Metamorphosis! (feeding & identification help, please)

[beatrice]

I posted a long while back about our salamander/newt larva that I was given and have been raising since early June. We had a few problems with air bubbles in his belly, but mostly he has been growing and developing well. He had been eating mostly mosquito larvae, with the occasional midge larvae or chopped earthworms ("dug worms" from my organic garden bed).

In the last two days, he had been sitting on a rock just under the surface of the water, and tonight he climbed out! It's exciting to us in the same way that a birth of kittens would be...

My questions are (forgive me if they are in the archives, but my computer keeps freezing up when I try to search):

Two days ago, he ate some chopped earthworm, then nothing the next day, then a lot of earthworm last night. He looks plump & juicy, so we didn't feed him today. I am not sure whether we should try feeding him when he has just completed metamorphosis. Should we, and should we keep feeding earthworms, switch to crickets now, or try something else altogether? Augh! I felt confident in his care until now-- I'm faced with a completely different creature.

Also, I have as yet been unable to identify him. As a larva, he looked sort of like he might be a newt, or possibly a spotted salamander. Now that he is out of the water, well, he looks like a slug. He's a sluggy grey-brown color, and doesn't appear to have much in the way of markings. At what point will a salamander become clearly identifiable? Any ideas of what he might be? We live in southern New Hampshire, in the US.

Oh, one more question-- he has a white spot on his neck where his gills were-- is this possibly a scar from his gills being absorbed? Or should I become frantic with worry that he has a disease?

At any rate, everyone please welcome Sir Albert von Newtonburg to the world of earth and air. And thank you for your help.

 

[jbherpin]

Congratulations! If your new air breather still takes the worm bits I'd continue with them, but also I am a big advocate of flightless fruit flies. They are reasonably cheap, and easy to culture at home(My mom does culturing for her arrow frogs in her home!). All my species eat them and they are as far as I know a good addition to their diet. My two-lined sals feed on these as a staple item, supplemented with very small crickets, slugs, waxworms(the smallest possible), and worm tips, which is the two very tips of each end.
I would need a photo or a more detailed description(size,costal groove count, etc.) to be able to venture a guess. I suggest "googling" Salamander species of New Hampshire, in my experience states normally have a site with a species list and good photos. This will surely turn up the identity of your critter. I'd love to see pics if possible! Good luck, and remember newly metamorphed individuals need to be able to go in and out of water still here and there.

 

[Kaysie]

It's rather difficult to ID newly morphed salamanders. But in the next couple of weeks/months, it will start to develop its coloration, and it will be much easier to identify. But the 'slug color' leads me to think it might be an Ambystomatid of sorts.

As far as the spot on the neck, it may be just where skin is growing over the gill slit, akin to a scar.

If it's still eating earthworms, by all means feed it! Newly morphed individuals are notorious for going off their food. This is a time when they need lots of energy. After all, they are rearranging their whole body! So if it's still eating, feed it as often as it needs. Earthworms are a great staple food, and are nutritionally complete. They have a great Ca ratio, and don't need to be dusted, like most insects (including fruit flies).

If your animal has completely absorbed its gills, I would suggest moving it to a terrestrial setup. If you leave it in a semi-aquatic tank, it can easily drown. Juveniles do not need to go back into the water.

 

[jbherpin]

If your animal has completely absorbed its gills, I would suggest moving it to a terrestrial setup. If you leave it in a semi-aquatic tank, it can easily drown. Juveniles do not need to go back into the water.

I was noting my experience with two-lined sals, of which they remain in close proximity, if not in the water, and at the edge. Believe me, had I went to a terrestrial set-up they would not have done well. It seems you assume ambystoma is the only possible one it could be. A sluggish color tells you all that for sure?

 

[Kaysie]

Beatrice said she thought it was an ambystomatid or a newt. Both of these types of animals can easily drown as new metamorphs. Basing your advice on ONE species of animals is dangerous. And even if it DOES turn out to be a species in which the juveniles and adults are fully aquatic, a few weeks in a terrestrial setup isn't going to hurt. It's better that it lives in a terrestrial setup than drowns in an aquatic one.

And if you bother to read my post, it states:

It's rather difficult to ID newly morphed salamanders. But in the next couple of weeks/months, it will start to develop its coloration, and it will be much easier to identify. But the 'slug color' leads me to think it might be an Ambystomatid of sorts.

I'm pretty sure that no where in this post it says that it's 'for sure' an ambystomatid.

 

[beatrice]

Kaysie, thank you for your responses. Yes, according to what he looked like as a larva, I have been pretty sure he is either a newt or one of the spotted salamanders. I'm glad to hear that he might not always look so sluggy. I've moved him into a terrestrial tank today, with a very shallow water dish, and he ate a big (relatively to his body) earthworm with great vigor. Well, he bit it and thrashed it around a bit, then got a bite off. Later, the whole thing seemed to be gone, so I think he ate it. I don't want to poke around in there too much right now to check. Is it normal for a salamander to bite pieces of a worm off?


jbherpin, thank you for your responses as well. I of course have searched online for identification help, but haven't had very good luck. He is definitely not a two lined salamander, nor any type of stream-type, as he was found in a vernal pool and as a larva was clearly a pond-type. Hence my writing that he seemed to be either a newt or a spotted salamander of some sort... He hasn't gone into the water dish of his own volition since we moved him to the terrestrial tank, so it appears that Kaysie is right on this one, too.

 

[Kaysie]

Sometimes worms will somewhat 'self divide'. There's no good way for me to explain this (nor do I know the technical terms or mechanics of it). But I've noted it a couple of times that if you cut an area of the worm, or just kind of poke it with the knife, it will constrict. It may have broken the worm in half. They don't really have teeth, so they can't really 'bite' it in half.