1 Topic by Adam

  • Adam
  • Adam
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  • From: Wynne
  • Registered: 2009-05-16
  • Posts: 66

Topic: Tiny Salamanders

We have had an outdoor school event for the past couple days and I was doing a salamander program for it. We set some leaf litter bags in a stream and small seasonal pond and have been finding some good stuff. Mostly Oklahoma salamander larvae, which I didn't photograph but will in the next couple days.

We did however find an egg mass that had one larvae still in there and we got to watch him "hatch."

I'm guessing that it is some type of ambystoma given the location, a small seasonal pond. Anyone have a better guess or any advice on raising it? I would like to let it grow so I can ID it.

I also collected two juvenile salamanders a W. Slimy and Ozark ZigZag to show the kids. They were both about 1 - 1 1/2 inches.

All in all it was a pretty good 3 days. The kids got to see some salamanders and I got some help putting out and checking my leaf bags.

I apologize for the bad larvae picture but it's pretty hard to get a decent picture of it.

Last edited by Adam (2010-05-07 02:51 pm)

2 Reply by ksuglennj

  • ksuglennj
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  • Registered: 2006-07-03
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Re: Tiny Salamanders

Based on size, location and time of year, I would say your larvae is a spotted. Ambystoma salamanders are mostly carnivores, so some sort of an invert is a good food source. I usually use worms. I roll logs and look under leaves for small worms. Then I cut them up to a better size so the larvae can swallow it whole. Also water quality is a big deal. I always used a  bubbler to keep O2 at a high level. Also use dechlorinated water. I've had some reasonable success.