Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i had two tigers in a 25 gallon tank that i just switched from terrestrial to 2/3 land 1/3 water. both of my tigers were doing great and i noticed no problems at all. then about two weeks after adjusting my tank the older tiger stopped moving and i discovered him totally dead, a day later.
my best guess is either bacteria introduced from the transitional tank i used. or too much stess from the move. he was really healthy up untill a day before his death, and theres no visible signs of disease or anything. he didnt bloat or anything. so im really hoping that someone could help me understand why my pet is dead.

I have several questions,

1. What was the tempeture of the tank?
2. What was its diet?
3. What was the age?
4. Where they wild caught animals?
5. What the substrate?(bedding)

Often salamander loss depends on some of these factors. But sometimes they do pick up harmful bacteria from prey items that is not oftem detectible. But as you mentioned, stress is a common cause of death among caudates.

1) temp was kept in the high 60's low 70's
2)diet : crickets earth worms and small gold fish (i think they were called comets)
3)it had probably been an adult for about three years (my best guess)
4) i ordered it from a petstore so i dont know about wild or captive bred.
5)the substrate was called jungle mix and it said it was good for all amphibians.

so i guess the only conclusion i can come to is that the cause of death was stress.
Bummer.

I hate to say it, but that was a poor diet for a tiger salamander. Goldfish are loaded with parasites and are not a natural food item. Chemicals in the fish can cause inbalances that can lead to death. A good staple diet would be as follows:
1. gut-loaded crickets
2. waxworms
3. earthworms
4. butterworms
5. slugs
6. sowbugs
7. freshly molted meal/super worms

The waxworms should be used as a treat, because of the high fat they contain. Pinky mice can be given as a treat also, but only rarely.

The temps. are good and the bedding is too. A important point to make is that salamanders need multiple hide-spots made up of logs, rocks, and hunks of moss.

I hate that your tiger died. It had most likely caught a parasite from the goldfish.

This is frequently cited on many forums as a reason for not using them as feeders however people fail to consider that other feeders can also carry parasites.
For example, many insects are routine vectors for coccidia... which is why the amphibians should have routine fecal checks done at least once to twice a year.

The comments about goldfish and feeder fish are typically carried over from the fact that they can be vectors for fish diseases like ick which is not a concern for terrestrial amphibians. This is another item that continues to make the circle on the forums and list serves but I have yet to see any good documentation in the literature (like Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry).

Now this does not mean that goldfish are a great choice. The problem with the goldfish is that they have a high cholesterol content. This high saturated fat content is why they are not a good food choice. If you are going to use fish, then you should use cold water, marine or live bearers for your food choices.

Jungle mix is safe for many amphibians but if I remember correctly it contains peat moss as one of the ingredients and this would make me hesitant to use it for a substrat as the low pH of the peat moss can disrupt the caudates ability to osmoregulate leading to stress and/or death.

Some comments

Ed