T. wenxianensis

E

ester

Guest
Two juvenile animals, bought at the fair in Nijmegen. Both are eating well though they each have a clear food preference (one waxworms, the other earth worms).
64942.jpg

Once a Tylo has a good hold on a worm you can't really call it a battle anymore..
 
ester:

nice newt! how excited were you to see them for sale? did they just have 2 for sale?

did you have to pay an arm and a leg?

what kind of set up are they in?

gord
 
Unexpected, then eager, especially since they were looking whole and healthy. There were more, but I'd just bought 3 Taricha granulosa and was running low on funds.

They are currently in a small setup (30x20x20 cm), with coconut fiber 'soil', shredded beech leaves, a small water dish, a clump of moss and some bark. In a shadowy corner of the Bedroom.

They move around quite a bit, ie.. they're not in the same place all week. Once I figured their food preferences they've basically eaten every time I offer food to them. I've now started on a schedule of feeding once every other day.

They like playing dead when disturbed. No movement at all until they think it's safe. Once they feel safe, they can hide themselves quite fast. Food usually looks enticing enough to snap them out of it too.
 
Hi Ester, nice too see such a good pic of one! All these T. wenxianensis are adults, these don't grow much bigger than 120 mm in total length.
 
so they arent shy about 'pushy' or fast moving food like the talaingensis they resemble?
do these just have the orange toe tips-or is there also an orange stripe on the bottom of the tail like on the talaingensis?
any idea on gender? see any orange arm spots?
 
Unken reflex:

65045.jpg


Sorry for the poor picture quality but it was taken using my mobile phone's camera. These are not my animals.
 
Paris, resemblance with T. taliangensis concerns only the colour. The body of T. wenxianensis is completely different; smaller, flatter, smaller developed feat etc. They do have a orange stripe at the underside of the tail.

Gender can to my knowledge only been seen at the cloaca, which is really difficult because their cloaca is totally not prominent.

Tim, nice to see this, I observed this behaviour too. It's interesting because the unken reflex is only known from Echinotriton.
 
Hi Wouter. I wasn't aware of that. Thanks.

I would think this defensive posture would fall under "Unkenreflex" as I've seen it described for Echinotriton. chinhaiensis, for example. It remained in that posture for at least a few minutes. Similarities like this may not be so surprising considering that some Japanese scientists still don't accept Echinotriton as a genus distinct from Tylototriton
lol.gif


By the way, I just love these AmphiaWeb pictures by Max Sparreboom of the unken reflex in an E. chinhaiensis:

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/1111_1111/1111/0303.jpeg

http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/1111_1111/1111/0302.jpeg

Have you the paper "Antipredator Behavior of Chinese Salamanders"? It's floating around somewhere on the Internet and I have a copy of it too.

I'm presently thinking of trading away some of my CB T. marmoratus for a T.wenxianensis pair....

Nice picture, Ester!

(Message edited by TJ on May 18, 2006)
 
Wenxianensis appetite is almost aquatic-verrucosus like! Yesterday one of them ate 2 small worms, today the other ate 2 full size(greater)waxworms and an earth worm.

It's a relief to see them both eat and continue to thrive.
 
Tim, I missed your post there. The description of Echinotriton is completely valid to my opinion. It's nice to see that there is some taxonomical work done there in Asia concerning salamanders. The situation in Asia with all it's "species" and "forms" can't be compared with Europe or North America. Echinotriton seems like a good example to me, they really look different from Tylototriton sp.

I've got the article you mentioned, really interesting. Don't talk about the wellfare of the specimens they used though...

Ester, mine never ate more than 2 earthworms in a whole week. This must mean that they are really healthy!
 
Here are some pics of my late wenxianensis. The first pic is the ultimate example of a very sick Tylototriton;
65398.jpg


And one of the very small cloaca;
65399.jpg
 
For a very small cloaca, these guys produce HUGE poops! I'll take a picture of that next time I see one. The last one broke up as I removed it.
 
The following picture is of a graphical nature.. some people could consider it TMI (too much information).
66196.jpg
 
Hm... that's a lot of... information! Healthy animals indeed!
 
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