Pseudotriton ruber (Red Salamander)

[TJ]

Here's a species I've seen very little discussion about here, even though it's one of the most beautiful salamanders around:

 

[TJ]

Here's another one with a lot of white showing:

I have no information about these. They're not mine

(Message edited by TJ on September 10, 2004)

 

[paris]

i think the one in the top photo is the black chinned variety. i would love some of them but they dont appear very often on the trade and they charge 55-70$ for them and then you wont have any local data.

 

[mark]

Good call Mike. I agree.

I would love to one day have a P. Ruber, although I believe you would need a simulated stream and or spring system. They probably dont make the easiest of captives...

 

[leanne]

There are quite a few ruber here in the Appalachians---you can usually find them in marshy areas, right in the water! The one I saw most recently was about 5" long and about an inch or so in diameter. He didn't have a dark lower jaw like Tim's appears to, and his head was larger.

 

[edward]

I have kept ruber in everything from stream systems to damp paper towels with the animals doing well in all cases. The only time I had territorial problems was when I had them in a stream setup.
I have found them in springs, muddy sloughs, seepage sites, and in small flowing streams.

Ed

 

[henk]

Now here's a way ot make us Europeans jealous !! I found 2 of those red diamands while tracking through the Appalachians and I must admit it was one of the more tempting moments for me to slip it in a bow and take it along. BE sure : I didn't do it ... but this doesn't make me feel any better now when I see those shots.

The 2nd one looks indeed like a very red Gyrinophlyus, none of the specimens I found looked as brilliantly colored.

 

[edward]

When I was in college at Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ, there was a seepage bog on a feeder stream for the local lake on campus that was about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long and must have contained several hundred of these salamanders in different stages of growth. It was one of the few sites I have ever been able to find small larva of this species. The most I located in one day was 35 adults. I haven't been back to the site in almost 17 years so I wonder if it is still there.
In my (limited) experience the black chin subspecies does dull out as much as it gets older.

Ed

 

[henk]

OK, that's what they call the death punch, Ed (why do I hear you lauch in the backside ??).
Anyway I have kept them before and was actually suprised about the ease with which one could keep them. breeding them never succeeded however.
I find these guys quite similar to keep to certain hynobids

 

[edward]

Dr. Wayne Van Devender at Appalachian State University once told me that he has a slough near him where every so often he finds an albino red salamander....
I didn't get to see any when I was there for the SSAR conference but we did find red on behind the conference center during lunch (as well as a number of other species).



Ed

 

[edward]

In my post above the death punch comment, I meant to say it does not dull out as much as ruber ruber as it gets older.

I agree with Henk, I have not seen a Gyrinophilus that intense a red before.

If anyone is interested in some interesting comments on Pseudotriton ruber husbandry made by Ed Maruska (ex Curator of the Cincinnati Zoo) in Captive Management and Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles.

Ed

 

[nate]

Looks like Gyrinophilus p. danielsi. I've seen them that brightly colored in the vicinity of Asheville, NC.

 

[henk]

Well Nate I have never seen a G. p. danielsi so that may be it, sure loos like a very nice colored specimen. We found lots of G. p. during rainy nights on the streets (in the woods) would have been nice to put one of these on slide !

 

[leanne]

Yes, and I am only a half hour out of Asheville area, and all the ruber I have seen have been brilliantly colored. They are very calm animals from what I have observed, too. What is their lifespan?

 

[edward]

I think Maruska listed one as living more than 20 years in captivity and was collected as an adult (but it has been a few years since I reviewed the info).

Ed

 

[leanne]

Yeah, wonderful--a fish pond

I have a friend who lives waaayyy up on a mountain and has a creek flowing right in front of his house---he finds them around there all the time. This is the very eastern tip of TN where we are at--will try to get a photo of one next time. Ed, glad to know these ruber live a good long 20 years!

 

[TJ]

A friend of mine acquired the P. ruber pictured at the top of this thread and wants to know: can anybody identify the subspecies with any degree of certainty? Sorry, but I have no information on whence it came.

 

[everett]

I have a friend at work that gave me 2 P. ruber schenki, with the black chin and they are very bright red ,he was working for our company in Hickory,NC and the cabin they rented while out there had a stream by it and they had stored a big cooler by it,when he moved it to wash it out to return home,there were the two Reds, one was about 4.5 inches and the other about 3-4 inches,knowing im "into this stuff" as he put it he gave them to me in a plastic butter dish with alittle water in it.When I opened it i was very pleased with what I seen....I have them in a little 10 gallon aquarium,stream set-up with alittle land mass in the corner.
They seem to be doing just fine,and they eats very well for me.I will more than likely release them in the spring back up in the mountains though.But they are interesting little guys.

(Message edited by steamer70 on January 08, 2005)

(Message edited by steamer70 on January 08, 2005)

 

[jennifer]

It is generally not a good idea to release amphibians that have been captive for any length of time. If you have other species of captive amphibians, the P. ruber could have picked up germs, and will then spread those germs in the wild when they are released. It may sound crazy, but it has been documented to happen, or so I'm told. Also, if you do release them, I would recommend putting them back in exactly the same stream.

 

[TJ]

Thanks Mike. The friend who acquired the P. ruber also acquired the G. porphyriticus, both of which are said to have originated from the same place.

If the P. ruber is P. r. schenki from the Blue Ridge area of the Carolinas, would that make the other one G. p. danielsi or G. p. dunni? ...