got a new pet(TANK DEVASTATION!)

well this afternoon my nephew was over at my house and he walks in cupping something in his hand. he shows me and its the cutest baby tiger salamander, i mean this thing isnt even 3 inches long. i have to say i went a bit overboard with the setup though. finally got a chance to use my 40 gallon hex tank and i placed a piece of plywood on the bottom, drilled 3 very natural looking branches into it, then placed another sheet of wood on top of those balanced. the sheet above is about 1 to 1 and a half feet above the bottom of the tank. i filled the tank with water up to the wood section. i placed a few rocks underneath. then i put some substrate and bark along with some rocks and caves and plants up top for our little guy. right now the lighting is just a compact fluorescent desk light. i am quite busy at the moment, too busy to add pics busy i will upload all the pics tomorrow and there are a few. what would you guys reccomend feeding him? just crickets from petsmart? gut loaded.

 

We will hold you to the pictures this sounds too good not to be shown off. I think the crickets would be a good start maybe add some other creatures in for variety.

 

Here's a link that might help.

Tiger Salamanders as Pets - Care and Feeding

 

yes i have kept them before, a few years back i had a very large one, about 10 inches and he was a monster. he could probably bite my finger off. one day he escaped, then 6 months later i find him crawling across my bedroom floor. i had him for another 3 years until he died. they make fantastic little pets and i cant wait to get pics up. this particular ones coloring is mostly black and grey, with a light yellow on the belly.

 

got some pics uploaded.



this is how i did the setup, the three branches are drilled into a piece of wood that is held to the bottom of the tank by rocks and gravel, the panel on top is just balanced there but it is very sturdy.



this is partial way through the setup, got some gravel down and added some moss and cork bark up top.







and this is the finished setup, the tank is pretty old so you can see the top glass that isnt submerged is pretty cloudy, i will deal with that soon though. i didnt get any pictures of the guy but i will and i will upload them asap.

 

You nearly lost me on the 1st photo, but very impressive finish that looks fantastic Chelsea. Very realistic. My old turtle would have loved a platform like that. Well done.

matt

 

thank you! the first photo does indeed look bad but its all part of the process! sometimes it has to look bad for a while before it looks good haha.

 

Nice and natural looking.

 

Cool. Post pics of the salamander in that sweet setup!

 

really cool! I never caught salamanders as a kid :-(