New Ambystoma opacum

[froggy]

Any updates on anyone's opacum? Mine are still doing well. I have let them get reasonably warm, following Justin's success with this species - up to about 24 air temp (a bit cooler under the bark). I've been watching closely and they are still feeding and looking OK. Their water dish is all but dried up now; I may add a little bit more mud to the bottom of it so it is a bit more natural. There is some there now, but I think it will dry out completely, rather than staying damp.

Does anyone else's animals ever move? Mine spend all their time under one hide, apart form when they decide to move hide. I have checked at night, too, and they never come out. I've heard this is normal, but was wondering what others had found. This is in a tank with plenty of moss and bark, so they shouldn't feel exposed. I hope they will get the idea of where the water dish is in the Autumn if they do get it together and breed. I would like to get another animal or two, if I can track any down, and move them to a really useful box as a larger enclosure, but we'll see. On the other had, I don't want to disturb them by moving them again.

 

[frogman]

Mine never moves from her cave. She is like a pacman frog. Waits in a hidden place until food comes by. She is a very exotic creature though. Picture1- Before
Picture2-After

Picture3-Up close


P.S. Kweichow newts arrive today In box of four.

 

[Bellabelloo]

My little guys are still rather shy, though on occasion they will snatch up a worm before I have recovered them. They still dine mainly on earthworm, plus woodlice and the odd small slug.
Mine do seem to move homes quite frequently. I generally have four out of the five under a piece of cork bark. This was the area that I had made a depression in and then covered with the cork. Every few days I will find three have moved out, and they dig individually into separate areas under moss. I really should keep some sort of record of who is moving where.
I have recently replaced their plastic lid for a mesh lid as I was a little concerned that they may get too warm and humid. Their substrate does dry out much quicker, so I lightly spray it every couple of days. Their plastic bowl, which is sunk in has water, but this disappears quickly.
Last time I dug them out ( about 4 weeks ago) they where looking a little more sturdy in build, I take it they are happy with their food.
Eva visited a while ago, it seems my guys are quite small in size compared to hers. I'm hoping mine are just younger. I am not really expecting any breeding from them for a while, though I am still looking at information on them. I read at somewhere that it may be best not to keep the males with the females all the time, ( as I do at present) as they may be more likely to mate with non-familiar males. I might separate the males at some point and then re-introduce at a later date. To be honest I am still not sure what ratio of males to females I have, they where sold as 2:2:1, I think I may have 3 females.
What do you think the best ratio is of males to females Chris?

 

[froggy]

Glad the sals are doing well. My tank currently has no lid at all, but is too high for the animals to climb out (they are not the most acrobatic species!) and has a lip, just in case. I spray every other day or so until the moss is damp.
Interesting about the familiarity thing..if nothing happens this year, I may separate my male out over the winter.
I'm not sure about sex ratios...at a simple level, the more females the better, as long as the male can fertilise them all, but as this is an explosive mating species, more than one male may be important in stimulating cmpetition and mating behaviour, like some frogs, although they don't call, so this effect might be less strong.

Hopefully Justin will see this and tell us what sex ratio he has!

I tend to get occassional flurries of movement, particularly between two of them, where one day someone will be missing from the normal hide after weeks of being there. Often one ends up under another one's hide one day, and then both or one disappear again the next. Sometimes they burrow into/under moss, sometimes they dig down properly.

 

[evut]

Mine also seem to be doing well. The behaviour you described is exactly what mine are like - stay in the same place for ages and then one moves somewhere else. Recently both the male and female were dug in under some moss in the same corner - when I lifted the moss there were just these cute little faces, bodies buried underground. Now the girl moved back to her "garage" (piece of slate placed over a depression).

I have given mine a small shallow dish (Exo Terra), and he water sometimes disappears incredibly quickly - just like Chris said. Sometimes it stays in so it's a mystery.

 

[evut]

Little update on the salamanders:
Chris's and my group merged into one. I now have 5 salamanders living together.
A couple of days ago I observed increased levels of activity at night. This seems to continue. I spent about an hour watching them last night. They were all out, some sitting quietly in a corner, some running around exploring, occasionally meeting another salamander. Sometimes the interaction is quite strange - lots of shoving and nudging, generally it seems that one animal tries to push his head under the other one's belly. Unfortunately I couldn't see very well because any amount of light scares them. I might be wrong but it doesn't seem vicious or dangerous. Two animals actually interact more than the others. My guess is that they are a male and a female. They do this pushing and nudging under a piece of bark, then one leaves and the other follows her (?) and it continues until he leaves her alone. At one stage I saw three in the water dish, not sure what was going on but there was a lot of movement. Seeing them running around the terrarium is fascinating - they move really fast and kind of look like snakes because you can't see the legs.

