Question: Northwestern Salamander Setup Question

[Humain]

Some of my Nw salamanders have recently started to morph and I am preparing to switch them from a aquatic setup to a mostly land setup.

My question is since I still have a decent amount of them not morphing yet or may become neotenic I want to keep some of my set up water. I have a 55 gallon tank for them right now and I am planning to make a plexiglass/lexan box to hold substrate but I am curious how much I can/should leave as water and how deep that water can be without posing danger to the morphed land dwellers.

The measurements of my tank are 4 feet long by 1 foot wide and almost 2 feet tall so height isn't a worry, I was considering doing around 80% land 20% water.

 

[sde]

I would recommend using two separate setups. One for the morphed animals and one for the animals that are remaining aquatic. Newly morphed animals are susceptible to drowning, and shouldn't be provided a very large water area.
Personally, I wouldn't offer much more than a water bowl in the terrestrial setup. This species is completely terrestrial out side of the breeding season in my experience, so only a water bowl is needed. For the aquatic ones you can make a setup like you would for axolotls ( with more live plants, though ), but have something breaking the surface of the water in case they decide to morph.

If you really want to have them all in the same enclosure, though, then you can make a divider, but make it slanted toward the land area. That way they can easily get out of the water. It will also make it easier for aquatic ones to morph. The water shouldn't be very deep because of the risk of drowning with the new morphs. I would recommend no more that 6 inches. This is still enough for the aquatic ones, though. However you will need to be diligent with your water changes since that isn't very much water and so the parameters can fluctuate easily.
Hope this helps! -Seth

 

[Humain]

My original plan was to have the water only be 4-6 inches in the first place and I have been doing water changes regularly as is. Would there be risk of drowning if I have say 4 inches of water that takes up around 20%ish of the tank but have a ramp so that they could freely enter and exit without having to swim if need be? The main reason I am set on 1 tank to house both is because the one tank is all I currently have room for in the house.

Also Thanks for the input , I appreciate any information I can get since this is my first time dealing with the actual morphing process since I hatched these guys from eggs.

 

[sde]

Yeah, that setup sounds fine.

 

[tcbemis]

What I did on the advice of someone here, was put my larvae into about an inch of water in a plastic shoebox. I then raised one end, so that the water all went to one end, making it about 3 inches deep. As they morphed they'd head to the beach. I also used brown, unbleached paper towels on the "beach" in case they couldn't grip. It helped them keep moist if they moved up while we were at work or during the night. It worked really, really well and I'd do this again. At one point our entire buffet in our dining room was lined with 6 boxes of larvae in this way lol. Good luck!

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[JasonT]

Question - after the salamanders morphed, what did you feed them?

Mine are somewhat lethargic, hiding under vegetation, and do not appear to be feeding at all. I have small crickets that I have been trying to feed them - by all they seem to want to do is hide.

Please help!