Marbled Salamander Larvae....

[thomas]

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Well, I have a marbled salamander larvae that is nearing the time of metamorphosis. I read an article (from this site) about them and learned that they can drown unless their habitat is tilted for a dry area. Is there anything else that is pertinent to raising an almost "morphed" larvae? I have been feeding him blackworms...will he still eat those after he has morphed (until he is big enouh for small crickets)? Or should he be switched directly to crickets as soon as he leaves the water?

Does anyone have any tips for raising a marbled salamander? (pertaining to the larvae or adult stages?)


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[russ]

I haven't raised opacum from larvae, but I have raised several other Ambystoma species from eggs/larvae. I always switched the smaller species (texanum, maculatum, jeffersonianum, macrodactylum) to crickets as soon as they left the water. I also placed them in smaller containers for a couple of months to increase the odds of them coming across their prey.

RUSS

 

[edward]

They will also take fruit flies.

Ed

 

[jennifer]

When I had opacum morphs, they were very shy. They will not take blackworms any more after they morph. Mine ate mostly chopped pieces of earthworm (still wiggling, left on the soil) and occasional small crickets. They absolutely refused to eat if I was looking though.

 

[thomas]

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Now the larvae has very small gills, his/her "siblings" have already lost their gills compeletly. One of the others actually lost its front toes when it underwent metamorphosis, not only that the back toes fused together to form 2 large toes instead of many smaller toes. They are about to climb out of water...</font>

 

[russ]

Are you sure the toes fused, or did they get bit off? I have found Ambystoma larvae to be very aggressive if not almost over fed.

RUSS

 

[thomas]

The larvae are all kept seperately. Today mine (the others belong to friends) has started to shed its skin! It has been seen helf-in and half-out of the water recently.

 

[jennifer]

Shedding skin and being half out of the water are normal parts of metamorphosis. Losing and fusing toes does NOT sound normal, and I have no idea why it would happen.

 

[thomas]

The larvae with missing toes acts normally and crawls around without them. We are guessing that perhaps when it got new skin that caused the toes to fuse....the missing toes are still a dilemma.

 

[thomas]

<font color="0000ff"><font face="courier new,courier"></font>New updates!
My larvae has now ceased to use his gills, which are almost non-existant. He/She is approximatley 2.5 inches long now. </font>

 

[paige]

Hi(this is my first post, though I've been in chat). I have one of the siblings to "Thomas'" opacum. Mine was the first(out of 4) to start showing signs of metamorphosis. It is not, from what I've observed completely or almost completely done morphing. It stays out of the (tiny bit) of water that is in the habitat. It does, though, like to sit on damp rocks and moss(and sometimes go underneath the moss). My salamander has(for about 5 days now) been gaining it's typical opacum coloration. It as acquired it's black, or a very dark dark color of sorts, and is covered with specks of silver or white(looks more silver). I've not measured it, but I'd estimate that it's about 2 3/4" to 3" in length.