I hope that what I've just described doesn't mean that they don't get along - any advice will be appreciated. I think there are enough hiding places in the terrarium. (I will post some pictures of it and the animals next time).

I am wondering what people do when they want to observe nocturnal animals - is there a type of light I could use that wouldn't disturb them?

 

[froggy]

I would empty the water bowl - they may be looking to find a vernal pond to breed in! Make sure the bowl is lower than than anywhere else in the terrarium and has some pieces of dead bark or leaves on it.

It may be worth looking up some accounts of breeding behaviour to see if this is like that, or more aggressive.

You can buy 'moonlight' LED kits for herps (Lucky Reptile does one called Night Sky), which is supposed to not disturb the animals, but I have never tried it with terrestrial salamanders.

C

 

[Azhael]

Argh, i was trying to find a clip from the BBC´s footage of opacum breeding, but can´t seem to find it right now. It was on Life In Cold Blood if you happen to have that series, Eva.

I don´t think it sounds like agression unless one is constantly chasing the other away from a particular spot. Fingers crossed!

 

[evut]

Thanks. The water bowl only has a couple of millimeters of water now and some dead leaves. There is a piece of bark over it as well. I'll just keep it wet and muddy then. It is positioned lower than everything else in the tank.
I'll have a look through all the articles about this species again and also watch "Life in Cold Blood" to see if there are any similarities (I do have it...best thing that's ever been on TV :happy

 

[Bellabelloo]

Mine are all quiet, though I found all of them remarkably quickly. I'll keep an eye on them over the next few evenings and see if I can spot some activity.

Found this :-
http://wn.com/Marbled_Salamander

 

[evut]

I think they might be more active when it's raining outside. They were all out two days ago - again a lot of pushing and nudging, especially between my male and the very stripy one from Chris. They seem to follow each other quite a bit.
I am not sure about the sex ratio at the moment and don't want to disturb them too much now by checking and photographing. The only definite male is one of my original two, he's noticably whiter than all the others.

With regards to the night light, I remembered Grius's idea from this thread. It works really well - thanks Grius :happy:
(Just in case someone else wants to do this, these lights are very cheap in Screwfix.)

 

[Molch]

I really enjoy this thread about the mysterious opacum. Such spectacular little critters.

One gets the impression that actually seeing one of these in your terrariums is an experience in par with an Elvis sighting - although I believe The King gets spotted more often

 

[Azhael]

I don´t keep opacum, but to me there really is a certain thrill about spotting an animal that´s rarely visible. It happens to me with my P.glutinosus and the H.dunni. I almost never see them so when it happens it´s all "oh! ah!" xD I consider it justified given that the gluti can sometimes disappear for over a month

Low atmospheric pressure has been associated with the reproductive cycles of some species so might be the rain is making the little opacum get in the mood. Time to cover the tank light with a red cloth and pour some bloodworm wine.

 

[Niels D]

H.dunni

I really love H.dunni. Just like all animals that spend a lot of time under ground they're underrated. Of course it's a bit disappointing if you've a got a beautifull animal, which you rarely see, but the times that you see them are really special.

 

[froggy]

This souynds very exciting. I would make sure there is NO water int he bowl, as the sites chosen for nesting are not wet at all, just the bottom of dry depressions that will eventually fill with water. Overly muddy sites will probably not be used!

I recall someone mentioning that breeding is easier between individuals that are unfamiliar - perhaps the arrival of new animals triggered something.

 

[evut]

Thanks for the advice. The dish has a little bit of substrate, it's fairly dry. There has been no activity the last couple of nights (not while I was looking at least).

Seeing them all out and active was a bit surreal actually. I hope they will come out again though I am skeptical about them reproducing - it would be amazing but I don't want to be too disappointed.

 

[evut]

Couple of days ago my salamanders got fresh soil and moss. As I had to dig them out and handle them anyway, I decided to take some pictures as well. They seem to be doing well. They were out exploring their new set up on the first night but now they are back to their normal invisible selves.

 

[Xuntos]

Eva I love that setup, it looks great. Is that a real fern or an artificial one?

 

[Bellabelloo]

Gosh Eva..they look like they have fed well

 

[evut]

I take that as a compliment, Julia :happy:

Xuntos, the fern is live - I took it from the garden. It looked like it was going to die at first but then new leaves started growing and now it's doing really well.