Taricha granulosa eggs (& hopefully larvae)

[TJ]

June 4:

(Message edited by tj on June 06, 2006)

 

[TJ]

I received a couple of T. granulosa eggs recently from a fellow enthusiast (Mr. Masai of Ambystoma tigrinum breeding fame).

May 28:

(Message edited by tj on June 06, 2006)

 

[TJ]

June 6:

 

[pin-pin]

Congratulations Tim!

 

[ali]

Yeyyy Tim!

 

[TJ]

Thanks, but it didn't turn out well -- I'm missing one larva (lost it in a water change? they're so small!) and the other one seems to have a crooked tail so I'm worried it may not survive...

(Message edited by tj on June 12, 2006)

 

[TJ]

 

[s1ren]

Yay!

Good luck with your little crooked guy.

(Message edited by s1ren on June 20, 2006)

 

[jennifer]

The bent tail looks like a mutant - sorry to say, I doubt it will survive. Did you only have two?

I hope you can translate/transmit some details of Mr. Masai's breeding methods. He seems to have success with quite a few species.

 

[TJ]

Thanks, Siren.

Jen, as it turns out, the larva hasn't died (as I too expected it would), but it's eating and growing. The tail has even straightened out a bit, though there's obviously something wrong with it. I got only two eggs to begin with, so just the one larva left after the other one went missing. I've been promised more for next season though

Here it is as of today:

 

[TJ]

Then again, maybe the tail hasn't straightened out at all...

 

[ester]

Just a risky wild thought, and not easily done.
At this stage they can regenerate just about anything, have you considered removing the twisted part of the tail?

 

[TJ]

Thanks for the idea Ester but the larva seems to me to be too small to take a pair of scissors to. Maybe it'd work if I got a nice clean cut with some super-sharp surgical scissors, but I'd still prefer to wait until it gets bigger. I figure that if it's survived 'til now, there's a good chance it's over the hump already and will keep on growing as long as it continues to receive the special treatment it gets now. I have Cynops larvae that've had their tails munched off by other larvae and they do fine. Maybe I should just put it in a densely populated Cynops larvae tank and let nature take its course

 

[TJ]

Great progress

(Message edited by TJ on July 02, 2006)

 

[TJ]

Here it is as of Aug. 6:

 

[jennifer]

Looking good, certainly far better than my dire prediction.

Did the bent end of the tail fall off, go away, or get amputated? It looks like it was gone in the July 2 picture.

 

[TJ]

Hi Jen. No, the bent tail is still intact

 

[TJ]

When I adjust the contrast on that July 2 picture, you can see the curved part of the tail more clearlyu

 

[dane]

nice pics of the larvae, whenever I try to take pics of my larvae they move around to much

 

[kara]

how is ths little guy doing????