Goofed up - Ambystoma maculatum 'lost' in terrarium

[Bill B]

Hi All,

I caught a couple larvae of what I am pretty sure are Ambystoma maculatum (Spotted Salamander, sometimes called Yellow-Spotted Salamander). The larva became fully metamorphosed (did not seem to be in water at all anymore to breathe).

I put it in a terrarium with live mosses on the bottom, a terrarium in which I already have a Pseudacris crucifer (Spring Peeper) and Pseudacris triseriata (Midland Chorus Frog).

I was somehow thinking it would not be difficult to find once I put it in there. A few hours or couple days later, I realized I likely made a mistake.

Spotted Salamanders do not dig much of the way of burrows of their own - in nature, they do tend to be deep down under the surface but usually use burrows made by other animals. Anyone have an idea of how to find the critter in the terrarium without tearing it completely apart? I

I'm not even sure if it knows how to eat food I drop into the terrarium, since in nature Spotteds typically do not look for crickets on top of moss plants.

(Holy smokes, I just found that Photobucket will no longer share images for no charge! They partly lost a customer.)

 

[Bill B]

Got it. I guess there is no trick to getting one out of a terrarium like that -- just pulled up some moss mats near the edge, and it did not take that long.