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Larvae ID help?

Animalperson100

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I'll try to give as much info on these little guys as I can. I'm thinking they're eastern newts but quietly hoping they're spotteds haha. Also, I'm new so I'm sorry if I was supposed to upload photos another way. I just did it the way I knew how. I also apologize if this is the wrong place to post.

These guys came from a group of very shallow vernal pools down the street from where I live. Spring peepers lay their eggs in these pools every year, and every year I watch it dry up and half the tadpoles die. I usually just let nature take it's course, as half the tadpoles are early bloomers and make it and I figure natural selection etc. Not to mention I didn't have a tank to house a ton of tadpoles in. This past year our family fish passed away and now I had a tank. I was down the street looking at the lot the pools were on and realized it was finally purchased. There were tire tracks everywhere, a bulldozer off to the side, some wood stacked in the corner. A house was going to go right on top of where these tadpoles lived, so I figured why not, grabbed a bucket, and collected a bunch of tadpoles from what remained of the pools (it was basically just mud at that point).

Lo and behold not everything was a peeper. I ended up with about a dozen salamander larvae, which I have now separated so I can feed them. They eat chopped up baby earthworms and baby triops I hatch for them. The big ones also eat the little ones... a few weeks later I'm down to 7 and each one is soon to be moved to their own private cup to try and prevent that. I'm curious what kind of salamander they could be.

Here's the pictures, sorry they're not great quality. The larger ones are maybe 1-1.5 inches long nose to tip, the smaller ones range from maybe 0.75-1 inch or so. The ones that got eaten were obviously smaller than that.
http://imgur.com/a/50noH7V

My favorite is the one I have the most pictures of, the one with the extra long gills. I'm taking name suggestions, even though I'll be releasing them all once they become adults.

Thanks for the help!
 

Animalperson100

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I never saw the eggs nor the adults. I saw a handful of different frog species, but no salamanders. However I know that the area has red efts practically everywhere and I found a spotted once one year so they're out there too.
 

SalamanderQueen

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These little guys are probably yellow spotted salamanders, considering your area and where they were found. I have two myself, and they seem to be the most common mole salamander to find. They could also be marbled salamanders or blue spotted salamanders if they aren't yellows. They don't actually look like newts (I've had some before), but I could be wrong.
 
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Counting

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Here are some pictures of confirmed spotted larvae. I believe yours are spotteds based on what I know, but I am not 100%
 

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Animalperson100

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Hey, I know its late. Haven't been logged in for a while. But in case anyone is wondering, or needs help IDing larvae and found this thread through Google, they were spotted salamanders! Interestingly when they came out of the water they were almost solid black, with the specs of yellow that would someday become spots. Adorable little guys, I released all that made it to metamorphosis near water in the woods behind my house after it rained.
 
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