Check out these Puppys

[Catahoula Ranch]

A few pictures of some of my pond residents that only come out at night, as far as I could research, these are,, or may be, Mudpuppys, a type of Salamander. They do not come out of the water as far as I have ever seen, and I guess they survive over Winter as there seems to be smaller ones and the bigger ones are getting bigger each year, the largest being about 8 inches long. I can't find much information on them, like what they eat? In the pictures you can see they have external gills, pretty cool looking.
Anyone know much about this pond dweller?
http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppy1_small.jpg (http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppy1.jpg) http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppy_small.jpg (http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppy.jpg)
www.catahoularanch.com/pond (http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond)

[Melody]

Man is my ignorance showing - I didn't even know we had such a creature in wild Canada. I'll be following this thread with interest! Thanks for posting about them.

[CACAdmin]

They are really cool. Of course, out of curiosity, I had to go looking to see what I could find. National Geographic says here (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/mudpuppy.html) that they can grow to more than 16 inches long :wideeyed: but never come out of the water. It also shows them as native to Eastern Canada and the US so yours could be another similar species or originated from there at some point.

[Melody]

According to google, two things they eat are small fish & snails :eek: .

[Catahoula Ranch]

Well, it seems that there are less Koi fry than past years, they also seemed late this year. I assume that the Mudpuppies are preying on them, so be it. I enjoy showing them to our guests, they are easy to find at night with a flashlight.
Thanks for that link Jay, now I know a little more about them, although they do not quite look the same as the picture provided, the colors are differrent, but they are a simular species. We have netted them and handled them, they are slippery, but I wouldn't say that they are slimy.
They are a welcome resident in the pond.

[Malibu]

If they never leave the water, how did they get in your pond?

[Melody]

LOL Good question!

[Catahoula Ranch]

what came first, the fish or the egg?
The pond is one of many in the area, basically I have part of an aquafier in my front yard, the water flows out of the ground around here, although my Koi pond is only a rainwater runoff pond and is higher than the water table, right now it's topped up, but with the hot weather I can add 250 gallons or more a day to keep it up, the water I use comes from our well which is part of the aquafier 25ft below the surface, maybe it got in there through my plumbing...
The previous owner used to let the pond dry out in the Summer. For the past two years I have always kept the level up in the dryer months with water from the well.
My water does run through a filter, but the first summer we were here there was no filter in the system.
I don't know, hard to say how they got there. But I suspect they are in all the ponds around the area here.

[Melody]

I suppose a bird could drop a baby too. It's a real pond - you don't see much of those these days. Lucky guy :Smile: .

[neon]

those are cool!

look out for your tadpoles to!

[Catahoula Ranch]

I have a second pond, which is part of a natural spring in the area, the water never freezes and is always running clear, the pond has tons of life, including some Mudpuppy looking babies that like to sun themselves when the light is right. I have now set up a barrel pond beside my Koi pond and have been rescueing Koi fry, but also have already put a couple Tadpoles in too, or Toadpoles,,, the are quite large, I guess I'm trying to save all the local wildlife in a mini pond .
I am now trying to catch a few Mudpuppy babes, but they won't show themselves on the waters surface it seems, unless the sun is shining just right, and so far are have been tough to catch. I haven't gotten close enough to these small lizard like creatures to be sure they are even the same as the larger ones that are in the Koi pond. seems wierd that I only see these small ones when the sun shines in one pond, and only see these larger ones, if they are the same,,, in another pond, when it is dark.

[Soggybottom]

These guys are neat, thanks for posting!

I wish I had more wild critters visit my 2nd floor balcony hehe.

[Pamelajo]

Neat critters!

[brnttoast]

my LFS has some mud puppies
they have been morphing into salamanders which then become semi-aquatic and can travel across land
he was saying hes had some stay as mudpuppies for years but this last batch changed within weeks of recieving tham

[Catahoula Ranch]

these ones came out of the water 7wks ago::D:
http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppys09_small.jpg (http://www.catahoularanch.com/pond/mudpuppys09.jpg)

[OldMan]

Those puppies might be better posted in the livebearer section.

[Catahoula Ranch]

Could'nt resist a little humor.::D:

[STANKYfish]

Beautiful pond and puppies!!!! Would you consider rehoming a few of the puppies, i mean the slippery ones, if you ever catch them ::D: We have a pond not quite as

big as yours, with goldfish, our grandsons would love them. We are in Mission.

[Catahoula Ranch]

I don't think that would be a problem, but be sure to have a look in your pond now when its dark, you may already have some. Otherwise I could catch a couple for you.
PM me your phone #.

[Catahoula Ranch]

well I have been looking for them the past few night and have seen no sign. It seems the season may already have come to an end. I will keep looking.
:Smile: