Mudpuppy help

E

ethan

Guest
Hi,
I read a recent post where someone had the same problem. I acquired a really nice necturus four days ago--about ten or eleven inches long! I've offered live crayfish--no interest. Tried some floating cichlid pellets--no interest. I'm about to try night crawlers and guppies. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm keeping her in a 29 gallon tank thats about half full. I have a fluval 404 cannister filter on that, and a small flourescent light thats only on during the day. I've read they don't care for light too much so it's pretty low wattage. Shes set up in the basement too so the temperature is very cool--it tends to stay in the low 60's. If anyone has any experience with these or can offer any input it would be greatly appreciated. I've looked all over for care sheets and have been unable to find any that were very useful. Thanks.
Ethan
 
Caudata Culture will have a caresheet for them soon. Definitely try the worms and guppies. Other kinds of feeder fish may also be OK.
 
OK thank you. Are they daily (or rather nightly) feeders?
 
I'm wondering if perhaps there are too many hiding places in her tank. Are mudpuppies known to be so reclusive they'll refuse or be unable to locate food? I opted for large rocks and driftwood in her setup, because I read they like crawling around bottom debris. Would a bare bottomed tank with one good hide be better?
 
Hi Ethan,
I also got a pair of Necturus about 5 days ago, They are around the same size as yours and i keep them at a temperature around the mid 50's with plenty of hiding places, i was told when i got them that they were happily feeding on earthworm, However this is not the case as they refuse them everytime, Its not that they dont take them but they spit them out straight away, im guessing they dont taste too good, i have crayfish arriving in the next few days hopefully they will take to them better. But if you could let me know how you get on that would be great, i will also keep you posted on what mine prefer.
many thanks, steve.
 
My animals have never taken crayfish, though they do eat them frequently in the wild. Newly molted crayfish might be more successfully eaten.

I typically feed mine nightcrawlers and medium to large minnows. Nightcrawlers are generally taken pretty well, but fish seem to be a favorite. It works best if you have a lot of patience and a longer minnow, and you feed them by hand. It may take a while before they get used to it, but eventually they'll take the minnow relatively fast. Just hold the minnow by its tail, and try to keep your hand out of sight and dangle it in front of the hiding spot. It might take a while, but this method has been pretty successful for me.

Just be careful with fish since they have been known to transmit disease.
 
Update: She seems to have taken 4 earthworms last night. I tried unsuccessfully to hand feed them to her and left them crawling in front of her hide, and they were nowhere to be found this morning. So thats sort of inconclusive, but I'm going to try again tonight. I also tried splitting open a crayfish and tempting her with bits of that. She came out and sort of "sniffed" up at it, but was too shy to take it.
 
What sort of substrate do you have in the tank? It's possible that they may have burrowed into the stones, etc; that's a problem I have when feeding nightcrawlers in that method; never quite sure if they're being eaten or just escape.

After I first got her, my Necturus was hesitant to eat, but eventually grew more bold.
 
She's on a bare tank with several fist sized rocks for hiding places. I can look under the tank and see beneath them too--so i'm reasonably sure they arent in there.
 
I had the same problem feeding Sparky earthworms and was advised to rinse the worms off before attempting to feed. Apparently, the soil or whatever it is that is in the container is not very tasty. Maybe you would have more luck if you gave your worms a bath?
happy.gif
 
That's the best part of having Necturus, hand feeding them. They strike so fast that whatever you were feeding is gone before you even knew they were taking it. You've got to take care that they don't miss and bite you, but a little respect and patience is all you need for that.

(Message edited by onetwentysix on April 14, 2005)
 
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