Question: Some basic quesitons about eurycea longicauda (long tailed salamander)

hey,

I'm currently looking into getting some of these and I’m having some problems with care information.

1. it's very limited
2. it's very varied
3. it's very brief

So naturally I have some questions and i was wondering what’s peoples thoughts, feelings and personal experience is with this species

Ok so to the questions

1. Terrestrial or semi-aquatic, some say terrestrial with a large water bowl, others say a proper 50/50 semi aquatic set up is better, any help with this would be great
2. water mobility, I've read it best with a low current, best with a high current, and it doesn't really matter how mobile the water is so what do people think? the only thing the information I've read seem to agree on is shallow water.
3. Substrate, person preferences here, as most either don’t mention substrate choices or basically say whatever u fancy using.
4. OK i know there a quick slender species and escape is a real worry for me, so could a 8-9 cm (size I’m hopefully getting) juvenile get out of an exo terra faunarium style enclosure (for those who don’t know what I’m talking about http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/faunarium.php)

any other help would be great

I prefer a semi-aquatic setup for mine. I will enclose a picture of how I my tank is arranged because it's a little difficult to describe. I haven't seen the the enclosure your going to use in person so I can't comment definitvely on how escape proof it is but from the picture it looks decent enough.

Ok so here is my tank, it is basically a pile of rocks with a pump that pumps water to the top of the pile and then it trickles through all the rocks. As you can see I have moss scattered about the rocks as well, that is purely for my aesthetic pleasure. Now it is just a bare bottom in the water part, so easy to clean that way. As a side note I have seen the E. longicauda feed underwater.

nice

can i ask for some information on your tank. like size, number of salamanders and water depth. Otherwise thats pretty much what i was thinking of for a semi aquatic set-up, i was planning on using slate, with a hardy moss in the crevices and maybe some small semi aquatic plants.

im not actually going to be using one of the exo terra's but an unbranded slightly larger one designed on the same basic design. lids are tight fitting and the vents in the top are either 1mm or 1.5mm and it would only be temporary till they get to adult size.

The tank is an Exo-terra terrarium, 18"x18"x18", with approximately 2" of water in the basin. There are currently 5 adults residing in there. You can't see it in the photo but there is quite a bit of elodea floating around in there as well. I had orginally planned on using slate however I figured I better try it out with river rocks first.

If your temporary container has a tight fighting lid and the slits are less than half the width of your longicauda then you should be in good shape.

thanks for all the help,

if any1 has anything else to add please do.