I have been housing 3 Necturus maculosus for over 6 months now in a 55 gal tank. They are doing fine, even now after a recent outbreak of anchor worms. I suspect an attempt at feeding them fathead minnows was the cause of the infection, although they seemed to gobble them up quite eagerly. I easily got rid of this pest with aquarium salt and a stricter water change regimen. They have plenty of hiding places since the bottom of the tank is covered generously with large gravel and flat rounded rocks taken from a local brook. They are very active and seem to be very excepting of each other’s company. Their diet consists of about 80% earthworms, 10% mealworms, and 10% feeder fish. It has been my observation that necturus seems to need and prefer more floor surface area rather then volume or depth of water. Watching them in the tank they remind me of terrestrial mole salamanders only they are walking on and burrowing in the ground at the bottom of an aquatic environment. Now to my idea, I propose building a tank for them that is 24inches wide, 48inches long and only 10inches high. This would give me a tank that is about 50 gal with a floor surface area of 8 square feet. I would not have to change my filter system since the load is really not changing because I’m going from a 55 gal to a 50 gal and I am effectively doubling the territory in which they have to roam. My question is what do you think of this idea? What do you think of my observations? Does any of this add up? I’m just looking for a little feedback and perhaps a little advice from any experienced necturus maculosus keepers out there, if there are any.
Looking forward to some great responses.