Malnourished Water Dog

I recently purchased what I believe to be a Water dog from Petland. i was checking out the fish/reptile department of the store and saw a tank labeled for water dogs. a few rows over was a terrarium labeled for fire belly toads as well as tadpoles. when i looked into the terrarium i indeed did see fire belly toads and tadpoles but something else caught my eye. it was what appeared to be a very skinny Water dog. the terrarium was set up with half land(gravel) and half water. the water was roughly an inch deep and barely covered the tadpoles. I decided that i couldnt leave the water dog in that situation as he looked to be near death. so I got help from a staff member and we walked over to the terrarium and i told her i wished to purchase the tadpole that had the legs, as she went to get the net and bag she asked if i had ever owned tadpoles before, which i replied yes. so she bagged the water dog and took him up to the front and rung him up as a tadpole. i took the little guy home and put him into a 10 gallon with 4 inches of water and several hiding spots. i attempted to feed him a small chopped piece of earth worm which he accepted vigorously. he has been steady the last 3 days eating chopped bits of earth worm and wax worms and has gained a bit of weight. even with a filter i am doing 90% water changes every other day. The questions i have are is he actually a water dog? i am fairly certain he is since i have done extensive research on water dogs and tiger salamanders due to me currently owning two adult tiger salamanders for 5 years. i was also wondering why his gills are so short? any thoughts would be appreciated!

I can't even tell what he is, but BEST wishes. If he survives it'll be a miracle. It's so good that he's eating for you. Please update us with his progress, if he survives. I don't know that you need to be that vigorous with the water changes, but whatever you're doing, he has survived this far. Poor creature.

It's gills are so short due to its current poor health caused by improper care/ husbandry while at the pet store. With recovery the gills will return to normal.

I wish you and your new acquisition the very best of luck. I myself don't think I would be patronizing that store again if that is how they treat their critters. Just deplorable.

Oh, and perhaps you have already done so, but be sure the current produced by the filter is at a minimum as a strong water flow could stress it. Obviously, I don't think that's its biggest worry at this point in time. Also, water temperature below 70F is good, too.

I am rooting for the little fellow. Please do provide updates!

HJ

If anyone was curious as to what my adults looked like here they are. the one always comes to the edge of the terrarium to greet me whenever i open the terrarium doors as the picture shows I believe the dotted one is a male due to his longer and thinner tail and the barred one is a female due to her shorter stockier tail. tell me whats you guys think as to their genders!

This should help with sexing your adult tigers: Caudata Culture Articles - Sexing

UPDATE: I have now had the water dog for a week and two days and today I noticed a significant amount of gill growth. Last thursday morning he did stop eating and i had noticed a small spot of fungus growing on his side, i proceeded to give him a salt bath for 12 minutes and then i tried feeding again friday morning with still no luck. By friday night he was covered with a light layer of fungus so i decided to put him in the fridge. I checked on him every few hours and he seemed to be doing fine. I also gave him one salt bath on saturday morning with fridge temp dechlorinated water, i offered wax worms which he would try to eat but would later spit out. Saturday night came and i decided to take him out of the fridge. While i let his water acclimate back to room temp i went and completely rinsed out his 10g tank and replaced with room temp dechlorinated water. After his water was at the same temp as his tank water i reintroduced him into his tank and for the last two days he has been eating with no problems. This morning i did noticed a decent amount of gill growth compared to when i first got him, i will attach pics of when i first got him vs now. The water is at a constant 69 degrees fahrenheit. One thing that does concern me is that he does occasionally try to scratch his gills using his back foot. And just today i have noticed that he will often appear to yawn and then thrash his head back and forth. I dont know if the gill growth is agitating him or if its something else?. Any advice would be appreciated!

It sounds like ammonia poisoning. If the tank isn't cycled you need to keep a careful eye on the ammonia level and change the water when needed, you canget ammonia test kits from a good petstore or aquarium shop. The time from Saturday until now could be long enough for waste to build up to uncomfortable levels.

He looks much better! But is there any way you can lower the water temp? 69 is way too warm.

