filter. A cork bark island was also added at this time.

At first I transfered the morphs to a completely terrestrial ten gallon tank, however I had a close call with pica issues, so moved them to a tilted ten US gallon tank with lid. Quite a few of the morphs still had a bit of gill for the first ferw days, so I added 1/2 of an inch of water and a large mass of java moss, as some of them liked to stay very wet.

All juveniles that have completely lost their gills are then moved to a completely terrestrial tank with no substrate, a few masses of live moss and cork bark hides. I mist this tank with spring water once a day.
 
UPDATE!

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

As of this posting, there is only 4 aquatic larvae left!

This little guy is shown slightly larger than actual size. I wear a size 8 wedding ring.
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And now without further delay, here is the entire colony thus far, even though a few are camera shy and made for the cork bark in a flash...
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And just for giggles, here is a true color photo of their ventral colors. Not the best picture, but the color rendering is accurate.
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It blows my mind how much variation there is in the patterns. It is interesting to note here that the larvae that were lighter colored have developed into the juveniles with definitive dorsal stripes and lateral spots. the deep black larvae developed little or no dorsal markings and tend to have only a ragged orange stripe on the ventral side.


Photography note:All of the pictures in this thread were taken with a Samsung SL102 in program mode manualy set to "0" exposure, AWb light balance, ISO 400, Face Detection off, Metering set to "Spot", Drive set to Continuous, and Photo Style Set to normal. Not that it should not make a difference (but it does for me) I use SanDisk Ultra II 4GB 15 mb/s SDHC cards in the camera.
 
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That is simply stunning! Congratulations on the morphs and I hope you the best as they continue on. So great seeing so many little ones! Thanks for the pics.

Mitch
 
What a lovely sight Johnny! It always make me happy to see CB cynops, specially in these quantities :)
 
Thanks very much for the set-up info, and indeed the whole thread.
The photos of the juveniles are stunning; the newt pile-up is brilliant :p
 
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