Poll: species mixing

Do you mix species in your set-ups?

  • Mix newts/salamanders with invertebrates (glass shrimp, snails...)

    Votes: 204 40.0%

  • Mix newts/salamanders with fish

    Votes: 122 23.9%

  • Mix newts/salamanders with other species of newts/salamander

    Votes: 77 15.1%

  • Mix newts/salamanders with frogs/toads

    Votes: 35 6.9%

  • Mix newts/salamanders with reptiles

    Votes: 6 1.2%

  • None of the above

    Votes: 220 43.1%
  • Total voters
    510
JD
I wouldn't mix the two species. Tigers tend to try to eat anything, and a spotted salamander would certainly be on their menu. As for secretions, spotted salamanders (A.maculatum) don't have any you have to worry about.

As for species mixing in general, it is not a black and white issue. Certain species can and will live together quite well, others simply will not. In general there is no need to mix species. The only time it is truly applicable is in a display setup, if the intention is to breed then there is no need to have different species together and could in fact hamper the process.

Alex
 
Though I don't think you can mix the species, I love the tank!
 
I keep cherry shrimp ( Neocaridina denticulata sinensis) in a few axolotl/newt tanks that have been planted with a ton of Vals. Breed like crazy, newt gets a snack, axolotl too slow to catch them and give up easily. That is about as far as i go as species mixing. Habitats most people provide at home are way to small to really do any sort of "ecosystem" and any intense or even small scale species mixing. I am talking about 1000+ gallons, and a land area about the size of a bedroom if one wants to even think about do that!
 
I've thought it'd be fun to use a large tank(I'd think 40+) for a kind of SE US swampland biotope. False bottom land area with peat and some wetland plants, such as sundews/bladderworts, grasses, etc. Water section could house some Heterandria formosa or Elassoma evergladei. The amphibians could be N. v. louisianensis or dwarf sirens, alongside of cricket or chorus frogs. Ghost shrimp could round off the mix. It seems like it would work out ok to me.


As for mixing...I have put newts together with fish. I've found fish usually ignore newts. I did have one case of a newt with a sore that the fish were picking at. So you have to watch to make sure the fish are not nipping the newts and any newts with, say, damaged tails etc. should be isolated until the wound fully heals over.

naturejoe: I find your stories quite interesting...but a lot of that behavior definetly does not occur in the wild.
 
Ok, let me pose another species mix.

Cynops ensicauda popei and Polypedates leucomystax. Let us assume both groups of animals are CB individuals and are stocked at a low density.

Both species reach similar size at adulthood(in terms of one not being able to eat the other). One is arboreal, one terrestrial. Their ranges overlap on the Ryukyu islands. I can imagine C. e. popei walking around in a pool devouring tadpoles of P. leucomystax calling from the brush above the pool.

The only worry here is the oft quoted toxicity problem...but I've heard just as many stories of thins going ok as things going downhill. Must have to do with whether or not the toxic animals are stressed out.

So...in you guys opinion would this mix work? In what sized tank?
 
People have told me not to house buddies with my axolotls (besides other axolotls), can I put snails in the same tank?
 
@ Sam - I used to have triops, but in a tank on their own. They only live for about month so it's a bit pointless adding them to a newt tank as tankmates. As for adding them as feeders, aren't their shells a bit big for newts to digest? Plus they have points going back don't they? Here's a pic for everyone who doesn't know what triops are:

triop_bodyshot.gif
 
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I'm sure bigger newts would eat them in a jiffy. They are not very well protected and that shell they have is quite soft.
 
Right now I'm not mixing salamanders with anything. I'm keeping Siren lacertina and Xenopus frogs, separately. Recently I have avioded snails, but snails happen as noted by others. I can't say that I will never mix salamanders with anything, but I do think singleness of purpose helps prevent some mistakes.
 
The rule that tankmates must be "too big to be swallowed" is too simple. For a short time I kept Notophthalmus v. louisianensis with young Siren intermedia, because they are sympatric and syntopic in many habitats. The newts were far too big to be eaten, but I quickly learned why they evolved the ability to regenerate limbs...they all recovered after separation.
 
No, it is not me, it´s the hand of an herpetologists that works for my university(i suspect you are talking about the Salamandra pics).
And please don´t use that tone with me, i have nothing personal against you and i don´t think i earned that. I care about my animals, yes, and i have strong opinions about certain things, but don´t try to diminish me, please...
 
To clarify my poll vote- (#1 on the list)

The only "species mixing" I do is when I add live food animals to a tank with caudates. For fish, I do community tanks only with compatible species. For reptiles I do not allow any species mixing other than when applicable live foods are used. Caudates and live foods are kept in a seperate room. Chameleons and snakes are also kept in separate rooms.

I quarantine all purchased live foods a minimum of 30 days before use, although I "grow my own" in most cases. My exception to this rule is crickets. I have a mail order subscription for live ones, however I do not quarantine them.

Oh, and I hate snails...so they get the "six pack and long tongs" treatment...:D
 
Species mixing, for the most part, is really a choice left up to the owner. However, mixes in herps have to be carried out carefully, much more as opposed to, say, fish, as factors such as temperature, humidity, substrate, and foliage would greatly affect the animals in question. And finding herps that would suit each other's exact location whilst at the same time not being detrimental to their own health would make species finding much harder. Hence why we here very little in terms of herp mixing. In fact, the easiest mixes to pull off would be regionally base ones, and these are hard to pull off primarily due to to the fact that either few herps from said region are available, herps from that region have varying degrees of availability, with one being as common as guinea pigs and another as rare as natural diamonds, or that certain laws restrict collection from said regions.

Don't get me wrong, species mixing isn't exactly that much of an alien concept. It happens a lot as far as fish keepers are concerned and a lot of the people I know have managed to keep successful comunnity fish tanks for extended periods of time. That said, herps are an entirely different ball game, with the greater amount of complexities that land life provides.
 
Personally i would not mix species, but i do have a small number of guppies and minnows as feeder fish for my axies.
 
azhael

Fair enough. It was my impression that you came off as a bit smug, especially when you call anyone who mixes species "irresponsible", but if that was not your intent then I misinterpreted you. My bad.
 
malduroque said:
azhael

You obviously care deeply about the well being of your creatures. In fact, you probably care more about them than anyone on this forum. I have a question for you. In your gallery, there are photos of someone handling and holding various caudate species. Is that you by any chance?http://www.caudata.org/forum/member.php?u=1978
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your point is here? The vast majority of people in the caudate hobby do care for their animals...that's why we keep them!

malduroque said:
azhael

Fair enough. It was my impression that you came off as a bit smug, especially when you call anyone who mixes species "irresponsible", but if that was not your intent then I misinterpreted you. My bad.
Click to expand...

Rodrigo never said anyone who mixes species is irresponsible, you DID misinterpret what he said:

azhael said:
In the end i think your position about mixing species is reduced to two facts...
If you give importance to the "looks" or to the "interesting" possibilities...then you may be a mixer.
If what you care for more is the well being and health of all your animals, then you probably know better than to take risks.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree with this more. If you are mixing species because they look good together, or because you want to find an interesting combination, then you shouldn't keep newts (or any animals for that matter). True some combinations work when caution and common sense are utilized, but most don't work out.

Newts are living creatures, not toys for you to play God with.
 
Please keep the current debate in the other thread. No reason to roll off one wrestling mat into another.
 
Re: mixing..

i cant believe some people said reptiles i mean its obvious that reptiles live on dry land and salamanders don't.
 
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