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I was recently invited to a friends house to see his new pet he showed me his "Ambystoma maculatum" spotted salamander.
He kept it in an old fish tank, that he had converted into a proper living space for the cute spotted creature.

He had placed sand in the bottom and dug out a spot to put an old small baking pan which was level with the sand and filled with water. He had placed some small potted plants and rocks around the container to give his pet plenty of shaded areas.

Being a amphibian they like to live in moist and cool places, with plenty of dark places to hide. He fed it mealworms and crickets, wax worms and nightcrawlers. He had caught it last year when he was out fishing at a small stream near his home.


The salamander has two rows of yellow or orange spots that run erratically the length of it's body. Begining on the head and near the eyes, the spots end at the tip of the tail. The background color can range from black to blue-black, dark grey or dark brown. The belly is slate-gray. It has a stout body that starts with a round snout and has large dark eyes.

[http://www.northrup.org/photos/yellow-spotted-salamander/]

It is a striking looking creature and I think your friend has supplied it with a nice safe home. I'm sure the salamander will enjoy being fed and will benefit from having plants and rocks in his tank. These will help to keep the atmosphere moist, and provide some shade. The salamander will also have somewhere to hide.

Thanks for your comments Rube, I was really quite impressed with my friend's aquarium set up for this salamander. As kids we often caught the orange salamanders and kept them as pets for a short time then returned them to the place we caught them at. These ones always seemed to need more moistness as places I found them at were dark mossy areas. So we never kept them.
When visiting in North Carolina, we found several on the edge of a swampy forest area. Again we just looked them over admiring their beautiful yellow spots then let them go again. I think salamanders and lizards are very interesting reptiles, having unique personalities.