Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just wondering if any body kept these, and if you have had any success breeding them. I have 12 I caught from Tobemorey, ON Canada. My 20 gallon tank is an all natural setup. everything was collected from where I found the little guys and i duplicated their natural environment. even their food is from there, bugs that hatched from the mosses, and ground cover. Im just wondering if anybody kept them and how they are setup. And i was looking for any info I can find on these guys. thanks

Check out caudata.org and the sites it runs such as Caudate Culture.

I'm from Ontario as well, and I must warn you that the only two native salamanders that don't have protection are mudpuppy and red-spotted newt.

12 in a 20G? That sounds rather tightly packed...unless these are just babies?

>>i was just wondering if any body kept these, and if you have had any success breeding them. I have 12 I caught from Tobemorey, ON Canada. My 20 gallon tank is an all natural setup. everything was collected from where I found the little guys and i duplicated their natural environment. even their food is from there, bugs that hatched from the mosses, and ground cover. Im just wondering if anybody kept them and how they are setup. And i was looking for any info I can find on these guys. thanks

-----
Hope my opinions help,
Rob

Here is a caresheet:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Plethodon/P_cinereus.shtml
I agree with Rob - you need to make sure it's legal to keep them, and 12 seems a bit much for one tank.

While I'm not completely opposed to field collecting herps, it needs to be done with consideration to maintaining the wild population. Removing 12 salamanders from any habitat can completely decimate the entire local population.

I would consider housing them over the winter, then releasing several back where they were caught in the spring.

Tim

Well the cage is more than half full of mosses, mulch, and ground cover, and i found them all in 1 log, smaller than the cage they are in. there were 100s of these salimanders all over the place, i am a conservationist myself and i am not ingornant of the facts. I am studying them, I enjoy keeping them and Im trying to understand how to create an ecosystem. I would like to use this information for further setups... Anyways i just wanted to know if anybody else had them, I know its illigle to keep them, but im studying them. plus another thing i have had this setup for 7 months now and unbelievably they have allready reproduced, its really impressive, if i had a pic i would post it.

I'm with you on this one albos. Not only are northern red-backs well documented to often occur in the densities you're keeping them at, but I've personally seen southern redbacks at such densities. Congrats on the breeding. Unfortunately, not many people are keeping and breeding the small Plethodon species.

As for the collection of 12 adults decimating a population, that isn't even remotely accurate for this particular species. They're on record as having some of the highest regional biomass of any known vertebrate in eastern North America. If collecting 12 redbacks could possibly decimate the population, then that population was experiencing a radical decline and was only a few years from extinction anyway.

thanks for your information, I researched all the animals in the area so i would know what to look for when i went there, and when i found out these guys were everywhere, I wanted to find them, and i found them no more then a meter away from a road, they really are everywhere.