Help spotted salamanders always hidden

[Jonsalamander]

I have two spotted sals they are both the same size I have them in a 20 gal long tank with 5. Inches of Eco earth some PVC pipe a cave and a nice water bowl I have had them for 2 months and they only come out at night because the crickets are gone in the morning idk what to do I wish they would come out help ALSo the salamanders are very small like 3 inches

 

[Asevernnnn]

The genus Ambystoma are known as the 'Mole Salamanders", burrowing is very common in this genus, sometimes not burrowing can be bad.
If they come out to eat they should be fine. I would suggest feeding chopped nightcrawler/earthworm rather than crickets to prevent the crickets from biting the salamanders.
If you wanted something you could see all the time, aquatic species would probably be better suited for you, though some tigers are very tame and come out often because they're hungry.

 

[Jonsalamander]

If I got earthworms they would just burry into the ground I calcium powder the crickets will they ever be tame and come out in the day

 

[Asevernnnn]

You can put the worms in a dish.
They could, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Jonsalamander]

They don't come out at day time and by the time I put the worms in there and they get to them they would have allready got out I tried that with meal worlds

 

[Asevernnnn]

Mealworms crawl out of anything they can, earthworms, especially chopped aren't the best movers, also I wouldn't try feeding mealworms, they can bite, and their exo-skeloton is hard to digest.
They normally come out at night rather than day, its how salamanders are, they like it dark lol

 

[Jonsalamander]

What if I put the earth worms in the water bowl with water

 

[Asevernnnn]

You could try it, I personally never see my tiger salamander enter the water even for food, I don't know how well it would eat underwater after being adapted to land, but if you wanna try, theres no harm in trying that

 

[sde]

If you put earthworms in the tank and they dig into the dirt the tiger salamander might find them anyway. He is in tunnels and is active at night ( like worms ) so he might find them. Something I have found that works quite well is to throw some woodlice in the tank and just leave them. They can survive for a while ( I have actually had them breed in my tanks ) and are a good food source. Plus my fire salamanders love them so I would think you're tiger salamander would too. -Seth