Decomposition rate?

Anyone know the decomposition rate of a Salamandra? Sadly I think I lost my very big female Gallicia. I haven't been downstairs to check on them for a few days and when I went to feed last night she was missing. Last fed Weds and she ate her healthy 2-3 worms. Colors were looking stunning. I was really staring at them. Complete glass cover on the top. The male was still in there looking healthy and ate his normal amount. She was real big so even if she died a day or two later I would think there would be a trace of her left but maybe I'm wrong. I am hoping she burrowed into the substrate and was just hiding, but she has never done so before. If I don't see her before Saturday I will dig the substrate up.

Its sad as she just turned 4 and was heading into prime breeding age. If any of the two died I expected it to be the male who is 25-30% smaller than her. She was the dominant one in the tank and used to push the male around....

If you didn't find any traces or any foul odor I would guess she is buried in the substrate. I have thought I'd lost typically non-burrowing species (in this case T. granulosa) only to find them under a few inches of substrate. Hope you find her in good shape!

AW: Re: Decomposition rate?

They are masters at hiding, please send a photo when you find her - and give her 2-3 worms more...

Re: AW: Re: Decomposition rate?

She is burrowed for sure.

Even tiny juveniles take a few days or longer to decompose, and a large salamandra will just be starting to get a sunken, goopy-eyed look after a few days. Their large size and their water-resistant skin makes them more resistant to decomposition than most amphibians. I've had animals dissapear for months at a time for no obvious reason, only to have them emerge again in good health. I've also found no trace of a couple of salamandra almanzoris that hibernated outside over the last winter and didn't emerge in the spring, but they could have had months to decompose before I went digging for them, depending on when they died.

They are one of the fastest salamanders when it comes to decomposion. In the space of a week and half I had 3 small juvenils to simply vanish to find only a fraction of their spinal chord.
As for an adult of 4 years old and well feed it would leave so much stink tha you'd know for sure she was dead. Also animal with such mass would take nearly a month to 'vanish' due to decomposition. I believe she is hiding or she left the setup due to a failure on keeping it escape proof.

Good luck.

BTW they are called and spelled gallaica not gallicia or whatever you wrote.

Cheers,

Thanks. I hope she has borrowed. Saturday I will be carefully excavating. Perhaps its a good time to relocate/change substrate anyways.

Well when he partner disappeared I got really curious. I did dig through the tank and find them both buried on top of each other. I will get pics later today if they don't burrow again.