A question about salamanders

[killerpenguin64]

I currently have a 15g land and water tank with 2 juvenile two lined salamanders and what im pretty sure is a long tail salamander. I caught them all about 2 1/2 months ago in a nearby steam, since then my two lined salamanders have matured a little and started getting some color and my long tail has lost its gills for about a month now and just stays burried in the ground, i rarely see him come out and i never see him eat, the ground is very moist and the water has a bubbler in it, my 2 lines eat mosquito larvae that i catch every day but the long taile i have never seen try and eat them, last night around midnight i dug it up and put few pinhead crickets i and watched it for a while, it followed one of them for a little bit but never went after it and after a while it dug its way back into the soil. i want to know if this is normal behavior as if hes hibernatin or something, since it lost its gills its tail has grown a little longer and has lost its paddle likeness and its eyes have become the typical adult salamaner eyes
any suggestions or help will be appriciated

 

[softturtle]

As far as I know, not to many people have mastered the art of keeping salamanders. They are pretty secretive and spend most of their lives under ground. Very few people have bred them, and the limited success they had it usually attributed to a native species in outdoor enclosures. Weather plays a big role in the life of salamanders. Another problem is that they are so attachted to the home pond,stream, or lake they were born in. If you released your salamanders miles away from their home pond, I would almost put money on them making their way back before fall. You have you self one of the great mysteries of reptile and amphibian keeping. About feeding them try and look at the local food that lives in or near the stream. He might even be eating like a hog and you just dont know becuase he is under ground. I have friends who put salamanders in large feeding tubs outdoors with a wire mesh top. Bugs naturally fall in and become prey and you could add more food by adding worms ar crickets. And they benefit from a natural light cycles and humidity. Hope my rambling helps.

Softy

 

[guppy]

As softturtle says, salamders tend to be secretive and most are nocturnal, find out which species it is for sure, some have very specialized diets and some have short life spans. There are some lungless types that eat only moss mites and slug eggs. Others like esatinas eat small insect avidly and can live 25 years. Moss and leaf litter are good substrates and keep the humidity levels up by holding moisture. I have never had much luck with them except for newts, mudpuppies, and tiger salamanders.

 

[mbhw]

I've kept similar species with mixed results. Try some black or tubifex worms, live, just a really small portion on the cap, and place it in there cage at dusk or night. Picky little eaters!

Also, try misting them once a day, I found it helps.