Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi
My house is 72 degrees all yr long. I am interested in spotted salamanders but dont want them if they wont be happy at those temps .
Has anyone had them long term if so what temps?

Thanks

72 is fine. i have kept tigers and spotteds for years. my place gets into the upper 80s during the summer. so long as youre not housing the lil buggers in a roasting attic they will be A-o.k.

ideal temps: prolly upper 50s to mid 60s. during the winter i keep my sallies in a closet that is about 60 degrees. an ideal place for salamanders is a basement. but again, 72 is fine. good luck!

I can get to 65/68 as central ac is set at 72 but with ceiling fan temps drop but 72 is average temp when ceiling fan is not on which is why I asked about that exact temp.

Thanks

72 is a fine temp to keep them at. you have to remember that the air temp is not the same as the soil or water temp in the tank, so they will actually stay cooler than what the air temp. just make sure that they have an ample amount of soil substrate to burrow into and a 1"-3" deep water bowl they can get in and out of easily. having the A/C on in the summer also robs the tank and air in the house of humidity, so make sure you mist the tank often.

I plan to use that shredded coconut the type you drop in bucket of water and it expands as thats easier to keep humid . I use same thing for my snakes but ofcourse let it dry .

What do you think about that or you prefer soil? I read they can get fungus in wrong substrate or if kept to wet?

Thanks

Coco-fiber is an excellent substrate for terrestial sals. It can be used alone or mixed with soil without any additives (fertilizers, vermiculite, pesticides, etc.). Keep the substrate moist but not wet and have 3-4 inches of substrate for adequate burrowing. I recommend spot cleaning substrate for feces a couple of times per week and completely changing substrate every 2 months. There should also be hides and as someone else said, a shallow water dish to help with humidity - use spring water or declorinated tap water.

Temps should not exceed 74 degrees for any prolonged period of time - can lead to stress. These sals can tolerate low temps (e.g., 50s) but not high temps. Also keep the vivarium out of direct sunlight.

coco bedding is what i use for my burrowing amphibs. i use either a mix of Black Jungle's coco bedding and dendro bedding or coco bedding and t-rex's forest bed. i generally add a bag of Black Jungle's lose tree fern fiber for every 5 bricks of bedding, but it is not necessary. you should not add any fertlizers unless you have live plants in the tank, in which case, i would recommend dyno-gro fertlizer mixed with water and add directly to the soil surrounding the plants roots and not through the entire tank. the Black Jungle products stay fresher longer and don't contain extra salts, like many of the commerical coco bricks do.
below are pics of my 150 Gal. tiger sal tank. the area covered in moss is a rock cave that they can hide in. there is b/t 4-8" of soil throughout the tank to burrow in. the water bowl is not in the pics, but it is 9" x 12" x 2".

Wow huge set up how many salamanders do you keep what type?

I intend to keep 2 spotted sallys since my first so going with basic set up just damp coco shredded substrate and cork bark sheet bit of driftwood water dish and screen top in a 20 gallon long tank .

no plants as not going to use any lighting

i have 7 tiger sals, 3 diff. species, in the tank together.

i get a little Ambystoma crazy at times

Is that big'un a gray tiger? Whatever it is, it's a monster!

i believe its a gray. the eastern tigers in the pic are full grown WC animals. The photo is 6 yrs old and that monster is still going strong.

Great thanks a lot I couldnt find any temp info sites said things like room yemp,keep cool but nothing exact.

Did yours suffer at 80s?

thanks