New Ambystoma opacum

[froggy]

That's good to hear. I just got a trio...I think they came from the same supplier as yours - I was told they were CB, but then i read this thread and am not so sure...They are just settling into a new viv, which is essentially the same as yours. One has plumped up, the pther two are still on the saggy side, but there are Lumbricus chunks, Eisenia (if they will eat them), a few crickets and woodlice etc that came with the leaves, so hopefully they will eat if I just leave them to it.

Fingers crossed both our groups breed soon!

C

 

[evut]

Congratulations on you new salamanders!
Please post some picture of your animals and vivarium.

Let's hope everyone's new opacum will breed in the future (Julia - bellabelloo also got 5 recently).

 

[eljorgo]

I received a email just some days ago that made me believe that very unfortunately the sals you´ve been getting, are in fact WC. I can´t share more details but I believe in who told me. If in fact they were purchased in U.K. online pet stores, they will be WC with origin in North-east USA, in non-coastal States.
Anyway my adults and (I guess) everybody´s are in fact WC. There is nothing to do now except to concentrate all efforts and breed them so this never happens again. Imagining you three breeding them in the UK, that would be a lot of offer, plus 4-5 Guys in Belgium/Netherlands and a few more in Germany and who knows, even me in Portugal.. That would be a lot of CB´s :happy:.

Congrats on your sals Chris! Hope we all breed them next year!!
Cheers,

 

[KennyDB]

It is very possible that these are cb's 2009...I know there was some German breeding and saw some (alot) German cb2009 in Gersfeld about this size so don't panic . You can always send Mark from DF an email to ask for the breeder's name if you really want to be sure?

Looking good btw. Good luck with them, when I had these in a glass tank I made some burrows that ended against the glass. That way I could see them sit in these burrows now and than.

 

[Bellabelloo]

I suspect Eva's are more likely cb. I received mine the same day from a different source. I am 99% sure mine are wc ( The seller didn't say otherwise ) and I am pretty sure I know where they came from originally. My guys seemed slimmer and more nervous than Eva's from the start. They are now happily eating and gradually gaining weight.

 

[alibombali]

It is very possible that these are cb's 2009...I know there was some German breeding and saw some (alot) German cb2009 in Gersfeld about this size so don't panic . You can always send Mark from DF an email to ask for the breeder's name if you really want to be sure?

Looking good btw. Good luck with them, when I had these in a glass tank I made some burrows that ended against the glass. That way I could see them sit in these burrows now and than.

Yess Kenny did see them, and i bought 11 of them..
The are German cb 2009 and are now about 75/85 mm...

 

[froggy]

I would take pics but all you would see is a seemingly empty tank! Mine are very nervous and 2 inparticular are on the slim side. the tank is loaded with food items, but they haven't taken any of the chopped worm i left in a tray. Other than the first night, they haven't been out of the leaf litter at night, so I suppose that's why they haven't found them. I hope they will take Eisenia as there are soem fo those crawling around, as well as crickets and waxworm. I will leave them until they have been here a week and then dig them out and check their weights again. Hopefully they have been taking somthing. They were in hot, flooded conditions at the vendor (although only for a day or so), which won't have helped.

I will try to get some pictures when I unearth them

 

[Jan]

I would take pics but all you would see is a seemingly empty tank! Mine are very nervous and 2 inparticular are on the slim side. the tank is loaded with food items, but they haven't taken any of the chopped worm i left in a tray. Other than the first night, they haven't been out of the leaf litter at night, so I suppose that's why they haven't found them. I hope they will take Eisenia as there are soem fo those crawling around, as well as crickets and waxworm. I will leave them until they have been here a week and then dig them out and check their weights again. Hopefully they have been taking somthing. They were in hot, flooded conditions at the vendor (although only for a day or so), which won't have helped.

I will try to get some pictures when I unearth them

In my experience, A. opacum tends to much more shy than many other ambystoma species and tend to stay undercover. They're sorta like 'little nervous nellies'.

Best of luck to everyone with their new animals!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I would take pics but all you would see is a seemingly empty tank! Mine are very nervous and 2 inparticular are on the slim side. the tank is loaded with food items, but they haven't taken any of the chopped worm i left in a tray. Other than the first night, they haven't been out of the leaf litter at night, so I suppose that's why they haven't found them. I hope they will take Eisenia as there are soem fo those crawling around, as well as crickets and waxworm. I will leave them until they have been here a week and then dig them out and check their weights again. Hopefully they have been taking somthing. They were in hot, flooded conditions at the vendor (although only for a day or so), which won't have helped.

I will try to get some pictures when I unearth them

Mine do not eat from their tray, but I have also left lots of food around their tank that I had found while setting up for them. After the first week I ended up fishing them out and putting them in a smaller box with chopped earthworm. I counted the segments and after an hour half had gone. So some of mine must have fed. Eva said that hers will hand feed so I tried, one or two will now accept food..but they are very nervous and run for cover easily. Occasionally in the morning one or two will be lying on small branch I have with them.

 

[froggy]

I've never had Ambystoma before, but its obvious that these don't match the personalities of tigers!

Do you mean you keep them in the smaller box, now, or just moved them the once to make sure food was taken? I may do that with each salamander in its own box, so i know which ones are not eating, if any.

