Anyone with experience of caecilians?

Reginator · Post by **Reginator** » 20 Oct 2006, 19:05

I've managed to get my grubby mitts on a pair of Typhlonectes natans, they're in the shop awaiting pick-up. I've read just about every snippet of info I can find, unfortunately the majority is very generalised so fairly unhelpful beyond "they're amphibians". Concerning specifically Typhlonectes natans I know these chaps are aquatic, need soft water, eat earthworms and other such gribblies, are fantastic escape artists that can breathe air, have a large temperature tolerance but do best from 24 - 28 degrees and are livebearers with a gestation of 11 months. Beyond that I'm kind of in the dark. I was planning on putting them in with my soft-water river community tank, as it's got a fairly low population at the moment, just a pair of small hoplos, a syno. eupterus and a pair of geophagus brasiliensis in there at the moment, the cats have never shown interest in anything alive (there was a newt in with them for about a year) so my only concern would be the geophagus, who can be transferred to a breeder tank if needs be, OR the caecilians could go in there on their own, but it's a bit small for them and can't be sealed completely, the other tank can. Having played the game of "hunt the newt" more times than I care to think about when I first got her, I don't really want a repeat performance. So anyone kept these critters, any advice or warnings? I look forward to any help anyone can offer, thanks in advance.

Tanis

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 20 Oct 2006, 20:19

I've kept both Typhlonectes and a landbased species (blue with yellow stripes, no idea wich genus), the latter in a terrarium ofcourse.

IME they're not as easy as they look.....the Typhlonectes newed extremely clean water, soft, with a pH that should not rise over 7. if it does and if the nitrates pop up they develop sores, "loose their enitire skin" (that's what it looks like) and die.

I had two die on me in a very messy and quite visible painful way.
that's when I started to look for fish wich need less acidic water (until I recently screwed up with accepting the Gymnallabes as a present: result a whole tank of very sick fishes

).
also, yes, they're escapte artists. they might look fat and rubbery, but they can squeeze themselves through a hole the diameter of your little finger.

the landbased specimen was a bit more hardy but succumbed to drought when I wason holiday and my roommates forgot to water the "empty tank with pottery soil".
until then that one was fairly easy to keep (moist, clean soil and earthworms as food), but it never showed itself. not much of a pet. IMO it's at its' best in the wild.

Reptilian · Post by **Reptilian** » 21 Oct 2006, 00:23

Don't put them with anything that has barbs or spines as a defence because they will try to eat it and the ceaceelium (sp?)and/or the fish will die.