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Fire Salamander Larvae..

Z

zach

Guest
Hi, I am not too new at salamanders, I have 3 tigers, 5 marbleds, 10 spotted sal larvae, 1 water dog(tiger salamander larvae) and now to add to my collection..fire salamander larvae. I recently purchased 4 of these amazing creatures. I have three of them right now, the company forgot to send the fourth. These three I have are in a 10 gallon tank, with like 3.5 inches or so of water,dechlorinated, with nothing else. It is just them and water. i will be feeding them blackworms*live* because my LPS has those and I can get them if needed whenever. I tried feeding them with blackworms, they gobbled em right up. My question is as followed, what temp should I keep them at? And when they morph should I try a setup like John Clare has on another post? Oh yeah..they are around 1-1.5 inches long, they are like black, yellow and their stomaches are red. Thanks!
 
K

karin

Guest
I have kept mine at room temperature. I also put a bit of pond weed in to help oxygenate the water, and some rocks so the water was getting shallower. As they morph they are prone to drowning.

As they leave the water they are also excellent climbers, so make sure there is a lid on the tanks - one of mine escaped by scaling a tank that was four times its height!

After that I have just put them in a usual terrestrial set up - like John Clare's (though I use moss too)
 
J

john

Guest
Room temperature doesn't mean much unless you live in the same house ;). Anything over 20 degrees C (70 F) is not good for fire salamanders, larvae or adults, and particularly bad for metamorphs.
 
K

karin

Guest
Apologies - being a science teacher I tend to use the standard definition of room temperature ie 20 degrees C and arrogantly assume everyone knows what that means ;)
 
Z

zach

Guest
John, I have one question. One of my three larvae, is about 2inches, actually all three are close to it, and he it not the same colors as the others, like transulcent and stuff. He is black and yellow blotches, and I think you said somewhere that when golden spots show up they will be changing soon..soo..does this mean he is beginning to change? Cause if he is I would just like to know what to do with him...like I have an empty 2.5 gallon, should I put like and 1 of water and some gravel so he can get..thanks!
 
J

john

Guest
There's a photo of a larva near metamorphosis on Caudate Central's Salamandra Information Page.

I just kept some gravel at one end of the tank sloped up out of the water. When they metamorphose I find them on that. I then move them to a very moist tank until they develop adult features.
 
Z

zach

Guest
Thanks. Mine looks just like picture of the top view but he yellow places are just No a stripe down the middle, just spots all over. I will setup the little 2.5 for mtamorphosis today and will go out and grab a bag of gravel.

Zach
 
Z

zach

Guest
Shoot, forgot to ask..will he/she eat right away? And what should I feed them at that size? I have small crickets, they might be able to eat. I have live blackworms as well. thanks again.
 
J

john

Guest
They take about 4 days before they start eating. I use first instar crickets fed on fish flakes until the salamanders are about 6 cm long, then switch to slightly bigger crickets. Once they hit about 7 cm they can start eating waxworms along with the crickets.
 
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