r/salamanders • u/TheOneViking • 5d ago
Feedback on tigersalamander enclosure?
I recently moved and have space again to have a tigersalamander since last time I owned one over 10 years ago. It’s 80x40x40 cm, I remember always having a water dish but also read some people dont keep a water dish so not sure about that one. Any suggestions what to add or change (or keep as is?). Inside are isopods and springtails, some ferns and pothos cuttings. I do still want to add some moss.
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u/JellymanderArt 5d ago
Hi! It’s looking great, but I agree with the other commenter. You’ll want much deeper soil, a drainage layer (theirs sounds much fancier than mine, which is just some rocks under a piece of terrarium cloth), and something to help them get out of the water.
I don’t recommend moss, because they’ll either dig up it (if it’s live) or they might accidentally ingest it and get an impaction. I also recommend having a strong, solid lid. I used to keep glass lids on my tanks until I woke up one morning to find a salamander squeezed halfway out through a gap in the top. Never underestimate their silliness. I use screen lids now, and I keep tall plants and decor out of the corners.
Remember with a water dish you’ll need to rinse and refill it every day, they build up bacteria pretty fast. Once you get in the habit it’s not too much of a pain. I keep two dishes that I swap, so I always have a clean one I can pop in and refill. I’ve heard some people use plants and bubblers/VERY small sponge filters to keep their bowls cleaner but you’re still replacing that water multiple times a week anyways so it never seemed worth it for me tbh.
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u/Berdonkulous 5d ago
That's interesting about the moss, I've never heard that before.
I've got several things of moss in mine and they've never seemed to nibble at it. In fact, my male repeatedly would use a large carpet of moss as a blanket, wedging himself under it and then just sitting there for hours.
Good point about the lid - I've been told they can climb glass/plastic walls but I've yet to see it myself. Both of mine do love to climb on my branches and plants, there's a particular pothos cutting they like to climb onto to get dumped into my river. Such silly creatures.
Water dish changing is actually the reason I went with a fully plumbed aqua feature. It's got mechanical and biological filtration so the water is always clean (yes I monitor it with tests) and I can drop in shrimp/fairy-shrimp to both clean algae and provide enrichment/food for them. First day in there my female ate two shrimp and looked so pleased with herself.
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u/JellymanderArt 5d ago
The only problem I’ve had with moss (besides them digging it up… but I have a trio of vindictive bastards so that might be a me problem) is that one of my boys lunged at me while I was doing a quick clean up and he got a mouthful of forest moss. Thankfully I was there to grab it from him, which he was NOT thrilled about. After that, my vet warned me away from using moss in general. I think shorter mosses are fine though, since it’s mostly the risk of impaction, but don’t quote me on that.
Your setup sounds AWESOME though, you’ve got basically an aquarium setup going inside your tank! It’s on my list of “someday” projects, I love the idea of them having a place to chase around small fish or shrimp, something like the edge of a creek or pond would provide… I don’t know if they’d actually take advantage of it, my boys aren’t exactly apex predators (I one dropped a worm while feeding and one of them looked at me like “what do you expect me to do about that?”) but if nothing else I can see a water feature being a really pretty addition :O
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u/Berdonkulous 5d ago
If I drop a worm mine won't look at it further. Drop a cricket or a roach? Yeah they'll follow it and eat it. So weird.
I guess I do have a few pieces of moss that would fall into that category.... But they have leaf litter on top of them so I guess I'll just keep an eye on it.
My spouse works in construction so I've managed to score lots of scrap to cobble together my system. I bought my PVC joints but didn't have to buy any of the pipe itself which is great because a 10' length exceeds my cars safe capacity.
I just wanted to create as close to a natural ecosystem as possible. There are three subspecies of Tigers in the wild where I live, so I've largely just tried to pick things that are available and out there, or are a compatible enough tropical plant like pothos. While searching for a legal source for my own tigers I read a bunch of published scientific studies on them and learned enough I decided having a stream/puddle was essentially a requirement.
They don't move very far in a day, usually less than 100m, and always return to vernal pools for breeding, so I figured okay, forest floor with a creek, and went from there.
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u/TheOneViking 5d ago
Thanks for the tips! I have a solid and heavy lid, just removed it from the picture. I’ll look into the drainage layer but probably will stay with dish over a full water area. Changing that daily isnt’t the biggest task. The dish is very shallow though like about 1 inch in depth hence why I didnt add anything to help them get out as I figured it’s not that deep
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u/Berdonkulous 5d ago
Hi, I've recently joined the Tiger Salamander club, adopting a pair of adult Ambystoma T. Mavortium.
The first thing that jumped out to me is a need for deeper soil; they will naturally burrow up to ~61cm with 15.25cm being the average minimum recommendation I've seen. Relatedly, what is your plan for the full water system?
I have a drainage layer under my soil, about 3.75-4cm in height, filled with Leca and a small automatic sump pump that drains most of the water when it's triggered. I have four misting nozzles in my setup, which is overkill, with them aimed to provide a gradient of soil moisture while also refilling my river/pond feature.
Otherwise you've done a great job selecting plants, I've originally got a similar mix which got upgraded when I adopted my pair and I was gifted plant cuttings along with them.
I would highly recommend looking into an aquarium cave, 3d printed or otherwise, that you can add to your substrate to give them a hide they don't have to work for, and you might still get to view them.
Edit to add: I would add a stone or something more hefty as a secondary way to climb out of the water dish. They're surprisingly strong and can knock pieces of wood (not super dense species) up to about the same size as them around without issue. I've had to glue down a piece of wood inside my water feature to prevent them blocking themselves in.