Help with eggs

K

karen

Guest
I am new here and new to raising salamanders. I recently collected some eggs thinking they were frog eggs since the pond was filled with frogs. On research I realized they are salamander eggs and salamander larvae like live food.

I had collected a small clump of maybe 12-15 eggs (the pond bottom was, literally, covered with egg clusters). They took me by surprise and 2 just hatched this evening. I have so many questions I hope someone may be able to help with some.
1) I've read they need to eat in 1-2 days, brine shrimp take 3 days. So what can I feed them temporarily? Is frozen or freeze dried shrimp ok? Would some plant cuttings from a well established aquarium yield enough little bugs for them to eat for a day or two?

2) What do I do with the egg mass? I'm hoping and expecting more to hatch, but don't want to leave it in longer than necessary if it tarts to go bad. How long do I give everyone to hatch?

3) What do I keep them in and how do I clean the tank? I've read they can be kept in individual cups with water changed daily. But isn't daily water changes kind of stressful? And how do you move them for cleaning? It seems like those tiny gills would get torn right off in a net. If you keep them together in an aquarium how do you clean it without injuring or siphoning up little tadpoles?

4) Can they be placed into my established planted aquarium until they are bigger and less delicate? I am worried about them spreading disease or parasites, and about them being able to find food within a large aquarium.

5) Is it normal for them to just lie on the bottom? My two little hatchlings are lying still but upright on the bottom. Do they start swimming around when they are ready to eat?

Thanks!
 
1. Can you go back to the pond and sieve for micro-organisms? If not, I'm sure they can live for 3 days. If you keep the brine shrimp hatchery in a warm place, they will hatch in 2 days or less. Chopped live blackworms are another option (you live in a major metropolitan area, so some pet shop must sell them).

2. I'd say keep it (changing the water every couple of days) until it's empty or looks nasty. You'll know.

3. Daily water changes aren't stressful because the "new" water and the water they are in are nearly identical. The reason total water changes are stressful for aged tanks is because the water chemistry of a tank changes over time, so the new water is very different in composition. For very small larvae, I'd recommend transferring them by pouring them in a little water from one container to the next. When they are larger, netting is no problem. They are tougher than they look.

4. Yes, as long as there are no animals in there to eat the larvae. I wouldn't worry about diseases as long as it's a healthy established tank (I'm assuming you are NOT planning to release any sals back to the wild later... that's another story). Established tanks have microscopic stuff already there for them to eat (try looking at tank sludge under a microscope; it's crawling). If you add pond critters or blackworms as food, they'll find them. Brine shrimp are a little trickier in an established tank, because if you use too much the dead ones rot, and you no longer have a healthy tank.

5. Yes, normal. In fact, some may even lay on their sides the first day or two. They don't swim around for their food, they wait for it to swim by.
 
Thank you! I can't go back to the pond... actually I collected them on vacation.
I went to a very good fish store and asked about them. They seemed to think brine shrimp would be too small for the larva (the larva are about 1/2" long but very skinny). They did recommend the blackworms so I got a batch of those. Also some frozen bloodworms which will be easier to cut up if the larva will eat them.
I cut one up and put 2 little pieces in. Maybe I cut them too small but they didn't wiggle at all and the lava had no interest. But the larva are still pretty young.

I have 4 hatched larva now and the remaining larva in the eggs are starting to twitch occasionally. I think tomorrow I will try to catch the hatchlings and put them in containers to raise them. Can they be kept in paper cups (with daily water changes) or do they need more room?

Also, I was just curious if there is a good way to identify species yet? I belive they may be common spotted salamanders but I am not sure.
 
Where did you collect them? Try to be as non-specific as possible- county and state might be good enough. Also, if you have the ability to take and post pictures it would make it easier for identification purposes. Get a picture of the egg sac too, if you can. What are you keeping them in now? A 10 gallon tank for 12-15 larvae would be sufficient for right now, but they might need something bigger later on down the road depending upon the species.
 
Your fish store is wrong about the baby brine shrimp being too small. But if you have blackworms, you may not need the BBS. Try picking out some of the smallest blackworms to cut up. Sometimes you can even find really tiny blackworms that can go in whole.

I've heard of using individual cups, but never tried it. It's certainly less work if you use somewhat larger containers and keep several larvae per container. Initially, you need to keep the ratio of food:larvae rather high, but you can move to larger containers as they grow. Live plants in with the larvae seem to reduce stress.

Larvae are notoriously difficult to ID. If you could post some very good photos (of both the egg mass and larvae), it's possible that Mike G. could tell you, as he's seen a lot of Ambystoma larvae.
 
Thanks.
I may have to try the brine shrimp if these guys don't eat soon.
Right now the 4 larva and the eggs are just in a little 2 gallon betta tank filled partway, just because I had it around. But now that I'm feeding them they will need something better. I have an empty 20 gallon tank as well but I was wondering if that might be too large (hard for them to find food).

I found the eggs in a pond off the road near Mammoth Cave National Park. Every day when we drove to the park we heard the frogs singing so the last day we stopped and followed the singing to the pond.
It was just a shallow little pond in the woods, maybe a foot deep. The eggs were in large masses all over the bottom of the pond, literally about one mass per square foot of pond bottom. I took the smallest I could find - most were probably 50 eggs or more. The eggs are around 1/2" diameter including the thick jelly coat. They're also covered in a brownish algae which I've read is typical for the spotted salamanders.
I will try to get pictures, but I don't know how good they will be.
 
Well, Mammoth Park is home to 16 different caudatan species, A. maculatum (spotted salamander) being one of them. I'm sure a 20 gallon would be just fine for them, probably better than a 10 gallon. I wouldn't worry too much about them not finding food. Also, it's very common for larvae to "lounge around" for the first few days. Hatched brine shrimp are also a great beginner food for newly hatched larvae. Any other questions?
 
I went out and got the brine shrimp eggs so I will be able to feed those in a few days. I feel awful about having these little guys and nothing good to feed them yet. But I thought they were frog eggs, and then as soon as I realized they were salamanders they began hatching on me.

Do you use any sort of filtration with the larger tanks or just lots of water changes? I am not quite sure how to remove uneaten food without siphoning up the larvae as well.
 
A filtration system is not needed, but you'll need to do more frequent water changes without one. Also, keep a good eye on the surface of the water. If too much sludge builds up on top you should remove it. A good way of removing uneaten (dead) food is to use a turkey baster.
 
Thank you for all your help. I'm going to try some brine shrimp soon, a few shrimp have hatched already.
But I was trying to feed them the blackworms earlier. I was getting the smaller worms in an eyedropper and trying to squirt a whole small worm in front of the larvae. The larva just ignored them, or swam away if a worm happened to touch them. Does this mean the worms are too big, or just that they arn't ready to eat yet?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    There are no messages in the chat. Be the first one to say Hi!
    Back
    Top