Pictures for Ryan (I_love_Necturus)

[pete]

Hey Ryan, a long, long time ago you asked me to post pics of my mudpuppy. Well, I finally got around to it. Here she is. She's running about 11 inches. She's pretty robust, and seems to grow about an inch/year.

 

[Slimy2]

That is one nice looking animal!

 

[Kaysie]

She's a looker!

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

Great looking necturus! I'm so very jealous she looks very healthy too.

 

[pete]

She may look nice, but it was quite a rare occasion to find her out and about during daylight hours. Usually, I only get to see her head while she's investigating an unfortunate earthworm.

 

[Neotenic_Jaymes]

I know what you mean. People allways come over and say, why dont you have anything in your tank just rocks. Necturus are so elusive but awesome. I tell people theres mudpuppies in there but they can't see whats hiding.

 

[freves]

Those are some nice pics. I'm surprised that Ryan hasn't chimed in on this by now. I remember a time when he would have responded to the first post in this thread in about .0001 second! (kidding).
Chip

 

[i_love_necturus]

Haha very funny. Thanks for posting Pete. I've been busy and I haven't been on the forum for awhile. Very nice individual indeed. You're right, nice and robust, she seems very healthy. What size tank is she in? How long have you had her? My mudpuppy's around 10 inches now, roughly an inch this past year. My mudpuppy actually isn't that elusive, when I first got her she was always under her rock. I think it's because of the elodea that I have floating on the surface, it makes the tank quite dark in some parts most of the day so she must comfortable enough to come out. Thanks again for posting.

 

[pete]

Haha very funny. Thanks for posting Pete. I've been busy and I haven't been on the forum for awhile. Very nice individual indeed. You're right, nice and robust, she seems very healthy. What size tank is she in? How long have you had her? My mudpuppy's around 10 inches now, roughly an inch this past year. My mudpuppy actually isn't that elusive, when I first got her she was always under her rock. I think it's because of the elodea that I have floating on the surface, it makes the tank quite dark in some parts most of the day so she must comfortable enough to come out. Thanks again for posting.

About time. Just kidding. I've had her about 3.5 yrs now. She lives alone in a 20 gallon under a in a home she made for herself under pieces of driftwood and stones that she seems to reorganize frequently. She doesn't like any of the caves I build for her. Her diet consists of mainly worms at the moment. Rarely, she gets shrimp, small crayfish, or goldfish.

 

[i_love_necturus]

Lots of humor in this thread, . I mainly feed mine nightcrawlers, and crickets, which I've just started feeding to her recently. She accepts the crickets quite well. Her staple is the nightcrawlers however. I find that funny how your mudpuppy enjoys reorganizing her hideout. I've only seen mine push away pebbles to create a small area before. Do you have any pictures of your tank that you could post by any chance?

I attached a few pics of mine for the heck of it.
I had to go in and turn on th lights, the flash freaked her out a bit too. She was up in the elodea.

 

[pete]

Nice pictures, your mudpuppy seems to have a little bit more brown in its coloration relative to mine. Here are some pictures of my tank. I dismantled his stone cave on the right side awhile ago, and moved a lot of her plants into my axie's tank, while I decide what to do over there. So, it's a little barren on the right side at the moment.

Probably one of the most interesting behaviors I've observed with her, is what I like to call "housekeeping". She vibrates her tail very rapidly and blows sand and debris out of her cave. It makes a lot of noise since the wood and rocks are usually bumped around, and when you look at the aquarium you see sand shooting out of her hiding spot. It looks like a snow blower spout of sand. She does it relatively randomly, and it gives me quite a startle sometimes.

 

[pete]

Also, I dug out this old photo I took of her shortly after I got her. You can see she had a notch in her tail that eventually regrew, but it took about a year to grow back 100%.

 

[i_love_necturus]

Very nice setup, I see it's a 20 gallon long, which is what I should have gotten. Mine is just a standard 20 gal. She's been doing fine in it for this past year though, I may move her up to a 30 gal someday. She does take advantage of the hight though, she climbs up into the elodea and rests there. What temp is your tank usually? Mine is usually in the low 60s, sometimes the 50s.

 

[pete]

I don't heat my basement apartment. So the temperature ranges from low 40s coldest winter nights, to the upper sixties on the hottest summer days. I assume the water temperature is somewhere in between there, but I haven't had to monitor it yet.