The Ambystoma macrodactylum (long-toed salamanders) laid eggs a few days ago in my yard pond.

I live in Moscow Idaho (USA) on the Palouse. I reverted my yard to mostly Palouse Prairie. Many years ago, I installed a 250 gallon pond form in my yard and placed native aquatic plants in it. Over 20 years ago, my church (Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse) wanted to rear local Ambystoma macrodactylum from eggs so the children could learn important things like how ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, that sort of thing. I reared the the eggs to adults and large larvae until the summer in an aquarium out on the North side of the church with backups (in case something happened to the ones at church) in an aquarium outside my house under the shade of my front porch. During the church's summer break, I put the mature and larval salamanders in my yard pond. The salamanders have bred in the pond almost every year since then. About five years ago, they were joined by Pseudacris regilla (Pacific treefrogs) that began calling yesterday; 4/4/2024.

Roderick Sprague said:

I live in Moscow Idaho (USA) on the Palouse. I reverted my yard to mostly Palouse Prairie. Many years ago, I installed a 250 gallon pond form in my yard and placed native aquatic plants in it. Over 20 years ago, my church (Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse) wanted to rear local Ambystoma macrodactylum from eggs so the children could learn important things like how ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, that sort of thing. I reared the the eggs to adults and large larvae until the summer in an aquarium out on the North side of the church with backups (in case something happened to the ones at church) in an aquarium outside my house under the shade of my front porch. During the church's summer break, I put the mature and larval salamanders in my yard pond. The salamanders have bred in the pond almost every year since then. About five years ago, they were joined by Pseudacris regilla (Pacific treefrogs) that began calling yesterday; 4/4/2024.

Click to expand...

This is super awesome and great to hear. Thanks Rod for being such a great salamander dadder! Can you post any pictures of the long toes? I once found a long tailed salamander when we first moved into our house. I barely knew anything about them at that time. Right where I found him I planted a hydrangea. Just this year I found out salamanders and hydrangea are not a good mix. Needless to say I haven't found a long tail since then 8 years ago but I do have a creek in our backyard and we put in a 125g plastic pond last year and I wanted to try and rear some Eurycea bislineata in my backyard but I was wondering how likely are they to leave my pond and go into my creek?

Newthanial said:

This is super awesome and great to hear. Thanks Rod for being such a great salamander dadder! Can you post any pictures of the long toes? I once found a long tailed salamander when we first moved into our house. I barely knew anything about them at that time. Right where I found him I planted a hydrangea. Just this year I found out salamanders and hydrangea are not a good mix. Needless to say I haven't found a long tail since then 8 years ago but I do have a creek in our backyard and we put in a 125g plastic pond last year and I wanted to try and rear some Eurycea bislineata in my backyard but I was wondering how likely are they to leave my pond and go into my creek?

Click to expand...

I just read up on Eurycea bislineata and found out they like a bit of water flow. (Ambystoma macrodactylum like clear water if it is still or gently flowing.) If you have a seep that feeds the pond they should like it, or get a submergible pump and place it in the stream to put stream water into the pond or use a pump in the pond to recirculate clean pond water. Also, stones stacked so their is space between them would be good in the pond. Females lay the eggs on the underside of stones in gently flowing water. Also, you could stack stones in the stream to give them more egg laying opportunities. They might breed in the pond on their own, but if you incorporate a stone in the stack that already has eggs on it and they do well in the pond, they should come back. Also, make sure the pond does not get hydrangea runoff. If the pond is well maintained without too many nutrients (avoid fertilizer) local species of salamanders that like the conditions in it just might move in, including still water species if you don't set up flowing water. The pH (how basic or acid) and the hardness of the water is important. Topping out a still pond with tap water due to evaporation will gradually make the water harder and more basic if your water has calcium in it.

I thought about trying to find a small pond liner and make like a 5 or 6ft stream with rocks of all sizes that runs over a few small falls and into the pond and put a pump to circulate from pond down stream. I have never done anything like it but there's a yt for just about anything now days. I found this wee lil lad at my mother in-laws this morning