Spotted Sals Not Eating Whiteworms

[Skdecoteau]

Anyone else have spotted sals that turn their noses up at live whiteworms? Could they be having trouble seeing them against a white-ish background? The worms are very wiggly so I don't see how they'd miss them, but then again I'm not a salamander.

One of the salamanders, who is about 2 weeks younger than the other three and is in a separate tank, ate the whiteworms the first time I offered them but hasn't touched them since. The other three began morphing around the same time as I switched - about a week ago - so I'm not too concerned that they haven't touched them... except, I found a few stray blackworms hiding in their substrate the other day and offered a few to everyone, and, as far as I can tell, they were eaten. Def by the little one, probably by at least one of the three big sals.

If I don't offer them anything else will they eventually get hungry enough to eat the whiteworms? I hate the idea of doing that, but I really don't have anything else to offer them seeing as blackworms are unobtainium & I've had no luck at raising BBS beyond two days or hatching daphnia.

 

[Idnar196]

I would not try to starve them out. Sometimes they don't recognize some things as food, and it can take a while for them to start eating something new.

You can try to catch daphnia or mosquito larvae from local ponds.

you can also culture your own mosquito larvae:

Raising Mosquito Larvae for Nutritious Live Fish Food- FREE

Your fish will love to eat mosquito larvae - a free and nutritious live fish food. Learn how to raise mosquito larvae for your aquarium!

fishlab.com

Daphnia can also be quite tricky, but do generate a good supply once you get them going. We bought ours as adults for Carolina Biological Supply. Now that I have started cultures I have more than I know what to do with. I leave mine in Large Kritter Keepers at room temp under a light without a bubbler and feed a generous squirt of Phyto feast every time the water clears.

You can also call Local fish stores and see if they have any smaller servings of blackworms available.