Cynops cyanurus breeding

[TJ]

Here's an old picture of the adults that I moved over to this thread from an earlier thread:

(Message edited by TJ on November 04, 2005)

 

[TJ]

Here are some photos of eggs on Egeria densa and a hatched larva.

 

[garrison]

Nice pics Tim! How big are your adults in the last pic? Do the females develop any blue sheen too?

 

[TJ]

Thanks Garrison.

The adults are around 10 cm. No seasonal sheen on the tails of the females, just the males, so far as I've noticed. What you see there in the above photo are two males in the background and two females in the foreground

I was surprised to find around 15 eggs in the tank this afternoon, incidentally just a day after I lowered the room temperature by several degrees. Most of them were newly deposited, but here's one that's about to hatch:

 

[TJ]

 

[TJ]

 

[TJ]

 

[william]

nice fat female!

 

[TJ]

Has anybody noticed their C. cyanurus lay eggs mostly overnight/in the dark? I'm not saying this is so, but I don't recall actually seeing them laying eggs before (...?), and this morning, when I switched on the light of a pitch dark room, I found this female (same as in above photo) laying eggs:

Yeah William, she sure is heavy with eggs

(Message edited by tj on November 13, 2005)

 

[jameswei]

awesome pics.!!!

 

[TJ]

Thanks James. I'm forced to use my Canon Kiss digital these days though as my Canon 20D is out of commission

The larvae are currently surviving on "tank crud" taken from an established tank until tomorrow when I should have my first batch of brine shrimp hatched. There are obviously tiny organisms in the crud to eat as I often have larvae that morph despite never having left the adults' tank.

 

[terry]

Hello Tim!
Lovely photos there! I especially love the detail of the larvae! What do you mean exactly by tank crud? Silt? Looking good there! That is most certainly one gravid female!

 

[TJ]

Hi Terry,

Speaking of gravidity, check out the girth of this one

:

By "tank crud" I mean the detritus that collects on the bottom of a well-established tank, containing organic materials and likely some tiny organisms that feed on those materials.

(Message edited by tj on November 13, 2005)

 

[TJ]

Unlike Nate and others, I haven't had much egg-laying success with this species before. I guess it was mainly because the temperature of the room they are in never dipped below 20C. I've since allowed it to do so after switching to use of a heat lamp for my wife's chameleon.

 

[terry]

Tim, are we going to call this one Matron, or Mother Superior

.

Thanks for clarifying "tank crud"for me. I noticed my juveniles actively nosing around amidst the bottom detirius until they come across a stray midge larva or tubifex between the gravel. I noticed that they could also pic out the cyclops amidst the aquatic plants. Strangely only two of my juveniles have adapted to active foraging in the water. The others just seem content in remaining on land...and they are somewhat smaller than the two active foragers, which are admittedly larger than the rest.

Your thoughts?

 

[TJ]

Juvenile C. cyanurus? Post-morph? I believe Jen and some others could better comment more on this as I haven't raised any Cynops morphs in a semiaquatic environment before.

But if you're talking about larvae in general, I've had marbled larvae that remained in the parents' tank become significantly larger than the larvae I'd removed and raised separately, for example.

Anyway, with these C. cyanurus, I'm removing eggs as I spot them as it seems the adults are hunting and feeding on them, as this photo seems to show:

(Message edited by tj on November 13, 2005)

 

[garrison]

Terry,
All of my C. cyanurus juveniles went back in to the water quickly upon morphing(2-5 days), some never even left the water. I always allowed the option of land at that stage as I did have one die from what I think may be drowning.

As usual, wonderful pics Tim! I look forward to mine looking like that!

 

[TJ]

Thanks Garrison.

That's very interesting to hear and I'll keep that in mind for when they morph, if I'm lucky to get that far with them.

I finally managed to get a decent picture of an egg. The trick was not to use a flash at all.

(Message edited by tj on November 13, 2005)

 

[TJ]

 

[terry]

Hello Tim,
You know, The larvae of Cynops look somewhat similar to Triturus in the early stages. Don't you agree?. Some of my larvae resemble the larvae you posted.

Hello Garri,
It seems my juveniles are more or less behaving like yours then. Only one or two juveniles remain on land and the rest visit the water frequently. The difference in size is comparable as those in the water were more succesful in foraging for food while the one's on land sought out pin head size crickets and/or bloodworms on a land-dish. In my case, the ones in the water look fatter and grow faster than the land based ones. Odd no?