Breeding fire sals

[peterrobbo]

I bought a couple of fire salamanders which appeared to be a pair. The female appears to be very chunky (gravid) and I am sure she will give birth soon. I have bred plenty of newts, axolotls & fish , but I am a complete numpty when it comes to salamanders. In their present enclosure which is 30" x 12" they have loads of terrestrial space, but only have a 7" diameter dish of water. I do not really want to disturb them too much and was wondering what would be the best sized and shaped container to add to this setup that would encourage the female to deliver and give the young a good (but very temporary) home.
TIA

Peter

 

[benw]

I would be tempted to leave it as it is, they dont need too much water for larval deposition

 

[petlover516]

Yes I agree with ben-the water bowl is fine. You should get into starting a tadpole tank-it can be around 10 gallons or so, with a sponge filter(that has been cycled, or you could do daily water changes.) Feed the tadpoles infusoria after you get them in this tank(hopefully right after their born!). Once the tadpoles start to grow up, put them into new tank with a water area and a land area, so the tadpoles can crawl onto land. At this stage you can feed them crushed fish flake food up tp smaller proportions of what the adults eat, as to wean them onto the adult food. You could also feed them blackworms and chopped nightcrawlers. As they get bigger, make the water area shorter and shorter. Once they hit about 2 inches, they are old enought to sell, trade or do whatever you want with them. By the way, what subspecies do you have? Certain subspecies give birth to completely formed salamanders!

 

[benw]

Yes I agree with ben-the water bowl is fine. You should get into starting a tadpole tank-it can be around 10 gallons or so, with a sponge filter(that has been cycled, or you could do daily water changes.) Feed the tadpoles infusoria after you get them in this tank(hopefully right after their born!). Once the tadpoles start to grow up, put them into new tank with a water area and a land area, so the tadpoles can crawl onto land. At this stage you can feed them crushed fish flake food up tp smaller proportions of what the adults eat, as to wean them onto the adult food. You could also feed them blackworms and chopped nightcrawlers. As they get bigger, make the water area shorter and shorter. Once they hit about 2 inches, they are old enought to sell, trade or do whatever you want with them. By the way, what subspecies do you have? Certain subspecies give birth to completely formed salamanders!

Im trying to work out at what stage you would feed crushed fish flakes, as in my experience they wont touch fish flakes at any stage.
i feed whiteworms for the first few days then wean onto defrosted chopped bloodworm, getting larger as they grow, then after morphing, micro crickets.

 

[Jennewt]

petlover516 - I know your intentions are good, but please do not give advice that you cannot back up with experience, especially in the advanced area of the forum. Ben is right - fish flakes are not suitable food for salamander larvae (which are not called tadpoles).

 

[petlover516]

Ok I'm sorry. I was thinking too much about fish at the same time.