Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well the girlfriend and I decided to buy two Tiger Salamanders from a local petstore because we thought that they were so darned cute.

Of course before doing so we read up on a lot of information about them. After much research we bought a 10gal Terrarium tank from PetSmart with a lockable screen that slides off. Now I know a lot of you are going to say that a 10gal tank is way too small for two adult Tiger Sals but we are short on money, but we plan on upgrading the tank size in the future if this works out well. (besides the pet store had these Tiger Sals in about a 15-20gal FULLY AQUATIC tank with a singe huge Axoltl (sp?), and about 18 Tiger Sals all cuddled up sitting on a freaking landing shoot thing for turtles) So I'm sure the two will most welcome their new home even though it is way too small for them.

Anyways, we couldn't decide exactly on what substrate to have for these little guys.. from what I read--most people use a mix of top soil and some sort of moss. We decided it'd just be easier to buy a brick of Bed-A-Beast. It was either that or Jungle Mix--any idea which is ideal for Tiger Sals, or should you do a combination of both, or does it really matter? My biggest question concerning substrate is the changing. How often do you guys have to change your substrate for these guys? I've read every few weeks/every month.. if so do you just dump all the soil and just put in new fresh soil? That could become a major pain (especially for you guys with such exotic/huge setups that I've seen).

Another question regarding plants--do you guys prefer live plants (any benefits) or fake? I've heard Tiger Sals sometimes like to dig up plants so if that's the case I would think fake would be for the best. Also curious of the Wal*Mart brand "all natural" Schultz Moss is safe for these guys. I'm assuming it is if used in small quantities for some extra eye candy to the tank, but I'm just not sure.

And my last and final question is regarding hibernation. I haven't read up much information on Tiger Sals and hibernation but I heard they do hibernate. If so, when do they usually hibernate and for how long? Does it have to do with the temperature or do they just know when to do this?

My Terrarium stays at a constant 55-65F degree temperature.

They seem to be doing just fine now, staying underground (together) in a man-made burrow.. and often come out at night and scurry around. I have them on a constant diet of crickets so far but I'm going to try to get them to eat some worms.

Any information/feedback would help greatly, thanks.

p.s. I'll try to get pictures up here soon--my girlfriend named her sal BeeBee and I named mine EggShen even though we don't know how to tell their sexes apart.. if there is a way to tell their sexes apart that is.

a tiger salamander is an excellent tough amphibian with lots of personality and character. i have over 30 differnt amphibians right now and my tiger sal is one of the easiest to care for. they can be a little terretorial though, i had two and they would bite each other all the time until i got rid of one. for substrate i just use rocks and a little gravel. he seems to enjoy swimming a lot and spends most of his time completely submerged underwater. he eats moths, earthworms, live and freezedried bloodworms are his staple diet though. he will even eat the freeze dried ones from my hand, be careful though, all the tiger sals I've had posessed VERY poor eyesight, commonly resulting in him biting my finger. it doesn't hurt, it's just kind of startling. there is no need for live plants that i know, unless you're into spoiling them. i had live plants and they developed gnats in less than 6 weeks, it was a pain to get rid of them. tiger sals don't need to hibernate unless they are to breed. i keep mine at room temp. i have read the males have a slightly enlarged bulge where there penis would be, and the females have longer tails for their size. hope i could help.

I'd stick with the bed a beast and change it every few weeks.

Here is an excellant care sheet for you

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Ambystoma/A_tigrinum.shtml

Also, anyone know if Green Worms and Canadian Nightcrawlers are edible for Tiger Sals?

Also I hear some people throw earthworms into their substrate to help break down stuff--do they disturb the sals at all, don't want the sals going crazy.

Between the two, I would go for Jungle Mix over Bed-a-beast. But either is fine. If you want to cut your costs, you can mix either one with plain old top soil (Walmart and home improvment shops sell it in summer - do not use any kind of potting mix, though). You can simplify your cleaning by just scooping out the bedding from the areas where the sals hang out, rather than replacing the whole tank full. The used bedding is good for your garden or potted plants, if you have any.

I would not recommend any aquatic or semiaquatic setup for these guys. A water bowl if fine, but not even necessary.

Canadian nightcrawlers, like from the walmart bait department, are great for them. The green worms have dye added, which seems like a bad idea to me. Throwing in a few whole worms won't hurt anything, as far as I know. But I wouldn't rely on them as a clean-up crew.

That moss that they sell at Walmart is OK. I use it to pack around sals for shipping. I would recommend soaking and rinsing it for a day or two before using it, though.