Question: Maintaining moist substrate

Hi everyone,

I'm new to all this, so I need some help getting my tank set up properly. I have one adult tiger salamander in a 20 gallon tank. The tank has a few inches of topsoil with some moss on top. It has a screen lid with two washcloths on top (I was told this would help trap humidity). When I first got him, I would spray the substrate to keep it moist. I was worried about him getting dry while I worked 10hr shifts, so I purchased a Zoo Med Repti Fogger and set it up on a timer. The fogger keeps up the the humidity gauge where it should be, but his substrate is never moist like it should be.

Any tips?

Thanks,
Emily

Tigers don't do well with lots of moisture for extended periods of time. You should mist every few days, and here is the care-sheet if you haven't found it already: Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander

Keep a water bowl in there and it will help osmoregulate; moist substrate is great but often most keepers tend to have too much moisture in the cage... Too much moisture often leads to skin fungus... Misting daily after your workshift would be fine for your salamander although it does depend on where you live I guess.(ambient humidity in your home)

So would the best thing to do would be to return the fogger and just go back the the spray bottle?

Honestly, I never really mist my tiger salamander. Though, the room she is in tends to be more humid than the dry air outside because I have a lot of other tanks with water that make the room more humid. She also has a large water source that she can go into whenever she feels like she needs to. Tiger salamanders really don't do well in high humidity so I wouldn't try to increase the humidity that you already have.

The substrate should be moist but not overly saturated. A cocofiber substrate usually works the best because it holds in more moisture. And it's easy for burrowing and tigers love to burrow. I think the most important thing is to add a water dish to give appropriate humidity and attend to the substrate accordingly (i.e. spray it if it is not moist enough but make sure not to saturate it). And if your current substrate seems to not be retaining enough moisture, I would suggest switching to cocofiber.

He has a water dish he gets in a night every once in a while, but the substrate is always really dry, so thats why I got the fogger.

I think that if your substrate is well hydrated at the lower level, it should be the appropriate moistness at the top (which is why I suggest a cocofiber substrate because it does this fairly well). Also, if your tiger feels too dried out, it will probably be burrowing a lot to find more moisture so as long as everything seems to be normal, the humidity is probably okay.

For your tiger salamander's tank you could pour a little water into one end of the tank and then the water slowly diffuse to the other end creating a moisture gradient.

Good luck!