Raising Cynops orientalis morphs

[joseph]

Well, got my first morph today. He still has nubs of gills but has went onto land. How do you guys deal with young morphs?(particularly housing and feeding).

 

[pamela]

Congratulations Joseph! Mine just morphed too! I have mine in a small tupperware bowl with a flat rock, and java moss. (I cut a whole in the center of the lid and secured the hole with vinyl screen, adhered with aquarium sealer.) The water level is low enough that they can stick their heads out. They like to hang out on the java moss and rock. I have tried to feed them (thawed, frozen, bloodworms), but they have not taken any (from the tweezers) yet. I have left some on the bottom of the container, as they are used to that. So good luck to us both!!!

 

[joseph]

I've managed to get the little guy to eat a piece of blackworm. The salad box i'm raising him in has little depressions along the sides so it worked conveniently as a food dish. Less than 1/2 an inch of water in there and dry land on one side.

 

[joseph]

Just thought I would give an update. This guy is totally terrestrial and has grown a bit since morphing. Eats live blackworms but due to spontaneous interest/lack of skill it is pretty time consuming. I have another due and I will try keeping that one semiaquatic and see if it cooperates.

 

[jesper]

Congrats Joseph!
How old were they when they started morphing? I have a huge size difference....

 

[joseph]

Jesper: The eggs hatched in late September, so right now I'm guessing around 4 months old. Got any photos of sizes after yours morphed?

A better photo for showing size. He looks to be over 3.5 cm

(Message edited by fishkeeper on January 22, 2005)

(Message edited by fishkeeper on January 22, 2005)

 

[jesper]

Hi,
Mine haven't morphed yet - I didn't choose my words very well..
What I meant to say was that my larvae span a large size range. I should probably separate them...

They don't seem to be prone to hurting each other though, not like my verrucosus larvae that eat each other without hesitation(tails are yumyum).

 

[joseph]

Yep, definetly seperate them. Some of my smaller larvae suffered bitten off tails and one lost a rear leg. I think it was just do to different hatch dates and then resulting size differences increased when the larger ones ate more than the smaller. I've observed that if a large and a small larvae are going for the same food item the small one will leave immediately.

 

[jesper]

Yeah I did separate them today - I haven't had the time before...that should have been done a lot earlier..

 

[joseph]

The morph count is now up to 5. Oddly enough, the one pictured here(that morphed first) is the smallest. None of the others are interested in food yet. Even the one interested in food is pretty tricky to feed as the worms escape or they morph misses much of the time. Quite unskilled but seems to be getting better.

 

[pamela]

My 2 morhphs are going good - eating frozen bloodworm. The one is 'specially piggy. It will eat a bloodworm, then spy the other bloodworm that is dangling over the second morphs head - tries to "run" over and grab it! Too funny. And yes, it is wise to separate larvae according to size. I have several containers with larvae equal in size to each other. Who would think that this would be so much fun!

 

[kelsey]

My oldest hatched late December but some are still hatching. They havent gotten very big yet.. the largest is around 1.5 cm. Theyre getting fat on chopped live blackworms and microworms. Cant wait for them to morph! Good luck!

 

[joseph]

Pamela: Yours seem to be much more hearty eaters than mine. The other 4 have shown interest in food and one managed to eat a blackworm. Its quite a task to get them to eat blackworms and it eats lots of my time but it is time well spent.

Kelsey: Keep us updated on your babies! Sounds like they are in good hands.