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New build for salamanders

5K views 34 replies 6 participants last post by  Wy Renegade 
#1 ·
I will be acquiring a couple of tiger salamanders in the next couple of weeks, so I am seeking advise on what they require.
The tank that I will be housing them in is a 25 gallon. I was thinking of having part of it aquatic - complete with fish. I know that the fish will likely get eaten - but I think that my students would enjoy and learn lots form that. I am also thinking of the land part being filled with peat and natural moss. (Will go and dig some out from under the snow)

I don't think that I will attempt a drilled tank to house the filter parts. I am planning on running a fuvel canister type filter - should make it easier for the students to clean the tank, with less disturbance to the critters. I will need to seal the back of the lid to prevent them from escaping (I'm assuming that they can climb?)

Any other suggestions for how to achieve this would be great; the learning curve on this one is going to be straight up for both myself and all of my students.
I'll try to post some pictures as we go.
 
#2 ·
No need to worry about sealing the top for the salamanders, they are lousy climbers. This particular type of salamander is a mole salamander, so they should spend most of their time in the terrestrial portion. I would make as much of the tank terrestrial as possible. This means however, that they spend a lot of time out of site, so students might find that sort of disappointing. You'll need to consider a feeding site of sometype as well.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the feedback. I did some more reading last night and am now leaning towards filling the majority of my tank with land. I am looking for a exo terrarium - it will make cleaning the tank easier if I can access it from the front as opposed to the top.
I'll likely take the easy way on this one and pick up a pre-made waterfall/filter. I've seen some nice ones for turtles, but we will see - I do have a general plan in mind if I attempt to build; the major issue is timing on this one, I don't have the luxury of time in playing as the person who I'm getting them from is wanting to be rid of them, but wants to keep the tank that they are in.
I've learned that they are poor swimmers so I won't be needing a "swimming hole" I do however want a way to filter their wadding pool in an attempt to make looking after them easier and less time consuming.
 
#4 ·
I finally pick up a salamander - the person who I go it from also gave me the tank that its in. I know that in the very near future I'll be changing things. I'm thinking of moving the crabs (along with the false bottom that I made) out of the terrarium and into the emptry 25 gallon in my room. Then I'll have a better tank to "play" in for the salamader. I think that I'm going to try a stream type - so that its water is filtered so it should be easier for us to look after. Not 100% committed to that idea as I do like the terrarium, but we will see - perhaps I can convince my husband to build yet tank stand and get a new tank :) One can hope - here's the pictures of the newest addition to my room.
 

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#6 ·
There has to be an easier way to feed this critter. This evening it took me around 10 minutes to get it to eat 1 small meal worm. I gave up trying to get it to eat a second after half an hour. Please help.
I have a large pair of tweezers and am trying to feed by holding the food in front of it. Even with the food touching it, the salamander wasn't interested.
 
#17 ·
Amazing how blind they seem to be and how often they miss getting the food isn't it? I have no clue how they survive in the wild LOL. Keep in mind that we are in to winter now, and this is usually their sleep time. Its metabolism may be slowing down, just be sure and try to feed it at least once every 3 days or so.

Here is a picture of what I've done so far.
Looks good so far. I understand the reasoning for wanting to use plexi, but IME, you're going to have a really hard time keeping the silicon bonded to the plexi and glass. I would just run a straight piece of glass across the tank, and use that nice corner area for wetland type plants.
 
#7 ·
I hope to get the new tank for this guy done this weekend. The sooner I can get him into a bigger tank the better. I wnat to try to make this look as natural as possible. I think that I'm going to have a very large land part with a small stream running the length of the tank into a pool. I'll be using a 25 gallon tank and filling most of it with soil for him to dig through. The land and water I was thinking of separating with large stones/rocks and filling in the gaps with great stuff pond.
Thoughts?
 
#8 ·
Here is the start of the planning/building process - the tank is still in the box. The small side is going to be the water part, the larger side is going to be the land side. I'm going to use an aquarium safe epoxy to hold the rocks together, and then fill the empty spaces with Great Stuff Pond. The Great Stuff is also going to be used to hold the rocks to the bottom and sides, and for making a "stream" across the land.
This should give the salamander lots of space for digging and walking around. My husband is going to bring me a part of a log (either birch or poplar) which we will then hollow out so the salamander can have something natural to hide in/under.
 

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#15 ·
I have the rock wall almost finished. I decided to go with a curved wall to give a more natural spot fot the stream to enter. The next step is to fill the holes with the great stuff pond. I used a 2 part putty type epoxy to hold the rocks in place, and then silconed each steam with black aquarium silicon. (Took longer than expected as I could only do 1 layer of rock at a time.) As I don't completely trust my building skills yet, I've also decided that to make sure my substrate doesn't become water logged I'm going to silicon in a piece of plexi just behind the rocks. I found a small canister filter that will power the small stream (I'll build that this evening with the great stuff pond). I'll hide the intake on the bottom under some rocks, and use some kibd of plant to hide the hose as it goes up the wall. I'm not going to paint the back of this one as it is by a window and I still want to be able to see the deer when they pass by. (No worries - direct sunlight does not come in)

Yesterday the salamander spent a large part of our lunch break wandering around his small tank.
 
#19 ·
Its been a while but I finally got a start on the stream part. Given that my talents aren't in carving I've gone away from making the stream out of the black pond great stuff. Instead I found a hamster tube (it splits in half so I had 2 pieces to work with in case I mucked one up), and I was able to distort it using a heat gun. I had one of my students help with the twisting, so the shape that he came up with I'll work with. Now I'm going to silicon some rocks/sticks into it to make it more natural looking.
 

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#20 ·
I was able to find a few minutes today to get a bit more done. I think that I'm going to use some black aquarium silicon to cover up the green of the stream, and to anchor some smaller rocks into it. As far as the green support I was thinking of using some bark, or some great stuff to make it look like a hollowed out tree trunk, with a "spring" coming out from under it.
Any thoughts?
 

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#22 ·
whats the point of the upright again?
I needed some way to hold the end of the stream up, and to close off the end, so the water goes where I want it to. It is also going to help hide the water line.
I'm concerned that once the salamander gets in there and digging then he will knock it over. I think that I'll have to attach the side of the upright to the side of the tank.
Do you think that great stuff white foam will be fine for the salamander, if I cover it with coco-bark?
 
#24 ·
I decided that instead of using the coco-husk/bark, that I'd use poplar bark. I thought that it would give a more natural to here look. The space in the "wet zone" behind the stream will get some kind of plant, but I'm undecided about what kind yet. I'm leaning towards either a simple moss or fern - both of which can be found around here - I'll just have to wait until April for the snow to be all gone so I can collect something.
 

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#27 ·
Thanks Wy.
I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out. I still have a bit of tuning to do - the water section holds the water, unitll I turn on the stream then the water does a vanishing act. :icon_frow I've pulled all the dirt out, added more silcon, ran the stream no issues - readded the dirt and the water once again vanished.
I think that I'll remove the dirt again, and try to add more silcon under and around the stream some time during exam week.
 
#28 ·
Sounds like you might be dealing with a wicking issue - if some of the soil is coming in direct contact with the water in your stream, it acts as a conduit and wicks the water away into the soil. In other words, it may not be a leak issue, but rather an issue of needing to eliminate all contact. Wicking can be a real pain in the kester, especially in a paludarium.
 
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