C. Orientalis color variations

[stanleyc]

Just wondering if any of you guys have any fire bellies with color variations, yellow belly as opposed to orange, gray bodies as opposed to black, etc. Pictures and where you got them would be cool.

 

[Azhael]

Yellow bellies are not a colour variation per se. The red of the belly and other parts of the body (in other species) comes entirely from the diet. Without a diet rich in carotenes like canthaxantine, there is no red pigment to display.
It´s very common among captive bred animals because it´s not always easy to suplement their diets with canthaxantine or because they don´t receive carotenes at all. The resulting colour is cream or yellow, from the pteridines that accumulate in the xantophores of the skin. These become more intense with the age as more and more pigment is accumulated.

My T.dobrogicus from last year, my C.pyrrhogaster and my I.a.apuanus have completely yellow bellies, instead of the red colour of wild animals. It doesn´t mean they are a colour mutation.

 

[dipsydoodle]

One of mine has a yellow belly and the other one has a red belly. I only noticed the colour difference on a photo when they both had their bellies towards me. It is quite obvious though .

 

[achiinto]

As Azhael mentioned Orange belly is due to diet, not genetic.

But i do have some cool variations of Fire Belly Newts. (CO).

I have a wild type that has gray color (as opposed to the normal dark black) with sparkling texture on top.

I have a few capture breed that have semi-translucent skin of Black color. I dont know how to explain it and I dont know if it is possible to capture with camera. I think my original Male is kind of like that, so that a few of his offspring have this skin as well. At first I thought this is a secondary sexual characteristic, but then I saw this on a few female offsprings as well (I think). I might be wrong with this and it indeed might be a sexual characteristic. So, correct me if I am wrong.

I have a male with completely pure orange belly, no black spot at all.
I have another male with a White patch at the heart location of the belly among the black spot and the orange belly.

I got too many FBN, at most 70 at one point, now left with 30 (gave a lot away). But I do notice FBN variation more than my other caudata. I think I have a Spanish Ribbed Newt that is a little bit lighter color than the others (diet? Health? Genes?)

 

[dipsydoodle]

I have a male with completely pure orange belly, no black spot at all.
I have another male with a White patch at the heart location of the belly among the black spot and the orange belly.

This reminded me, I saw one in a shop the other week and it had a black stripe under it's head, like where his neck was underneath, he looked fantastic, although it did look like he had a noose around his neck.

 

[vistajpdf]

Some of my juveniles have a nice red stripe down their backs - faint, but there. Others have hints of red patches on them, very subtle. I noticed the lack of red pigment in larvae if fed too many white worms. They all seem fine as juveniles.

Dana