Question: Newbie with a New Addition

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CravingCresties

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Toledo,Ohio
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Melissa
Hi all and thanks for letting me join. I bought a tiger a couple of days ago from the pet store I work at, we have had him since he was a larvae and he is about 4 months old into adult form. But the tank we had him in wasnt suited for an adult salamander, it was about 75% water and 25%
land, and as we had nowhere else to keep him, thats where he has stayed. Although he has always ate great for us, the entire batch of water dogs we got in morphed and were doing great, and we sold most of them off. But then we were down to 2, for several months, finally the other one sold. So after finally tired of looking at him always sitting on what bit of land he happened to have, I caved and brought him home with me. For the moment he is in a 5.5 gallon aquarium untill next weekend when I am done making a viv for my geckos, he will then be getting one of the 20 longs I had with geckos in it. In there he has a layer of peat moss with a layer of green moss over it. But I do have a few questions to ask. I know these guys usally do fine at room temps, but if you have a slightly chilly room would you suggest a very small UTH or a low watt light bulb? I have a UTH under him now that is a whole 4"x3" which part of his hide is covering it, but 75% of the hide is not (ir runs almost the whole length of the tank), and it does not get as hot as a reptile UTH as it was for hermit crabs. Also I know he happily eats crickets, he pounded them at work, and from time to time I get silkies for the rest of my cold blooded crew, will he enjoy those? Also in time will he be large enough to safely eat superworms? I just want to better vary his diet, so if you have any suggestions of other insects he can chow down on that would be great. I also wondered what type he is. From pictures I can find he looks like a barred, but I could be wrong, and hopefully he isnt an eastern as bein from Ohio they are on our DNR nono lists, the rept distro said it was a texas species but with them who knows, we got a "cooks tree boa" in once and I looked at them and said no thats an Amazon, so it wouldnt suprise me. Here
is a link to his pic, let me know.
a5.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m292/playnwifsnot/a5.jpg
Oh also, I know that I normally do not keep male and female reptiles together, are these guys the same with males like reptiles? I would hate to get another one and it be male and they fight. But I also I dont make it a point to keep my males with my females. Would this cause a problem if I did it with them as I know long term stress tends to happen with other reptiles. I know it doesnt need a friend, just things I am curious about for if in the future I decide to get
another one.

Thanks!
~Melissa
 
Welcome to the forum!

Alright, here goes...

- I would take out the peat moss, as it can be acidic and potentially harmful to the salamander. A more natural substrate would be a mixture of cocofiber and organic topsoil (pesticide free, etc.), which is preferred by most keepers (myself included).

- Get rid of the heat. Salamanders are cool temperature animals, so high temps can stress and potentially kill them. The fact that your home is chilly is actually perfect!;)

- Crickets are good. I would keep feeding him those, along with chopped earthworms and occasionally waxworms (are these the same as 'silkies'?). mealworms are alright, however they have a hard exo-skeleton that can cause impaction, so they are usually avoided- be sure to remove the head before feeding them, as they could harm the salamander on the way down.

- He/she appears to be an eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum), I'm not so sure what the laws in Ohio are, so I don't know what to tell you on that subject.

- You could get another and they would be perfectly fine together, however, he/she would be fine on its own as well.

This will help answer any questions I missed and more- http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml
 
Nathan050793 said:
Welcome to the forum!

Alright, here goes...

- I would take out the peat moss, as it can be acidic and potentially harmful to the salamander. A more natural substrate would be a mixture of cocofiber and organic topsoil (pesticide free, etc.), which is preferred by most keepers (myself included).

- Get rid of the heat. Salamanders are cool temperature animals, so high temps can stress and potentially kill them. The fact that your home is chilly is actually perfect!;)

- Crickets are good. I would keep feeding him those, along with chopped earthworms and occasionally waxworms (are these the same as 'silkies'?). mealworms are alright, however they have a hard exo-skeleton that can cause impaction, so they are usually avoided- be sure to remove the head before feeding them, as they could harm the salamander on the way down.

- He/she appears to be an eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum), I'm not so sure what the laws in Ohio are, so I don't know what to tell you on that subject.

- You could get another and they would be perfectly fine together, however, he/she would be fine on its own as well.

This will help answer any questions I missed and more- http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml
Click to expand...

Would eco-earth work them for the cocofibers? I keep this stuff for the tarantulas so I have some here. Like I said I plan to make a living viv for him once I get all the geckos moved around and in new homes. I was curious, I know alot of people keep african pedes in their living vivs with frogs and geckos, would this work for a salamander also? Always wanted one but I do not have the geckos set up with dirt substrate, so I never got one. But they are such good decomposers, wndered if anyone uses them.

