I Caught A Salamander - Should I Keep It

He's really pretty, and I would love to keep him, but I don't know what I should do. I don't have a tank right now, and I won't have money to buy one for a couple of weeks, so I don't think I should keep him.

However, the lizards we had in a forty gallon tank passed, so we were going to give the tank to my boyfriend, Ben, for his ball python. After that, he's going to move all his snakes up a cage, and he'll have a leftover ten gallon tank. He's moving the python to the 40 gal, the milk snake to his biggest tank (not sure of the gallon size, but smaller than 40), his glass snake/lizard thing from a 10 gal to a slightly bigger one, maybe 15 or 20.

Anyway, it'll leave him with an extra ten gallon tank, which he said he would give to me. BUT! I have four Mediterranean house geckos which need moving, because the tank I have them in now is really too small. I was planning on moving them into the ten gallon, but I have the feeling that would be too small, seeing as how I have four. They're juveniles though.. so I don't know.

ANYWAY! back to the main point. x] Would ten gallons be enough for a salamander? Could it stay in a tupperware (not sure of spelling... lol) thing for a day or two while I wait for Ben to switch out all his snakes? He's small for a salamander, Ben said, so maybe he's a juvenile? He's about two or three inches, excluding his tail, I believe. He's black with yellow spots. What kind could he be? How difficult would it be to care for him?

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

It sounds like you're describing a spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum, although some subspecies of tiger salamander can look like that as well. Does it look like this?


You'll get a lot of suggestions to let it go. And although I often keep wild-caught herps, I would advise you to let it go as well. You don't have a habitat ready, and you just got 4 new house geckos that you also don't have a habitat ready for yet. I'd concentrate on the house geckos for now. Plus amphibians are a bit more complicated than geckos.

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

Only keep it if you can provide excellent care and habitat for it. Another ten gallon terrarium would cost about $10 (at least that's what it costs here), plus whatever decor you needed. If you can't manage that, I'd say letting the guy free is probably the best option

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

i let him go..
i do have enough on my hand with my geckos right now.
i may get one later though, when i have money and time.
lol
:]

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

excellent choice. They are fun though.

If you want a salamander, you can get some really neat ones. I keeps seeing this one at the reptile show who has a fire orange strip down its back. Really neat.

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

Great choice!

 

Re: Caught a Salamander; Dunno if I Should Keep I

i've never been to a reptile show...
that would be so much funnnn!
maybe i'll look on the internet and find when the next one is coming around here, and i'll get my boyfriend to come with me.
he'd have a great time, and so would i.
:]]

i heard of some reptile shows around where i live a while back when i first got my mountain horned dragons, two or three years ago... wow that was a long time ago...
anyways, they were our first reptiles, we kept them about two years before they died..
it was awful, i felt so bad.
but yeah, i never went to a show though.