Compatability issue??

Hi everyone,
I'm new to your sight and have to say I love it. I am very excited to see so much interest and know there are so many knowledgeable people out there. I wish I had known about the expertise here before I bought my new sallies, I could have gotten cb's from here instead of wc and cr that some guy got from the environment! Sorry in advance everybody, Sorry mother nature!
I was just wondering if anyone knows if it's okay to keep Ambystoma laterale and
Ambystoma maculatum in the same terrarium.
After many years of wanting to keep salamanders, I finally found a distributer on the
internet where I could purchase some spotted salamanders. The only problem? It's too warm where
I live. So after a lot of research I found a thermoelectric air to air device I could place on the hood of the 20 gallon (insulated) that keeps
an ambient 78 degrees to 66 f.
Anyway, the distributer sent me babies because I wanted to start them out young in order to acclimate them. They are a little over a year old but laterale is definitely growing faster and seems more aggressive. Should I place a divider in the tank? I've been wanting to keep these guys all my life and now with the advancement of thermoelectric cooling making it possible (and a few hundred dollars later), I can keep them, but maybe in excitement I planned it all wrong?
thanks in advance everyone,
Nic

LOL! Uh oh, you stepped in the big doo doo now. Sorry, just trying to be funny.

Keeping mixed herps is wrong.

Absolutely put in a divider, buy seperate tanks. Caudata has some excellent care sheets. And if they are WC you might want to have a vet run a fecal culture on them for internal parasites.

Did you buy the cooler?

And yeah, in your excitement you did swerve a little to the wrong side. Its nothing you can't fix though.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/species.shtml

Give that link a whirl and find the info that you NEED!

Good luck!

Sharon

Thanks sharon, and I got the joke. No problem.
I have visited this sight many times before and see lots of pictures of laterale and maculatum at the link you gave but have
never seen any care sheets there. Are they located somewhere else?
thanks again.
Nic

Sorry, you asked about the cooler. I ordered it from
a websight that sells them, but you can go to any sports store that sells electric coolers (I've seen them for under a hundred dollars average) and dismantle it for you own needs.

Hi Nic,
Many ambystomids are aggressive to other species as well as conspecifics so I would suggest keeping them seperated.

In general you can use the marble salamander and tiger salamander sheets to give you the general husbandry requirements.

Ed

Thank you Ed. Was also wondering, what type of vet
should I take them to for testing? how do I treat them if they do have parasites?

Hi Nic,
Any vet that either has experience with herps or is willing to take advise from one that has should be fine.
There are a number of different worming agents some of which are injected, some of which are oral and some which are topical.
It depends on the parasite in question and to some extent the size of the salamander. In conjuction with the vets I have used all three different methods to treat herps.

Ed

Thank you both very much for your advise! I will give this all a shot!
thanks tremendously Ed and Sharon!
Nic

Welcome to the life!

Thank You Kaysie.