Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you guys think?

I want to get some Spotted Salamander eggs I found a few days ago, raise them in my 40L and them set them free.

I usually abide by the leave footprints, take pictures mentality, but I have never done this before. I know it has been done, but I want first hand experience on their behavior.

once placed in a home, the larvae grow quickly due to increased temp. i always replace water once a week w/ water from the very pond i retrieved the eggs from. make sure fresh water supply is the same temperature as water that the larvae are in as to not shock them. feeding is the part i dread because you need a constant supply of small prey items (brine shrimp, small inverts from a local pond, etc, ). salamander larvae have voracious appetites and will cannibalize one another on occasion.

If I were you, I wouldn't take a whole egg mass; just take a piece of one, or a smallish mass if you can find it. You would need a lot of room to raise the 50 larvae from a typical mass. But 10 or so larvae can be raised in a 10 gallon aquarium.

Are you willing to raise live food? Cladocerans (e.g. Daphnia) work well and are easy to raise.

I would also strongly warn against returning the larvae to the pond. This is illegal in most places, and for good reason; captive animals can pick up diseases and transmit them to their wild cousins if released. If you are not willing to provide for these animals all their lives, don't take them. If there is a pond nearby, consider visiting it regularly over the course of the next few months to capture and photograph the larvae as they grow.

I think I will do a combination. Only taking a few eggs, or even waiting for the larvae to hatch to get a good number, about 4 maximum. I have raised larvae before, but they were Jefferson salamanders, and that was a few years ago. And those weren't from eggs. I will always have access to the pond, so going up there and just pulling out a bunch of leaves is not a problem. If I have any other questions, I'll be sure to ask.

Thanks for your time.

-Brad

regarding legality and ethics: I had a Fish and Wildlife permit to collect and raise frog and salamander eggs for some experiments I was doing a number of years ago and one of the clauses of the permit was that I couldn't release larvae back into the pond but that it was ok to release recent metamorphs to the terrestrial environment as long as I did so within 24 hours of metamorphosis. I won't speak to the legality because it really is different in every state but that clause is something to keep in mind.

>>What do you guys think?
>>
>>I want to get some Spotted Salamander eggs I found a few days ago, raise them in my 40L and them set them free.
>>
>>I usually abide by the leave footprints, take pictures mentality, but I have never done this before. I know it has been done, but I want first hand experience on their behavior.

Hatchlings are very small, so feeding them could be a problem. Hatching brine shrimp eggs may be necessary. Larger larvae are easier to feed, as they will eat meat, such as beef, if it is moved slowly in front of them. When they transform, make sure they can get out of the water or they will drown. Captives sometimes get fungus on their skins. If they do, then a drop of mercurochrome mixed in with the water will clear things up.