Lost Pets

[solidyouth]

My sons were keeping three, small Dusky Salamanders in a fish tank. We hadn't seen two of them for a couple of days, thinking they were burrowed under one of the large rocks. My husband lifted the rock today, just to check...and the salamanders are nowhere to be found in the tank. Could the third salamander have eaten them? They were about 2-1/2 inches long. If they escaped from the tank, how long would they be able to live in our house? We've searched the house, but no sign of them anywhere. Any ideas?

 

[caud8]

Did the aquarium have some sort of lid or cover on it? If not they could have climbed out. I'm sorry to say that the chances of finding them alive are very slim. Mark

 

[Mark]

Salamanders desiccate very quickly once away from moisture. Unfortunately houses are normally dry and dusty which is a bad combination for slimy amphibians. I keep dusky sals and they’re very capable of jumping or climbing out of a lidless tank. They are also very good at squeezing into tiny spaces so the chance of finding them is very slim.

We would normally suggest putting damp towels on the floor in the room you suspect them to be. Check under furniture etc especially in corners. In my experience these are very quick salamanders could easily be far away from the tank by now.

 

[solidyouth]

Thank you for your responses. We haven't found the salamanders yet...no evidence of them, either. The lid to the tank was not secure, so they could have jumped out rather easily. We're still looking, though, but not as hopeful of finding them. We'll try the damp towel idea to see if we can draw them out, if indeed they're still around.

 

[caudatadude28]

They cant "jump" out.

 

[oregon newt]

I don't know about that caudatadude. Duskies are known to jump several times their own length in efforts to escape.

 

[Jake]

They cant "jump" out.

If you've ever handled a healthy dusky salamander you'd know that they can!

 

[solidyouth]

We found one of the lost salamanders! It was in the bottom of our recycling bin in a puddle of soda. Sorry to say it was dead...but at least it was found. Now if we could just find the other one, we would all have some peace of mind, since we keep walking around our house, expecting it to jump out of any space at any time!

 

[lazymut]

Aww thats sad! i hope you find the other one. better luck for the future!