CFBN retaining gills

[IloveMyNewts]

Is this possible? I have a group of 25 '09 efts, and three haven't lost any of their feather like gills, In fact, id say they were bigger. They look like fox ears, and they are able to move them around, lay them flat against their heads or stand them strait up like a cat listening to something. The others have been morphed for about three months already. Both the land efts and the three odd balls are roughly the same size, and the aquatic larvae have all adult coloration.

 

[Jennewt]

I've never heard of this happening in Cynops. I'd love to see photos.

 

[paul_b]

AW: CFBN retaining gills

Which species?
sounds like cyanurus!

Paul

 

[webzdebs]

Re: AW: CFBN retaining gills

oh that does sound intriguing, would also love to see pictures

 

[paul_b]

AW: Re: AW: CFBN retaining gills

Two juvenile cyanurus, same conditions, same age, same length!
Paul

 

[Azhael]

I´ve had some metamorphs retain part of the gills for a few weeks, but they all reabsorved them in the end. I would very much like to see pictures too

 

[IloveMyNewts]

boy those little guys are camera shy. took me an hour to get these photos!

so, what you guys think?

 

[Azhael]

It just looks like a big advanced larva...i expect it will morph very soon (with a nice size, which is great).

 

[IloveMyNewts]

But its been this way for months. All the other larvae have already morphed and have been land locked for three months already. These three just wont come out of the water....

 

[NightWolf]

Are the newts still retaining their gills? They remind me of axolotl larvae So cute!

 

[stanleyc]

Does that individual still have the gills? I've never seen Orientalis at that stage with gills that size....and that color... I don't know what to make of it. Have other keepers noticed gills of that color in their Orientalis larvae?

 

[caleb]

I had one orientalis larva that was over a year old at metamorphosis, and reached 45mm in length. I posted about it last year:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...5735-neoteny-paedomorphosis-c-orientalis.html

(its gills were nowhere as big as the one pictured here, though).