Captive maintenance of southern dusky sal

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wasil

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Is anyone here familiar with keeping southern dusky salamanders (Desmognathus auriculatus)? I have an adult male I need to maintain for a few weeks before releasing it again. It is going to be used in an educational program for kids. I've kept several species of ambystomatids over the years. Is this species difficult to maintain in captivity?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
We keep D. fuscus up here, and if you only need to keep them for a few weeks, you could just set them up in a shoebox tupperware with some pretty wet papertowels. Or, if you don't really have the room for that, when we don't have time to return animals quickly (ie. less than a week), we will keep them in tupperwares with a cm of water and paper towels in the fridge at ~45 F. Just make sure if you do this that they are allowed to acclimate to ambient temperature before you release them again.

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the help. I set the salamander up in a plastic box with drilled ventilation holes. The substrate is washed pea gravel which I piled higher on one side then added water giving a terrestrial and aquatic side. There is a piece of wood for cover on the terrestrial side. So far, the salamander is hiding under the wood. I'll give it a few days to settle down then offer it an earthworm. I've attached a couple photos of the cage and salamander. Do you think this set up will work?

Thanks again for the help.

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Thats a great looking animal! Welcome to the forum!

BTW the tank looks good but could you get a picture of the entire tank form farther away?

Lastly, I saw in your profile that you have a two-toed amphiuma, could you get a picture because they are on of my favorites (i like all the large aquatic salamanders)

(Message edited by i_love_necturus on March 21, 2007)
 
Awesome Dusky. I like spending time catching them in creeks and rivers.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I've added pictures below as requested. I also see duskys under cover along stream banks and they seem very willing to go into the water as adults. Thats why I set this one up as I did to allow it that option. The amphiuma is one of two I've had for a couple years. They've become quite accustomed to being hand fed so will stick their heads up out of the water expecting food when the container lids are removed. They take worms, crawfish, fish, and just about anything else offered.

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The dusky tank looks good, maybe you could add a few elodea shoots in the water for more hiding area.

Thanks for the amphiuma pic, how big is their tank? Are they both kept togetehr in the same tank?
 
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