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Salamander larvae?

RedBack

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I took a few northwestern (or possibly long-toed) salamander larvae. They're still very young, with only forelimbs visible. Any advice for their proper care? I haven't been able to access live food at pet stores, so for now I'm trying to find small invertibrates from clean pools etc...

Pictures soon to come :)
 

Kaysie

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Keep them cool and clean and well-fed. Pond water is a good source for food (it's natural, after all!).
 

Maryanngriff

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Hi- I'm in a similar predicament myself as my fire salamander gave birth to 13 larvae. I am feeding them daphnia and blood worm.
I have also adapted the tank to have a small 'shore' area as they morph in 10 weeks supposedly?
I'm new to this game also so if you have any advice it will be greatly received
 

RedBack

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I'm fairly new to this as well, Maryanngriff, so all the advice I can come up with is: keep the water clean with frequent partial water changes, monitor their feeding habits as well as possible, feed their food so they get maximum nutrition, and don't let them dry out once they begin to climb onto land. I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind!

My largest one is just beginning to develop hind legs, so I guess I should be starting to create a shore as well. Six has gone down to four, though. It appears I have a cannibal on my hands! S/he's eaten the two smallest, and the remaining are substantially larger than his/her previous victims. Would still it be a good idea to segregate the aggressor, just in case?

I'm just concerned about a future food supply though. The pond that I've been getting the insects from is actually more of a large puddle and will likely dry up in the next couple of weeks. Local pet stores only sell pellet food, and I'm not entirely sure that they will accept it. Do you know of any ways to train or trick them into consuming motionless food? Or is there any invertebrates that are comfortable in water and easily bred? I will only need them for the duration of the salamanders aquatic life.

Also, is there any way to tell at this age if they are, in fact, northwestern or long-toed salamanders? I've looked up photos of both and can't quite see significant differences. And one last thing, if anyone knows exactly what those tiny dots on the water are that'd be great. I've looked it up and found that they could be a harmless mite-like decomposer, however I'm not positive and would like to know if it's urgent that I get rid of them. Here are the best photos I managed, although they are not very great. :eek:







I apologize for the long post, and thank-you!
 

starshy

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I use blackworms. You may be able to order them through a pet store or aquatic store, you can for sure get them online, they come in sizes and weight amounts. Using the smallest blackworms helps otherwise you may spend a significant amount of time chopping them into bite size pieces for your babies. The care of them is pretty easy, keep the worms in a container and shallow water, rinse them daily in cold water and keep them in the fridge. You can lengthen their lifespans significantly by feeding them aquatic turtle pellets every week and a half, not very much food maybe 1 1/2 pellets for every quarter pound of worms and you can stimulate them to multiply by cutting the larger and longer worms in half since they are asexual they multiply by splitting off pieces of themselves. Be careful to use all natural aquatic turtle pellet types just to be safe that what makes up your worms won't adversly affect your larvae. I used all natural so can't say if other kinds would or wouldn't hurt. The larvae look very strong and healthy!
 

starshy

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That will depend on the species, with mine I gathered the eggs feb 28 to march 1 and the first one didn't come to land until may 6th! They had all four legs for a long time and when they began to come to land their gills begun receeding and some of their colors darkened days before they were almost entirely gone. I'm not sure how loong the larvae u have will be
 
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