Fire salamander hiccupping?

I recently purchased a fire salamander from a local pet shop on July 3rd. I have had a russian fire salamander for about three years now and they are not new to me. As soon as I put him/her(to young to tell) in the quarantine tank he ate two crickets from my hand. The next day i observed him moving his head in a fast motion like a hiccup or sneeze. He is refusing to eat now, is not very active, and still doing the "hiccupping". Due to the fact I bought him at a pet shop I knew he is probably wild caught and I knew the chance i was taking when purchasing him. Does anyone know what the hiccupping action may be because i am worried???

Could you describe it in more detail? Is it moving the head from side to side, up and down? Is this happening periodically? Only when the animal is disturbed?
Also, what do you mean by russian fire salamander? I´m not aware of this species reaching Russia at all.
If the animal is close to adulthood then the most likely scenario is indeed that it is WC. In the future, please consider not only the risks involved in purchasing such an animal, but also that no legal imports exist, except possibly of S.s.salamandra (and this is highly dubious). All other subespecies are protected and any WC specimens would have been illegally collected.

Not only when he is disturbed, but also when he is just sitting there in his cage he jerks his head upwards. He looks almost exactly like a human with hiccups. And as far as my other salamander being russian, that is only what a vendor from a reptile show told me when i bought him. Sadly yes he was wild caught but at the time and up until now I did not know much about the problems wild catching poses to fire salamanders. I never plan on purchasing wild caught animals again, sorry. By the way, all my other animals are captive bred though

Those are S.s.salamandra and they are WC in west Ukraine. They enter the US via Florida in imports made legally but based in WC smuggling. Many petshops buy these and re-sell them to the public. Thats what you got in hands.
cheers,

So that is where my salamanders are from, thanks. Do you know anything about the hiccupping though?

Well I've seen them do similar stuff, but I would consider it normal.
You say you have long therm experience so I think you wouldn't misunderstood if it was a normal behavior so that leaves me clueless. Maybe you should video record it next time. I think its very hard for us to pictures in our minds what it's like. We haven't seen you Sal doing it so he don't have the same image you do have. That leaves us in disadvantage.

I dont know if I can get a video up, but he is still refusing to eat and still "hiccupping". He hiccups usually whenever he is moving even if it is just turning his head. But whenever he his just sitting still he doesnt hiccup much. If I switch him to paper towel substrate do you think it can make a difference due to the paper towels not allowing any bacteria to produce as fast?

I wonder if it might be hyperventilating because of overheating? It's normal for amphibians to have regular chin/throat movements in order to breathe. With the eastern USA experiencing serious heat, a fire salamander might experience a fair amount of stress and would be breathing faster not only because of increased metabolism, but in order to increase evaporative cooling. It the animal is over 20C, try moving it somewhere cooler - a fridge if need be, though try to cool gradually with water, and don't freeze. If it's heat-related, heat kills far faster than cold, and a bit of cold-shock is much safer than cooked salamander.

Right now I have him in the coldest part of my room and every night and morning I put a frozen water bottle in his tank. It is only ten gallons because he is still quite small so the frozen water bottle cools it down a bit. He still completely ignores food. My other Fire salamander is doing fine right now despite the warmer weather so that is why I am still worried for the other. Maybe it could be because he is still adjusting to the new enviorment? He is wild caught and i have only had him 5 days.

He still is not eating and hiccupping. does anyone know how to entice him into eating?

Since you've only fed him 2 crickets maybe there's something stuck in his mouth that he can't get out. When my sals feed you see them opening their mouths but with an up and down movement of the head that I suppose with no worm sticking out could look like hiccuping. If his mouth is moving with his head maybe he's trying to dislodge a stuck cricket leg or something.

Just a suggestion as I have no idea otherwise!

well if there is something stuck in his throat, how would I get it out?

Ha ha, good question.

I don't know how safe this is so its entirely up to you whether you do it. Using some sort of soft plastic spoon I would gently prise his mouth open (while he is wrapped in a small damp towerl of some sort) and have a friend look in his mouth and pull out anything with blunt tweasers (by blunt I mean not the sharp edged cosmetics tweasers used for eyebrows or anything like that cause you might scrape the inside of his mouth). There is a sticky thread in the sick axolotl forum about force feeding a sick axolotl so its a procedure similar to that and I would read it first.

I have had to do it before when I thought my axolotl had something stuck in his mouth (which he didn't in the end), but an axolotl is bigger than a fire salamander so...

Alternatively find a herp vet who may do it for you or may diagnose something different.

Hope this helps.