Baby Salamander ID

[BMM22]

Hello,

This is my first post here, so I apologize if it's not in the right place. Anyway, I'm looking for some help IDing my salamanders.

I caught these little guys as tadpoles around early April while I was herping in the northern Ozarks. I found them in a small, slow moving stream in the woods. I'm pretty sure they were freshly hatched as none of them had arms or legs yet and they were only about a half an inch long. As tadpoles they were a light green color with brown speckling along their tails. By mid May they had developed all their limbs and then around mid July they started to lose their gills and come out of the water. They were about an inch and a half long at that point. Since then their colors have started to come in and they've continued to grow. They're all black or very dark gray with small white speckles along their sides. Size wise they're between two and two and a half inches right now. They have four toes on their front feet and five on their back. They're still pretty small, so it's hard to count their grooves exactly, but I think it's between 13 and 15.

Any help with IDing them would be appreciated. Hopefully the pictures I've attached help.

 

[Ekmanor]

If I had to guess they’re a type of slimy salamander. Probably Plethodon glutinosus? However I think that P. glutinosus can and will hybridize with other members of their genus.

Here’s a link to caudata culture’s page on the slimy salamanders:

https://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Plethodon/P_glutinosus.shtml

I’m quite the amateur at this so if someone thinks/knows I’m wrong- by all means let me know. Regardless I hope this helps.

 

[BMM22]

I appreciate the help. However, I can safely rule out them being slimy salamanders because they had an aquatic stage.

 

[josh1990]

These are definitely a Ambystoma species. My best bet would be Ambystoma texanum the small-mouthed salamander. How are you keeping them now?

 

[BMM22]

A. texanum looks like it might be right based on the coloration and body shape, although interestingly enough that species isn't suppose to inhabit the area where I caught them. So far all of them are doing good and growing. My biggest is just over 3". Right now I have them paired up in two plastic containers lined with damp paper towels. They have some slate and fake plants to hide under and climb around on, along with a water dish.