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Maintenance experiences for Fire Salamander living in tropical countries (average 24 C)

apatia

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Hi all!

In a few days I will be receiving a Fire Salamander (russian fire salamander), however, wanted to ask if any of you has had experience keeping this species living in tropical countries whose average annual temperature is 24C. (Caracas Venezuela,,.)

Basically my question is based on that I have read repeatedly that the ideal is to keep them in cold or cool a terrarium not to exceed 20C, but wanted to know your experiences and ideas of how to solve the problem of high temperatures in the terrarium

Greetings, I appreciate your comments!
 

olmrudyk

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Hi Apatia,
I was keeping them in Ukraine, from where yours probably are( there are no Fire Salamanders in Russia).
At about +26C they are stopping to eat, but can survive for several weeks at about 29-30C, being not active under that high TT. In their native area the hottest day TT are near +30C, but for a 2-3 days only, But in city, where I kept them, the highest day TT in middle of summer were +35-36C. , sometime for as long as a week or more. We were adjusting their annual cycle to our climate, putting them in hibernation for the hottest time a year. At +24C they still do eat, but feel not the best, especially when no relief for a months.
Alex
 

apatia

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Thank you very much for the answer!
I should be receiving the specimen this week. i will post how it evolves!
 

Jaku

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They need it colder for most of the year, specially in winter. Will you cool the room? And will you be able to provide 5-10 °C during several weeks?

Greetings.
 

apatia

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Hi everyone, I have a week with the salamander, fortunately arrived in apparent good condition and has eaten crickets twice.

With respect to the point of the temperatures:

I just read the post related to methods to lower temperatures in the terrarium. But I was testing with the fans and gives me the impression that tend to dry much the terrarium. I think they are more suitable for water habitats .. What is your opinion about the fans in a terrestrial habitat?
 

aramcheck

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I would strongly advise you against using fans on a terrarium, are you risk to desiccate the environment, and the poor salamander in it... Since you now have the animal, it is a bit late to point out, but S. salamandra is not the most suited species to your climate, so you will struggle with this a lot, I think.

Short of putting the animal in an AC room, I cannot see a good, simple, solution. Maybe explore the idea of using one of those cooled wine cellar/beer fridges to house the terrarium? I fear yours will be an uphill struggle, good luck!
 

Salamanderfire

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AW: Maintenance experiences for Fire Salamander living in tropical countries (average 24 C)

Hi,

in my opinion fire salamanders are not suitable for being kept in tropical countries.
They don't like higher temperature at all. Even if they eat and move around they will be more susceptible to diseases of all kind.

Fans only cool down temperature if they are directed to the water surface, so that the water can evapurate. Don't use them in terrestrial terrariums because there they will only make things worse.

If your house has a cool basement with temperature lower than 20C then put the terrarium there.
If that is not possible you need to cool down the environment for the salamanders.
For example you can cool down the whole room with air conditioning but that's quite expensive.
Or you can isolate the terrarium with styrofoam or something similar and try to cool down the terrarium with a chiller or with cold packs. But cold packs have to be replaced regularly several times a day to keep the temperature constantly low. So that won't be the ideal permanent solution.

Regards,
Peter
 
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