List of fully aquatic vs. terrestrial vs. both?

[rnocera]

I'm wondering if anyone has a list, or if we could put together a list, of species of caudates that are fully aquatic, fully terrestrial, or need both land and water.

It'd be nice to know which animals are available in the pet trade and which ones are more difficult to find, as well.


I've been keeping herps most of my life, and have a group of axolotls & african clawed frogs, and I'm already looking toward my next thing. It'll be a good while, but I think I'm looking for something else 100% aquatic. I'm looking at sirens (lesser, greater, and dwarves), amphiumas, and necturus, and am wondering what others I could find. I'm open to all sizes, from tiny little things to something along the lines of greater sirens.

But, now that I'm looking at all of these aquatics, I'm also curious about terrestrial & those in between, so I'd like to just make a whole list.

Thanks!
Ronnie

 

[Nathan]

Y'know there's like 500 species of salamanders, right?

Here's a sort of quick-and-dirty breakdown. I've left out the Hynobiidae because I don't know jack about them. Others feel free to correct any mistakes or omissions. Some species with semiaquatic adults can be maintained in a fully-aquatic setup, other cannot.

Fully aquatic at all life stages:
all Amphiumidae
all Sirenidae
all Cryptobranchidae
all Proteidae
Ambystomatidae: perennibranch species and individuals of Ambystoma and Dicamptodon
Plethodontidae: perrenibranch species of Eurycea and Gyrinophilus
Salamandridae: perennibranch individuals of Notophthalmus and the former Triturus species

Aquatic larvae, semiaquatic adults:
all Rhyacotritonidae
Ambystomatidae: all Dicamptodon except perennibranchs
Plethodontidae:
all Desmognathus except direct-developing dwarfs
all Eurycea except perennibranchs and E. lucifuga
Gyrinophilus porphyriticus
all Pseudotriton
Stereochilus marginatus
Urspelerpes brucei?
Salamandridae: all newts (Pleurodelinae) except perennibranchs (may have terrestrial juvenile phase)

Aquatic larvae, terrestrial adults:
Ambystomatidae: all Ambystoma except perennibranchs
Plethodontidae:
Eurycea lucifuga
Hemidactylium scutatum
Salamandridae: all Salamandrinae except live-bearing and direct-developing species or individuals

Fully terrestrial at all life stages:
Plethodontidae:
all Aneides
direct-developing dwarf Desmognathus
all Ensatina
all Plethodon
all Bolitoglossinae
Salamandridae: live-bearing and direct-developing Salamandrinae

 

[rnocera]

Y'know there's like 500 species of salamanders, right?

Yeah, I know. I'm not asking for ALL of them- just a good group of them. The breakdown you gave is great. Thanks for the quick response!

I've seen other people ask for fully aquatic salamanders, or salamanders that DON'T need water to go in, and every time people are like, "Here's a list of 300 common species- look at every single species and it'll say if it's fully aquatic or not." So I thought maybe a group effort to categorize them would be nice. Eventually I'd like to categorize them by size and availability, as well.

 

[Nathan]

The "semiaquatic" species are the trouble. Some are essentially aquatic species that are capable of going on to land and can be kept in an aquatic setup (such as many newts); some are essentially terrestrial species that occasionally enter water and can be kept in a terrestrial setup (such as Dicamptodon); and some live right at the land/water interface and need a setup with both (such as stream-side plethodontids).

 

[eljorgo]

I don´t agree when you say that former Triturus are fully aquatic. I would say that they can be putted in the semi-aquatic species list, since As far as I´ve seen adults spend 1/2 or even more part of the year on land. You could say pachytriton, almost all paramesotriton, pleurodeles and even Cynops, but never Triturus (This in Salamandridae family!:wacko

 

[Nathan]

Sorry if that was unclear, I meant perennibranch individuals of the former Triturus. Normal metamorphosed adults are semiaquatic.

 

[Azhael]

Neotenic Triturus as with any other facultative neotenics, can morph at any given time if conditions change.
While it´s true that the genus Triturus should be considered semi-aquatic, you´ve got T.dobrogicus in there, which are fully aquatic in captivity.

 

[Nathan]

Very true. As I said, that "semi-aquatic" category is very loose and covers the whole spectrum between essentially aquatic and essentially terrestrial species. It can be broken down further, and I will try to do that later on for the species with which I am familiar (mainly eastern North American species) and hopefully those who are more familiar with Old World and western North American species will do the same.