New from rhode island

Hi i'm brian from narragansett rhode island. I have a B.S. in environmental science and management. My true love is vernal pools and trying to protect them since many wetland regulations leave these unprotected and vulnerable to being filled. I own a spotted salamander{Ambystoma maculatum} i caught this as a newly hatched larva 3 years ago this past may. I also have a cb {salamandra salamandra terrestris} female who i purchased back in april of 2007. I house her in a 48 oceanic tank with 2 marbled newts{Triturus marmoratus} which i purchased cb this march. I look foward to adding new salamandra to my collection especially more salamandra salamandra terrestris and hopefully one day the italian fire salamander.

Hi Brian, welcome to the forum. I really want to get into your area of work. Let me know if you hear of any openings please - I'll be living not too far from you.

Well john its real difficult to get a job in this field unless your in with the director of the ri dem. They posted 4 jobs this april for a total of 6 days!...most likely people from within dem got these but the had to post it for legal reasons. I actually gave up on being a scientist for now and work in anti terrorism...the gov was more interested in my 20/5 vision and speed then with what i learned at the university. I was told from the director that he liked to hire only from within and that i could start off at 12 bucks an hour counting mosiquitos instead of getting a law enforcement job{2 yrs fed experience, trained by delta} because he had park rangers who were more qualified lol.

Hi Brian
I just joined up in hopes of gaining information about what is going on with the salamanders that we have been raising from egg masses. In brief, we rescued several spotted salamander egg masses from an old inground swimming pool this spring. The water had been left for the winter without treatment, quite green, and during the spring, salamanders laid their egg masses.

We fished them out, put them in a fish tank of about 12 gallons, used vernal pool water from our property in the countryside of NY, added a bubbler for oxygen, and created a vernal pool environment with other plantlife from vernal pools. No filtering.

Tadpoles were also added to this tank. It was kept outside and was not heated.

Well, everything was progressing nicely, but when we made one particular water change recently, using water from the vernal pools, the next day we discovered a dead salamander, such as you see in the attached, with the red spots which we assume was some type of hemorrhaging. Over the next 7 days, more and more of the salamanders showed this spotting, which starts with just a blush, as you can see in the other attached image, and then it progresses. Today, many were dead. Discouraging. The tadpoles were not effected.

We have a second tank which was set up in parallel, and it to has a mass of salamander eggs from the pool which we have been raising, but there has been no issue in that tank.

Well, that is our story. Any ideas or info would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Jim

Thats sad news Jim. One of the most important factors in ensuring healthy development in larvae is cool, aerated, clean, filtered water. The size of the tank is a factor too..a single spotted slamander egg clutch can have well over 50 individuals hatch from it. The build up of urea and waste from uneaten food probably raised the acidity of the water slowly depleteing the dissolved oxygen available for the larvae. One of the pics showed a bit of a tall missing so the are fighting and cannibalism will soon follow as individuals grow larger then their peers.

Best bet would be to use a larger tank or even a kiddie pool depending on how many you still have...adding a filter would definetly help with tha water quality keeping the ph in check as well. The plants you found in the vernal pool by your house most likely aren't adding much oxygen to the water becasue almost all vernal pools dry up by mid summer even this year so mostlikely those are upland plants. I would add some elodea which is a great oxyginating plant and cheap. Remember as they grow they will need lots of food...from their size i would guess bloodworms{live} would work. Any fish store worth its salt should have the plants and bloodworms.....good luck..oh and remember their going the metamorphosis soon so provide a shallow end were they can crawl onto land.

Brian, I really appreciate the input. What is a healthy ratio of volume of water for each larvae? Perhaps the tank was too overcrowded which caused stress. We were relying on adding oxygen to the water with a fish tank oxygen pump. As we didn't have filtration, we were also doing daily exchanges of water with our stream water, or from vernal pools from the side of the stream (currently quite active). I am thinking we should release the other healthy larvae before issues occur, and then keep a reasonable ratio in relation to the gallons of the tank which we could feed, oxygenate, and provide a "landing" for their transition. Thanks so much for your valued advise. Jim

Jim, there are alot of breeders out there that have more experience in this area. After saying that in my experience i would keep 4-5 newly hatched larvae per gallon of water..as they get larger you need to seperate and especially keep the larger individuals seperate from the stragglers.

When those spotted salamanders get around an inch i 'd keep them at 1 per 2 gallons. The more hiding places like cork or elodea the better. Also if you don't add a filter keep the bottom just glass because even with the water changes you'll have a build up of uneaten food and waste in the substrate. good luck!