Silkworms are another type a feeder, it is a catapiller of a moth, they are oh so cute I feel ad offering them to the other hungry mouths. They are not high in fat, but high in protien. I personally never feed mealworms, to much chiton and not enough of anything else.

And if he (and it is a boy, he has got the man good to prove it!) truely is an eastern, then yes we were breaking the law unknowningly. Sometimes I seriously hate reptile distro placed (glares at RI). Anyways nothing I can do about that, I am just thankful a DNR didnt come in and see them as they were sold to us as a different local.

And I am glad to hear they are fairly communial. I have always wanted one of these guys, just never had a reason to get one till now so I seriouly doubt I can keep myself away from getting another!

Thanks!
 
Eco earth is fine.

Other tank mates are not. For one, you'll need to keep this guy cool. African tank mates would die at the cool temps. And two, you really don't want to mix things from two continents. It's just asking for trouble. And if the 'pedes are toxic, your tiger will surely try to eat them (and anything that moves).
 
As you want to give your tiger the best quality of life possible - do not place him in a tank with any other species. Another tiger of reasonably similar size would probably work fine in a 20 gallon tank with several hides for each to use.....they are not aggresive, but I have had some mishaps from aggressive feeding behaviors resulting in injury...indiscriminate snapping at anything that moves.

"African pedes" would not be suitable tankmates for the reasons Kaysie stated. African centipedes are carnivorous predators with nasty venom and african millipedes (which I assume you are referencing since you mention 'decomposers') secrete a toxic fluid when threatened. Both pedes would place your tiger at unreasonable risk.
 
Thank you all! Bruce Lee is getting a tank change today and gettng eco earth instead of th peat. He happily ate 5 crickets last night, so he must be pretty happy to not be in an aquatic setup anymore. I cant wait to get my other viv done to start on his, when I do I will be sure to check on here and breeze through how some of you all have your living vivs set up and how you maintain. thanks again!
 
i was wondering what kind of geckos you have?
and your tiger is adorable. i've been thinking about getting one but i have no idea what i would need to do for it...
advice is welcome!
 
ariana said:
i was wondering what kind of geckos you have?
and your tiger is adorable. i've been thinking about getting one but i have no idea what i would need to do for it...
advice is welcome!
Click to expand...
See Nathan's post above and view the tiger care sheet he cites from Caudata Culture...this is a great place to start. If you have questions after reading this, please feel free to post. I would ask that when posting, please use capital letters and avoid 'texting' language/shorthand. Thanks ariana.
 
thank you all, I love the link you posted Jan, I think I will model Bruce's viv after one of those when i get it up and going. I have another question, I know mold can be the sign of a healthy environment, but I noticed yesterday there was some mold on the under side of Bruce's log, is that really going to cause a problem? In my head I am going, mold=bad, but I also know on one of my reptile forums, in the amphiban section, alot of people with natural vivs for frogs (we have alot of dart frog people) say mold is a sign of a healthy viv and will eventally go away. Are they talking about the hairy mold, or that green white mold that reminds you of bread mold (which was what I found)?

I have 2 different species of geckos right now, I have 2 crested geckos(buying more here in the next few weeks), and 4 leopard geckos. The cresteds are arboreal and like it fairly humid. But they also do not require UVB, or heat, room temp is fine, and they live fine their whole life without crickets, they eat a powder based food mixed with water, I still offer crickets once weekly though, mental enrichment as the powder food doesnt offer a chase! But I love these little guys, I have 2 more that should hatch sometime next month (I lose the lay date, I just know it was in september). I dot plan to make them a living viv simply becausethe girls will they lay in the dirt instead of the egg laying box and I know from exp, egg hunting isnt fun when there is decent amount of ground to cover to find them! Here is a link to my photobucket, which has everyone posted in there, feel free to move around through the whole thing as I need to move photos into their actual folders. Enjoy! http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m292/playnwifsnot/
 
I wouldn't be overly concerned with mold. Wood against a moist, dark surface (especially if the environment is warm) will delvelop mold. Flip the wood over so that it gets some circulation and the mold usually goes away. Check that your substrate is not overly moist and that you do have air circulation in the tank - a mesh screen top works well for this. For temps, tigers should be kept in the very low 70's (F) or less.
 
Well my bedroom usually stays around 72 degrees, so I dont think that is it. I noticed its growth when I was in the process of taking him off of peat moss and putting him on eco earth. The substrate as been allowed to dry up a bit more and I replaced the green moss in it in that area under the hide. I am misting the tank down twice daily, but just enough now that the moss stays damp, but it is not overly dampening the eco earth below. Thank you for your help!
 
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