The trouble will be finding them! The first time I looked for them (I was paranoid that they may have got through a hole in the lid), I had to take everything out and turn the soil over, as one fo them had buried very well. The one that had tunnelled had also put on a lot of weight.

I'm hoping that if I leave lots of food in th tank and don't disturb for a week they will feed. If not, i will try the small box method.

C

 

[Bellabelloo]

I just moved them to smaller box for the one off feeding. I hadn't wanted to disturb them, but they are so timid I rarely saw them . I am due to excavate this weekend and see how they are doing.

 

[froggy]

I tried the box feeding method over last night. When i dug them up, one animal was nice and plump, one was OK and the final (probably the only female) was looking about the same as when they arrived. I don't know how quickly these guys lose weight, so i'm not sure if that means she hasn't eaten or has only eaten a small amount. I will post soem pics later.

I left them in the box with several hides, some dead leaves and 9 pieces of worm, with a towel over the box to keep it dark. This morning, there are two poos and only 4 pieces of worm. Unfortunately, the two animals that had plumped up were even plumper, while the female hasn't really changed. I dont know if she ate or not, though.

She was also nore lethargic than the others.

They are back in the enclosure, now, as they don't really like the paper towels.

I have left plenty of various fod types in the enclosure so hopefully the female will coem rpound and start eating on her own.

C

 

[froggy]

Here are some pics of the new A. opacum. You can see the slim animal alone n one picture and with the other two for comparison in the group shot. The last picture is the terrarium. There are some shides buried under the leaflitter and moss. The dish was there when i was hoping that they would feed out of it, but as they don't leave the leaves and moss even at dead of night, it isn't really very useful.

The slim animal is not exactly emaciated, it just doesn't have the plump look of the other twom, particuarly after a night with chopped earthworm. Hopefully it will be OK, otherwise I may be left with two males....(there is one certain male and one question mark).

C

 

[evut]

I'd say your slim one doesn't look any slimmer than my ones when I got them. Hopefully they will all plump up nicely for you once they've settled into their new home.
I just looked at mine and the least shy one is pretty chubby.

 

[MartinS]

WC or CB it does nothing to detract from their beauty. I May wish that a lot of offspring comes from these groups. I like this species. For years I kept them, it was one of my favorite groups. Unfortunately I lost them by an aggressive disease.

 

[eljorgo]

Chris I found out that females tend to be much more picky eating than males. My male is way a lot plumper and with slowen cloaca. Looking simply fantastic. My female was much less plump and during somedays she had back bones exposed. (that was also due to my very low levels of humidity, i am like paranoid with humidity and leave everything very dry) Now that I´ve puted the terrarium more watered and some earthworms (not chopped) during night, she appeared much more plump never showing backbones, maybe even more than the male and looks fantastic. I guess that maintain humidity in good levels will power up the appetite of caudates, also my tylos reacted in the same manner. anyway I would advise you to put some moss inside a small box then put a little amount of water in the plastic box something like 2mm of water and then release some 5 earthworms of medium size. In the end place the female inside and put a lid. save it in a cool and dark spot. then only re-open it in following day. She will surely grab them under those conditions.

Hope I´ve helped
cheers,

 

[froggy]

Thank for the input, everyone. She is not so thin that i would worry, but she clearly hasn't eaten as much as the others. If females tend to be pickier, this is probably why. I have tried moving them to a smaler box with paper towels, and at least some ate. If she hasn't plumped up at all in a week#s time, i will try again with moss etc. Waxworms have definitely been disappearing, too, from the main enclosure, so they have been eating. They are so shy, I think it's just a case of giving them plenty of places to hide and lots of food and let them get o with it. If I stick them in a box or hunt for them and try to forcep feed, I think they will just panic. The fact that, with the exception of the fattest one, they burrow rather than hide in the many hiding places I have provided (all different shapes, substrates, positions etc), without leaving a clear burrow, makes them even more difficult to locate to hand feed them without scaring them too much. Hopefully they will acclimatise a bit in the coming weeks. Maybe I can get some breeding activity next year if I can get them to fill out a bit.

If there are 2 males, i will have to watch out for aggression, though.

thanks agan for all the input

C

 

[Bellabelloo]

Here are my guys.

 

[evut]

Chris, I avoided some of the problems you have with finding your salamanders.
As recommended in the Caudata Culture care sheet, I created some hiding places by making a depression in the substrate and putting a piece of slate on top as a roof. They seem happy staying in these "caves" and don't go hiding anywhere else. I can ususally see where they are and I can also hand feed them quite well. If I want to have a good look at them I can just pick up the roof.

 

[froggy]

I have provided similar hides using pieces of flower pot. Some of them stay in them some of the time, now. I may replace them with something more similar to these. Your substrate is also much wetter than mine. I will try watering it a bit more at one end and see if that helps. I know where the slim female is hiding at the moment, so I put some pieces of chopped worm under her hide last night. Nothing eaten over night, but she is still there. I suspect that she hasn't eaten at all yet...I will try giving her a more accessible hiding place and keep putting worms underneath for now. If there's no change I will move her to a smaller box and load it with food.

Yours are looking great!

C