Rescued Salamander

My Little brother got a salamander from some where (in the area aka IL WI). It looks exactly like the one pictured above in the header (black with white/blue spots). He wasn't looking good when I rescued him. I put him in a 5 gallon Hex tank with gravel, my Bamboo (the tank has standing water on bottom, but it doesn't reach above the gravel), fake plant (hanging from the wall, bowl of water, and a couple of rocks. This tank is opened topped, any risk of it escaping?

The poor guy isn't eating, and I'm not sure how to feed him. My Newt (around 7+ years old, haha.) i just dangle worms or other things in front of him and he attacks them (in fact he almost got my finger). The Salamander just turns away uninterested, and he looks a little thin. Any ideas on how to get this guy back on track and healthy? Any general Specs. on the Species?

First off, yes, it's in danger of escape! See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/escape.shtml
If you don't have a lid, you can use duct tape to make a rim that extends over by at least 2" (shown in some of the photos in that article).

If it is the species shown in the header, we have a caresheet:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Plethodon/P_glutinosus.shtml

I wouldn't recommend gravel as a substrate. I'd recommend either dirt or damp paper toweling. For food, try a few small crickets. But don't stress the sal by having a lot of crickets running around the tank - they can bite sals.

How safe is it to let it go right now? We have a large wooded area here, think I can just release it? I just got home, and he is looking alot better, more colorful

Gergify said:

How safe is it to let it go right now? We have a large wooded area here, think I can just release it? I just got home, and he is looking alot better, more colorful

Click to expand...

As preached to me on this very site, it is unsafe to release animals back into the wild if you house any other species from exotic or even just non-local areas. The reasoning can be found under my thread listed as "toad Tads-good or bad for food". Believe me, It was explained thoroughly-to my benefit of course...What is your other newt's species? Any other "exotics" in the household?

It really doesn't matter if there are any other exotics in the household. There are pathogens everywhere.

oregon newt said:

It really doesn't matter if there are any other exotics in the household. There are pathogens everywhere.

Click to expand...

I just can't win....

I was thinking about this and realized that the same thing applys for humans. That's one of the reasons why most of the Native Americans died when the European explorers came over to America.

oregon newt said:

I was thinking about this and realized that the same thing applys for humans. That's one of the reasons why most of the Native Americans died when the European explorers came over to America.

Click to expand...

that, and they were forced to relocate to places like Florida from Arizona, or up through the plains. This change of air pressure and humidity did horrible things to the immunity of Native Americans. A tragic tale that shouldn't be forgotten. Claps for the analogy.