Orange bellied Taricha granulosa

[huug]

With the Taricha rivularis i allso obtained a male and female of the T. granulosa.
These ones are different from the ones i already have and breed.
What catches the eye is the out of the ordinairy orange belly.
Besides the orange belly they allso have a more greyish/braun upperside.
My "normal" yellow bellied T. granulosa have no greysih to them they are light to dark braun.

I never saw any T. granulosa like this before, did anyone else?......

 

[Jennewt]

Diet (especially during the larva/juvenile period) can have a big effect on color, often making a difference between yellow and orange. Are the new ones captive-bred or wild-caught?

 

[huug]

Hi Jen,

These orange bellied newts are wildcaught.
Guess the diet can make a difference, but i thought that that effect is only temporary,..isn't it?
If so,..., there diet has changed, so in that case the color will propably allso change in the next weeks!?

 

[Jennewt]

I have seen cases where the effect of diet was permanent (or at least long-term). If an animal does not develop the orange color during "childhood", it will never be as orange as those that did. No worries though, newts lacking orange color seem to be equally healthy and able to reproduce.

 

[bewilderbeast]

Nice photos! Perhaps what you have are not T. granulosa but T. tarosa. I don't have much experience with T. granulosa but I do know T. tarosa pretty well. They seem to be quite variable in color from yellow bellies to bright orange. When viewed from above the eyes of T. Tarosa protrude further out from the head, protruding past the line of the mouth and jaw where as T. granulosa has eyes that usually sit back slightly from the line of the mouth and jaw. Also, the black coloration of the back extends to the underside of the elbows of T. granulosa where in T. tarosa this is absent. This is the conclusion I come to when looking at the photos.

but then again, diet is important to amphibian color brilliance... so I wouldn't rule it out.