UBA-unidentified baby amphibians

Here is an updated picture of my wild babies that my son brought in from the pond in our front yard as an egg sac. We thought they were frog eggs. Only 2 babies survived and now they are approx. 6 weeks old. I previously posted on the Axolotl forum when they first got their fuzzy gills. I had never seen larval salamanders or newts so I did not know that they look like they do. Anyway the guess is that maybe they are spotted salamanders.

This morning I was out looking in the pond and saw what I thought was a spotted salamander coming up for breakfast. It sat there underwater for about 5 minutes and let me look at it.
My question is do salamanders live underwater? I'm pretty sure that newts do but I thought that salamanders lived above water. Every time we have seen the ones in the pond they are always underwater.

Anyway here is the picture. It is very difficult to get a good focused shot. This is the best we've been able to do so far. They also have a reddish streak on their undersides.

TIA,
Karen

Its hard to say what species but probably an Ambystoma of some sort. Are you sure it was a spotted salamander? Here is a page on the spotteds: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_maculatum.shtml , does this match the salamander you saw in the water, what about the picture on the page of a larva, look like yours? Some salamanders spend time underwater during breeding season, and others like sirens, amphiumas, and waterdogs/mudpuppies spend their entire life underwater. I don't think what you saw was any of these aquatic salamanders however. Lastly, where in the US did you find the larva and that "spotted salamander".

Hi Ryan,

That looks very much like what I saw in the pond. It had the round even spots on both sides of it's body. Although I thought they looked darker orange instead of yellow. The larvas look identical to the pictures though. I also read after I posted yesterday that they will get a red belly after eating brine shrimp which I just started doing last week.
We are in Cincinnati, Ohio. Seriously we have never seen any salamanders/newts out of the pond though. They are always under the water. There are plenty of basking spots that the frogs use often. There are turtles and several fish in this very small area. It is a regular wildlife haven. We would like to redo it because the liner is a mess and it is very murky with leaves and debris. But the critters love it and I don't want to disturb any of them. It is amazing that so many of them survived the winter because the pond froze solid.

Thanks,
Karen