UPDATE: Today marks 3 weeks of aquiring the little guy. He has gained quite a bit of weight and is being fed 2-3 a day with chopped bits of nightcrawler. I have noticed that in the past few days he has become much more interactive with me whenever i approach his tank, when I approach he will start swimming around and when my hand goes over top of his tank to grab the feeding tongs he will lunge up to the surface of the water and snap at the surface waiting to be fed. His gills have continued to grow thicker and longer. His limbs and tail have also grown thicker and he is also able to swim and control himself more in the water. He seems to have complete control over his back legs now compared to how they used to just bend upwards and seemed to be useless. Overall I feel he is making a remarkable recovery and plan to keep you all informed on his progress in the coming weeks! The first pic posted is comparing his gills from when i first acquired him compared to now, and the other two pics are current. Thank you all for your advice and support and any new advice is always welcomed!

You're doing a great job!

Today marks 1 month of recovery for the little guy! not much has changed as far as behavior goes in the last week, he is still very active whenever I approach the tank. His tail fin continues to grow fuller and his gills are becoming thicker. the photo on the far left shows the difference between January 11th and today. I think its pretty crazy what 20 days of good care and food can do. the other two photos are current. Thank you all again for your continued support!

Update: Today marks 6 weeks since getting the little guy, his condition continues to improve. I as well as my girlfriend think he has easily tripled in body mass since I rescued him. His gills seem to finally be growing out more and becoming more antler like. I'm also wondering if anyone has any idea what the gray areas on his skin are where his head meets his gills as well as behind his head on his left side. He has developed these gray areas over the last few weeks and they don't seem to be changing, if anything they might be becoming a bit smaller. Another question I have is if anyone can actually assure me that hes either a water dog or an axolotl? I'm fairly certain that hes a Water Dog due to his coloration, but i could be wrong. any advice would be more than appreciated! oh and the pic on the far left is of one of my tiger sals named Savage . i unhinged the cage doors this morning while i was cutting up the worms to feed him and when i looked up he was like this lol. decided to snap a pic and thought i'd share it!

He looks great! I'm not totally sure but I think it's a water dog (larval tiger sal).

This whole thread is really touching. You took an animal that was near certain death and changed his/her entire life! I don't usually think encouraging pet stores is good, but in this case you definitely did the right thing

Thanks Izzy :happy: and yeah, I usually don't support the Petland where I got him but I couldnt just leave him there, especially at the price that he was at. Water dogs there are normally $20 but tadpoles were only $3.00 and the lady that bagged him for me thought he was a tadpole and proceeded to ring him up as one lol. As always heres some pics of him on his continued path to recovery. the first collage is of his tank at the top, the adults( Savage and chiefs) terrarium at the bottom left and then the terrarium at Petland where the little guy came from at the bottom right. the 2nd collage is a pic taken of him on January 20th and then at the bottom is him on February 18th. Again thank you all for your support and nice comments !

Yeah, he's looking great now, keep up the good work! :happy:

Update: Not much has changed since the last update. The little guy is doing great! His gills are still growing and becoming more lush. I had an old 30 gallon tank and decorations down in my basement that are older than me lol and I got the random wanting to move him into a bigger tank on Friday so I whipped it out of the basement and set it up in a few hours and let it run overnight and then plopped him in. He seems to enjoy it. i constantly see him swimming around and enjoying the open space. One question I do have is if anyone knows why his gill frills are so thick and lush? In the pictures i've seen of other Larval Tiger Salamanders their gill frills seemed smaller and not as thick.

I don't know if this applies, but I heard that gilled salamanders typically have bigger and fluffier gills in warmer/less oxygenated water, as they need to worm more than a colder, more oxygenated body of water. What are his temperatures? Also, you did let the water cycle before putting him in his new tank, right? Just wanting to make sure. He/she looks way more different than when you first got it, it's amazing how far it's come! :happy:

Congratulations on making such a difference to this little cutie. :happy:
I'm sure that he appreciates all of your hard work too.

I heard that as well Xavier, I do have 2 bubblers in the tank and theyre on full blast 24/7. The tank is at 68-70 degrees fahrenheit throughout the day. The tank its self isnt cycled but I did use the same filter as well as transfer a good portion of the old tank gravel to the new tank so there should be a good portion of beneficial bacteria in the tank. I also add 10ml of API quick start every few days. It is supposedly packed with bacteria and is what i accredit to the the overnight cycling of the original 10 gallon when i had the original ammonia spike a few months ago. I also plan on doing a 20 or 30 percent water change in the next few days but as of right now he doesnt seem to be showing any signs of stress or ammonia poisoning. I'll keep a sharp eye on him as always lol.