Neotenic T. dobrogicus value?

[Master B]

Greetings And Salutations,

First and foremost, thank you for your time. The reason I am contacting you is in regards to a rather unusual specimen of T. dobrogicus that is from one of my more recent broods. This specimen is nearly four inches in total length, approximately nine months of age, and quite robust in girth (more substantive than my adult males). The odd portion of it's description is that it is neonatal. It has failed to meta morph and still maintains it's gills at their most sizable stature, while in stark contrast, all of it's nearly sixty fellow siblings from the same brood have attained adult coloration and morphed (they are also much more diminutive in stature at roughly half the size of the anomalous specimen). Would anyone happen to know the value and rarity of such a specimen?

 

[Azhael]

It's not uncommon. I've had several such juveniles of up to the size you described. While all of them ended up reabsorving them, some retained stubs until shortly before becoming sexually mature, which was when they became 7-8 months old.
Facultative neoteny is widespread among newts and common among CB Triturus. It is distinctive from true neoteny in that the craneum doesn't retain a larval morphology.