New Ambystoma opacum

[Bellabelloo]

I was wondering about the substrate. I 'dug ' my lot out last night. I started in the usual spots, and then found them all together under flat stone. I have never found mine dug in..I am wondering if my substrate is too dry now . I do a light spray once a week. I looked at the care sheet a few times and they do come from a range of areas..now I am worrying that I should make it moister.

 

[froggy]

I have just added some water to one end of the tank and will look to see where they have hidden in a few days. Hopefully that will give me an idea of how wet they like it.

C

 

[evut]

Just a quick update on my opacum.
So these guys basically found a spot in the tank where they permanently settled and it seems they don't really go anywhere...ever. Two of them are great eaters and love crickets so much that I occasionally have a little tug-of-war with them because they want to eat the feeding tongs. These two (a male and a female) like to poke their heads out of their houses, probably expecting food.
The third one, a smaller female, is very shy, and doesn't want to take food from me. She only ate a large worm once while I was looking. She isn't as plump as the others so I worry a bit.
A little while ago a very loud rustling noise gave me a near heart attack - this shy salamander went chasing a worm! I think some running was involved! So much action at once...and the shy animal is eating!

 

[evut]

Today I finally took my three "moles" out for an inspection and was pleased to see that they can no longer be called skinny. I have been hand feeding two of them crickets (third one is not interested) and releasing worms into the vivarium. They don't really seem to care for chopped worms.

This is what they look like now. (I am already wondering if the two larger ones are getting fat?)

 

[FRANCOIS]

Hi, they look beautiful !!! I don't think they are fat, just healthy ;-)

 

[Bellabelloo]

They look good Eva. Mine are not at all wild about being hand fed ( unlike the Marms!), but I had a look at mine after Christmas and they are filling out. I added a pile of woodlice a few weeks ago and I think they have been munching on these, plus the smaller earthworms.

 

[froggy]

2 of my three are looking nice and plump now, but the animal that started out as slim hasn't really gained weight and may have lost slightly. The temperatures in the room are low now (around 5C ish), so I suspect that will reduce its appetite, but it is much slimmer than the other two. Worryingly, I think this may be my only female....

There are crickets and woodlice in the vivarium and I have placed pieces of chopped worm in front of ?her?, but no luck. Any ideas?

 

[Bellabelloo]

I wonder if it might be worth putting the slim one in her own, smaller , simpler tank? You could then monitor what she is eating.
I have noticed that mine are more likely to eat small whole earthworm rather than chopped. My smaller one did take a small waxworm quite happily .

 

[froggy]

I will try her on a small whole worm and if she doesn't take it I will move her to a small paper towel setup, although I don't know if she will be any easier to feed there. She is way to shy to hand feed and will only use shelters that have very narrow entrances, in which she will curl up at the very back. None of them seem to want waxworms.

I will give it another go tonight and see what happens....she must be eating something otheriwse she would be emaciated by now.....there's always one difficult one!

C

 

[froggy]

I left a beheaded small earthworm with the thinner animal a couple fo nights ago. She had moved hiding place after I disturbed her before - before she was sharing with another animal, now she is on her own. She didn't touch the worm over the first night, but its now gone and by the dramatic increase in girth I suspect that she had a couple of crickets, too. I'm very pleased! Thanskl for the advice about the small worms.

C

 

[evut]

Great to hear that your salamander is plumping up. I am just putting whole worms in and leaving the 3 to catch them...but I might try your method of decapitation to monitor the situation better. How much do you chop off? (I wonder if it would work with the type of worm I have now - I think they are the "bad" ones, yellowish liquid comes out and some animals spit them out sometimes.)

Also, what happened after you made one side of the vivarium moister? Did they show any preference?

 

[froggy]

I just cut enough off the worm to stop it having any directionality in its movements. Someties I cut the tip of the tail off if they start crawling backwards. Maybe cut just in front of the saddle. If the worm really writhes I wait untl it calms down a bit for shy animals as the movement scares thems sometimes.
I use earthworms that i dig up in proper soil, rather than compost, as these ones don't produce any nasty fluids. It tends to be the reddish Eisenia style worms in compost that do that.

They didn't react to the wettening of one end at all. They are spaced out with one animal at the highest, least wet part, one in the middle, and one at the wetter end. I just make sure that they are all sprayed well.

Mine seem fine just getting on with it with crockets/woodlice/worms int he viv and occasional adisitons of pieces of food in their hides.

C

 

[Bellabelloo]

Chris, you sound like a worm torturer!:lol: But I am glad the little one has eaten well.

 

[froggy]

I don't expect you to talk, Wiggly-woo. I expect you to die!

I'm glad she has eaten, too. Se is actually the longest (or maybe second-longest) animal. The shortest one is also the plumpest!

When I got the, as the pics above show, one animal was very ,uch duller than the others, which I supposed to mean it is a female. Since I have had them, though, all three of them have converged in colouration....has anyone else seen this? Is this recovery from stress or what?

C

 

[Bellabelloo]

I hadn't initially noticed a colour difference with mine until I read that the males seem to have a more white colour. So when I next dug them out , At least one was whiter, and the others less so. My group where bought as a 2:2:1 group. I think I am going to have to take a photo of each, maybe on a black background and see, it might be useful as a record anyway. I think I read that in their breeding season the males become lighter, maybe we just missed this?

 

[froggy]

Males are definitely more likely to be lighter in colouration and have a greater proportion of their dorsum covered with white. See the attached paper.

I can't find anything about seasonal changes in colouration, though. Its possible that it does happen, although I don't understand why females would seasonally become duller, or it might be stress thing - stressed animals in transit might lose some colour. If we watch our animals over the next year we might find out.

 

[Lamb]

Hello!

Do you always feed the crickets using tweezers? Or do you ever let them go free in the terrarium? For my green treefrogs I place crickets in a small bowl (idea taken from one of the forums on FrogForum.net), which keeps them contained, but I haven't read that anyone has used this method with Ambystomatids.

 

[evut]

Hi Lamb!
I always use tweezers for crickets because my lid isn't particularly tight and they could escape. It also offers me an opportunity to interact with my shy trio :happy:

 

[evut]

One of my females changed shape recently. Does this look ok?

 

[Azhael]

Hmmmm....the front part seems a little bloated. Has she been stuffing herself with food? It could be a heavy digestion, in which case it should clear out in a couple of days tops. If it doesn´t i´d be concerned she may be bloated.
I really hope it´s nothing, Eva, best of lucks!