Outdoor Captives?

jbherpin

jbherpin

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Does anyone keep outdoor study enclosures?
 
I wouldn't. With the heat and all. Plus the interaction between them and local animals. There are some that have attracted local caudates with ponds. And believe some people may have kept axolotls in a pond outside.
 
Some European salamander breeders are using outdoor enclosures, but no one in the US that I know of. It's certainly possible, but hard to comment on without knowing what region you live in, and what sort of species you are interesting in studying. And do you mean an enclosed pond, or a tank? Local native species, or others?
 
Jennewt said:
Some European salamander breeders are using outdoor enclosures, but no one in the US that I know of. It's certainly possible, but hard to comment on without knowing what region you live in, and what sort of species you are interesting in studying. And do you mean an enclosed pond, or a tank? Local native species, or others?
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This question was just general...I don't plan on attempting this myself. I have too many snakes through my yard, and I fear pesticide run-offs from neighboring properties. I think it would be much easier to house FULLY AQUATIC species outdoors, for example axotols, paddle-tailed, and maybe even ribbed-newts...I don't know... I was curious if people utilized this option and how well it worked for them.:confused:
 
I AM! ive already raised woodfrog tadpoles to little froglets and two spotted salamander larvae, and now im raising green frog tadpoles! its set up as a natural tank, with naturally occuring water plants from new york state. i have arrow arum, narrowleaf arrowhead, some other plant that throws up a huge stem with tiny white flowers, some small emersed/submerged grasses, duckweed, and some other plant that seems to grow emersed, and some algae. i have an airstone supplying fresh oxygen 24/7 if it is needed, and i test the water quality every few days to make sure the plants are doing their business, which they are! its working out great!
 
amkid247 said:
I AM! ive already raised woodfrog tadpoles to little froglets and two spotted salamander larvae, and now im raising green frog tadpoles! its set up as a natural tank, with naturally occuring water plants from new york state. i have arrow arum, narrowleaf arrowhead, some other plant that throws up a huge stem with tiny white flowers, some small emersed/submerged grasses, duckweed, and some other plant that seems to grow emersed, and some algae. i have an airstone supplying fresh oxygen 24/7 if it is needed, and i test the water quality every few days to make sure the plants are doing their business, which they are! its working out great!
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Thank you for the reply! How large is the area? Do you mean tank as like, aquaria, or just the area is contained? How long did you wait for plants to establish?
 
unfortunately it is a little small. its only a ten gallon tank :\ it has a first layer of gravel and then a second layer of clay from a lake. the plants were brought there by me. so i didnt wait. i would love to have an actual pond but no such luck since my parents dont want one. the water and plants came from both a lake and a pond from upstate new york, obviously i didnt take go around uprooting as many plants as i could, only one or two of a species, and except the narrowleaf arrowhead, and duckweed which started as one plant and grew new plants on its own.
 
That's very interesting! I bet the larval spotted sals found small prey in the natural bottom of tank. How did you curb excessive heat? My neighbor has three seperate ditches around a tree and it's roots, and they lined the floor with trashbags and let nature do a little work. After a week a green frog juv set up camp. It was cool, but how permanant it will be I could not say.
 
well the tank wasnt in the sun during most of the day, because it was on the side of my house with an overhang that only gets sun on it during the late evening. so the water never became excessively hot. plus the evaporation from the airstone helped slightly i would imagine.
those salamander larvae got fat fast! i would be taking pictures of them and see them lunge and eat something which i didnt even see in the first place. i assumed it was daphnia and other small prey items like mosquito larvae.
 
amkid247 said:
Those salamander larvae got fat fast! i would be taking pictures of them and see them lunge and eat something which i didnt even see in the first place. i assumed it was daphnia and other small prey items like mosquito larvae.
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Did your Tads and Spotted larvae come from the same pond as the clay/plants? How big were the Spotted larvals when found? At metamorphosis? I think that keeping outside(in a well governed area-as you stated) is really a cool idea...It invites mosquitos to lay eggs, and provides a stable and relistic diet as well! Very well thought out, if this was the intention!:cool:
 
the tadpoles and larvae came from the pond with the plants, the clay was from a lake near the pond, but nevertheless, the salamander larvae were small and yellow when i first noticed them. im not an expert in spotted salamanders or any, but considering how much they grew and changed i'd say they were very young, especially since they took about 3 months to actually transform.
 
Unless you can keep the temperatures outside in optimal newt/salamander ranges, i wouldn't try it.
 
oregon newt said:
Unless you can keep the temperatures outside in optimal newt/salamander ranges, i wouldn't try it.
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yeah i agree newt and salamanders are more difficult to care for outside where the temperatures get way out of their range, i suppose the only reason mine survived was by luck and a surplus of food.
 
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