Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello,i have always been interested in keeping a hellbender.i currently keep and breed many species of repile and amphibians but have never seen a hellbender for sale or a care sheet on the internet.i imagine that they are not readily available due to thier being classified as threatened in much of its home range.i live in new york state and they are apparently not threatened here and can be found after about only 1/2 hour searching in the right way/areas.i have had the opportunity to catch one on several occasions but didnt due to not having the right info and setup.i once caught and released one that had to be 2.5 feet long.anyway,if anyone has an info or has kept this species,id really appreciate it.thanks

Actually the bender populations in New York are listed as a species of special concern and are currently being considered for upgrade as a New York endangered species. They have been extirpated in many locations in New York (particuarly in the Susquehanna river drainage). Depending on the population in the stream, the majority of the hellbender population in that stream may be restricted to just a few hundred yards of stream.
One of the major problems with hellbender populations is that in some of the river systems, reproduction is mostly absent and the removal of breeding adults can potentially critically affect that population.

If you want to look for benders, wading the stream at night with a flashlight is better than turning the rocks (particuarly starting in the end of July/beginning of August) you will be destroying potential nesting sites thus impacting the population even more.

Ed

2 1/2 feet is rather small. It might have been newly morphed.. The hellbenders I've looked into are 15 feet long..sometimes up to 18 feet.. You can imagine the space that animal would need... Which is one reason they are disappearing.. If you are serious about keeping one, I would suggest doing as much research on them as possible. Possibly even learn how to captive breed to preserve these creatures.

As for keep, you would need at minium, a 100 gal tank, cold, fast moving current and large hiding places. I am sure there is much more to it, but this is all i know...

I would much rather see one in wild, then in somebody's collection....think about it
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Have You Hugged Your Herp Today?

I'm not sure what you were looking at, but no hellbender on earth gets 15 feet long. No Caudate at all gets 15 feet long. A 2 1/2 foot hellbender is probably an adult. (The biggest caudate is Andrias davidianus, and it gets about 1.5 meters.)

And how would you keep a '15 foot hellbender' in a 100gal tank? a 125 gal tank is only 72INCHES long.

SORRY, that was supposed to be 5 feet.. And that may be on the extreme size..

BUT they are large... Here is photo of Chinese giant salamander. I know it aint a hellbender, but they are close in size and looks.. Cool photo anyhow...

Harpy

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Have You Hugged Your Herp Today?

Chinese giants are much bigger than hellbenders. I saw one in Düsseldorf that was 5 feet long, but the biggest hellbenders rarely get over 3 feet. Japanese giants (Andrias japonicus) are the 'middle giants'.

Hellbenders range from 2 1/2' to 3', Andrias chinensis range 3' to 4', Andrias japonicus up to 5'(this one is in the Toykyo Zoo and was featured in "All Mighty Amphibians" on AP). This A. davidianus, how big do they get? And do you have a pic? To my knowledge there are only 2 species of Andrias.

snip "Hellbenders range from 2 1/2' to 3'"

The record bender (C. a. alleganiensis) was a female that slightly over 29 inches (which is a lot less than the listed maximal 36 inches above).
The vast majority do not get close to this size as they grow very slowly once sexual maturity has been reached and an animal in that size class is probably a very old animal (some literature has them living as long as 70 years).

Ed

I forgot to add
"A chinensis" = A davidensis

Thanks for the updated info EDK. Ok, if the chinese giant is A. davidianus(or however its spelled)and kaysie mentioned that A. davidianus is the largest with A. japonicus being the "middle giant" how come I've never heard of a chinese giant exceeding 5'? I know that in some cases, but not all, when reptiles and/or amphibians are "island" from any mainland they tend to increase in size.

That may be because the record for davidiansis is 59 inches (see http://www.caudata.org/cig/) for the real records.

Ed

It may very well not have been 5 feet long, but the aquazoo docent insisted it was.

But I guess 59 inches is about as close to 5 feet as you can get without being right on...

Ok, I guess the Andrias website is all wrong then. Thanks for the info.

Based on what? The maximal recorded length on that site is 140 cm (@ 56 inches) for A japonicus with no references to A. daividianesis or benders.

Ed