New member/tiger salamander and albino axolotl

Hello,

I already tried posting and, after spending a long time, have lost everything I typed .
So, here's some basic info on myself as well as some interests and future advice/information I'd like to get.

My name is Justin and while attending college, I have a great interest in salamanders and currently own a 29 gallon aquarium as well as a 20 gallon long terreruim.

For my terrerium I have the following:
It is divided into water and land by peat bricks. On the land side I have hydroton clay balls followed by; a screen lining, naturalistic substrate with sphagnum moss and shredded coconut shells, and in the back right corner I have a philodendrum plant. On the water side I have gravel followed by; an in-water filter pump, an air tube of which I have lined around the bottom underneath the gravel, two orange rock things haha that I have placed for the albino axolotl to have dens to go in, java moss on the peat bricks (takes a while to grow I've noticed), I also have another rock that I am trying to grow java moss directly on with fishing line (long story with multiple attempts of other natural materials like cotton string). I have had the set up for just over a year and I also have a colony of springtails that remain until today. When I first got the tank setup I had adopted a tiger salamander that eventually died, I kept the tank active for some months while being empty of living creatures. About three months ago I bought an albino axolotl and a water dog, both probably less than a year old. The water dog recently morphed to live on land and is now a happy tiger salamander, I've fed him crickets once so far but he doesn't come out much under his burrowed system he built.

Recently, I purchased a book on salamanders and newts and became aware of this site. I am heavily interested in learning more on these guys, and have put a great deal of time into learning about them before and after getting them. I would eventually like to breed them and maybe donate them to others or even establish an outside community when I graduate, get a career job, get a house...

Basically, I would like to re-model my terrerium to update, fix some issues I have noticed, and incorpate other ideas I have as well as more I hope to learn from you awesome people :happy:. Some issues I have is the entrance from water to land, where there is a slight slope of gravel over a peat brick, I would like to make this better somehow. I plan on creating a seperate habitat for the axolotl, but will wait until he gets bigger. For now, I also do not like how some sides ofthe land/land side in general gets soaked. I would like to fix this somehow along with incorpating some other ideas. One of those ideas would be to have a mist setup, that sprays some mist over the land maybe once a day (I think this would help simulate rain as well as keeping the land moist while adding water and not having part of the land side in some water). I was also thinking about adding some kind of waterflow through a pvc pipe and rocks, I don't know too much about this but briefly read about it once.

I'm not fully sure how this orginization site works in regards of letting me know when someone comments on this or messages me, so email would be greatly appreciated! I also apologize for any mispelling or poor grammar, and would like to thank anyone who has read this and especially thank those that reply.

If you have any information regarding setups for the tanks, as well as general information, please feel free to email me at...
jstedman89@gmail.com

Through communication comes knowledge. I intend to learn from others and help others through my experiences and trials over the past year and a half.

Have a good day!

I also recently bought some green blanket moss already attached to a 2-3 inch smooth rock.

To start with, you should get rid of that gravel ASAP, gravel is not good in a tiger/axolotl tank..they will swallow it and it will get impacted and kill them. You're better off using sand or just a bare bottom. If you use any rocks in their tank then make sure that its larger then their head so that they can't swallow them. Here's a couple sites you can check out to read on caring for your tiger, Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander and Caudata Culture Articles - Tiger Salamander 101

As for the axolotl, its care is pretty much the same as a tiger salamander larvae which is covered in one of those pages. And you really should consider separating the two as soon as possible. They both need different set ups to be happy and healthy. Your tiger should have basically a land set up with just a water dish to keep hydrated, they do better in a setup that isn't really wet and he doesn't really need a swimming area. The soil should be moist but not wet to the point that you can squeeze water out of it. When you say shredded coconut shells I'm assuming you mean the coco-fiber that you reconstitute with water right?
As for the axolotl, others will be better experienced to inform you on care for them, I've never kept one but I do know that they need a fully aquatic set up and again avoid using gravel or small rocks to line the bottom with.
Gutloaded and vitamin dusted crickets are an ok food for them if you have no other choices but earthworms and nightcrawlers are a much better food source for their staple diet. They are nutritionally complete and need no additional dusting or gutloading. You can then give him crickets as treats once in a while.

I understand the gravel but it's slightly bigger than pebble stuff so I don't know the correct wording, but that is definately something I would like to change when I remodel. I am also having issues feeding the tiger salamander on land as he does not like to come out of his burrows, I tried tapping on the glass to train when I feed him but it didn't work so I stopped. He is healthy and well from prior knowledge. Do you happen to know where I could find pictures of different tank setups? I'd like to take ideas and combine them into my own likeing. I can't seem to find anything.

I see some examples in the links you provided. they seem kinda small.

Advanced Newt & Salamander Topics - Vivaria, Enclosures & Product Reviews at Caudata.org Newt and Salamander Portal This part of the forum may show you some good pics of different setups that people use, hopefully you'll find some good ideas there.

As for feeding the tiger, how long ago did he morph? If he is just beginning to get used to a terrestrial stage then he may not eat right away. Being on land may be new to him and it may take him time to realize there aren't any predators for him to worry about. Some tigers become skittish when they first start living on land. Since he is healthy I wouldn't worry to much about not eating just yet, they can go a while without eating. Once he has settled down and become hungry he'll come out on his own to look for food and you can try feeding him then.

I would say about two or three weeks ago. Thanks for all the help!

hm two or three weeks, I'm thinking he should have started settling down by now, though maybe he is just taking his time. Just keep an eye on him and keep trying, he should start eating soon. Perhaps try some waxworms if you can get some in your area, I heard that few tigers will refuse them so that may entice him to eat, just make sure you don't feed him them too often, they are high in fat.

I dug him up nicely and used a plastic container that I put a little tank water in, then I put him in there with a leaf worm and he eventually ate it. I'll probably feed him every 4-7 days, not sure yet.

Glad to hear that he ate. As for how often you feed him, that really depends on what temperature his tank is. If the room temperature is around 70F then you can feed him 2 to 3 times a week. Usually if my tiger would take earthworms, I'd feed him 2 large worms a week. Usually those would be nightcrawlers that range from 4 to 8 inches. So feeding him about ever 3 to 4 days would probably be fine. Since he did just morph a few weeks ago and he's probably still growing, you could feed him a little more often.