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Surprise C.pyrrhogaster morphing

Azhael

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I really wasn´t expecting them to start morphing, not even remotely!!!! Yet, today i found two TINY wee morphs climbing the glass of the tank. They really are very small. Smaller even than my average C.orientalis morph. I´d say they are about 2 cm long, give or take a milimetre. TINY TINY TINY O_O

I´m going to keep them semi-aquatic and i hope they take well to handfeeding, otherwise this is going to be very difficult.

I´m rather astonished they have morphed with such a tiny size...the tank is mature, full of microlife, and i suplement with Daphnia and whiteworms occasionally. I´m not sure what made them morph so soon, but i´ll see if i can make the rest take their time and morph bigger. The ones i´m raising separately look like they will be bigger.

I´ll try to take a picture if at all possible. They are fast and timid and my camera sucks xD
 

Yahilles

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Congratulations for such success!
Now come on and show some pictures of those little bastards.
 

eljorgo

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show some pictures of those little bastards.
:Dhahaha

Rodrigo, mira they have morphed small because of temperatures. When lots of food are available but water gets on a good temp they leave. if you keep them in a more shady and low temperature setup lower than 14ºC maybe they would retard the process. Near 20ºC their metabolism is running so fast that changes like this can happen any-time. With my T. verrucosus larvae happened exactly the same(having great amout of food avaliable). With colleges from north countries raising larvae from same batch had them morphing months later due to keep them in lower temps.
I´ve been useful? xD
 

Azhael

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I´m fully aware of the effect of temperature in metamorphosis, i was actually counting on it having an effect, just not such a big one (provided that it is in fact temperature the cause of their early morphing).

They are at 19ºC right now, a temperature at which my C.orientalis morphs usually achieve an average size of 3-3,5 cm. I have in fact morphs of this year´s breeding that have that size. The C.pyrrhogaster however are substantially smaller, i´ve compared both species and it really is rather shocking.

Anyway, they are rather skinny too, so with that and the tiny size, i´m not too confident they will do well. I´ll try my best, though. Years of raising C.orientalis should come in handy now, hopefully.
 

Joost

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I've raised pyrrhogaster (from Mie prefecture) which were also very small, arround 2-2,5 cm. 6 Months later they are allmost 6 cm. I'm sure they will do fine with your care.
 

Azhael

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Thanks Deliriah and Joost!

I really hope they do well, they are my first breeding of this species and i would very much like to be able to raise enough to give a decent group to a friend of mine.

What method did you use Joost? The one with the shallow water and gravel slope? Do you hand-feed at all?

I´m asking because i´m a pathological hand-feeder but if you have had good results in another way, i´d be interested to know.
 

Joost

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I do indeed use the 50/50 setup for them. Most of the time they stay terrestrial. I begin with a water level of 3-4 cm. When they grow I raise the water level a little bit. When they are arround 6 months old, they have max. 10 cm water depth, and are they mostly aquatic. Only a rock or piece of wood sticking out of the water.
I'm not into hand feeding much, just because I have too much newts to feed by hand. In water I feed them bloodworms, tubifex and chopped earth worms in a little glass bowl. On land on a piece of toilet/kitchen paper.
Larger newts are sometimes fed by hand, mostly earth worms.
 

Azhael

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I take that the bloodworms are alive?
I think i´m going to have a bit of a problem feeding them a decent diet until they get a big bigger.
They are taking whiteworms rather well, but as we all know, it´s not a complete food and they will soon need something else. I just hope they get used to the tweezers like the C.orientalis do...then i wouldn´t have to worry.
Have you had any success feeding them springtails and isopods in your semiaquatic set-ups?
 

Joost

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I only feed live food. Most of it (for small juveniles) bloodworms and tubifex and springtailes. When they are a little bigger I feed them also a lot of chopped earthworms. As soon when they are aquatic I also feed them Artemia and Daphnia
 

Azhael

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I just wanted to make a little update. It´s 5 juveniles now, 2 "larger" ones which eat well and are developing a nice coloration, and 3 really tiny ones which are more of a headacke but still are doing fine.
I´ll try to get pictures, but they always turn up with too low quality.

I´m going to try and find a safe population of aphids to see if i can culture them temporarily for the morphs. The larger two are taking very well to baby earthworms, but the others won´t touch them yet...
 

Azhael

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Ok, so despite the horribly tiny size, they are doing quite well and the bigger ones (i have 6 as of now) are finally eating from the tweezers. They are also growing a bit, so hopefully, before i know it they will be as easy to raise as their parents were.

Here is a couple of photos. First a beautifully colored juvenile right in the middle of metamorphosis. The others are from the group of metamorphs.
 

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