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Fish with legs?

hillrunner

hillrunner

PMA Member
Can someone tell me what these are? They have gills, a long fin that runs down there back all the way to a fish like tail. The gills have a kind of strange spiky skin that almost looks like horns attached to them. They also have 4 legs. Most of them are about 4 inches long but I saw one that was at least six. This pond was dry two years ago so they cannot be very old.
They cannot breath out of water and die pretty quickly but they can walk pretty well on land.
They look identical to the Mexican walking fish but according to the Internet they are only found in Mexico. Whatever these things are, they are in my pond by the hundreds.
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Technical term I'm not sure, but I've always called them mudpuppy's or waterdogs. They're a type of salamander.
 
Yep, type of salamander. Stays underwater though and doesn't ever become a land dweller like other salamanders. I would guess because of that, wouldn't live out of water for an extended period. Actually, I'd do some reading on how common or rare they are??
 
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bwese said:
They turn into tiger salanders, those black with yellow stripes ones.
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They are often confused as the LARVAE look alike but the tiger larvae actually become salamanders while mudpuppies never change.

So they actually are different but I couldn't remember how they were different from zoology :0

So..I looked it up.... :)

"Tiger salamanders have 5 toes on their hind feet and only 4 on their front, while mudpuppies have only 4 toes on each foot."

From the Internet:

Mudpuppies, also called waterdogs, are one of only a few salamanders that make noise. They get their name from the somewhat embellished notion that their squeaky vocalizations sound like a dog's bark.

Among the largest of the salamanders, mudpuppies can exceed 16 inches (41 centimeters) in length, although the average is more like 11 inches (28 centimeters). Their range runs from southern central Canada, through the midwestern United States, east to North Carolina and south to Georgia and Mississippi.

Mudpuppies live on the bottoms of lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams, and never leave the water. They hide themselves in vegetation and under rocks and logs, emerging at night to feed on whatever prey they can catch, including crayfish, worms, and snails.

Mudpuppies are easily distinguishable by their bushy, red external gills, which they grow as larva and never lose. They have flat heads, wide tails, stubby legs, and feet with four distinct toes. Their bodies are gray or brownish-gray with blue-black spots.

Females lay large clutches of eggs and guard them until they hatch, a unique trait among salamanders.

Mudpuppies are common throughout their range and have no special conservation status. However, habitat loss and pollution is putting pressure on some local populations.


I think I see four toes on both hind and front.... so you sir have a MUDPUPPY! :way:
 
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Stick a hook in one and go bass fishing.. Better go workout first to make sure you are strong enough for the strikes you get..
 
Kinda freaky looking. I have lived in central IA my whole life and have spent lots of time playing in creeks and ponds, but have never seen one of these. Somewhat surprising that they would make good fish bait as they look very similar to Bullfrog Tadpoles. They don't have any kind of defense weapon or anything that can be harmful to humans do they?
 
We used to catch and keep these as pets when we were kids. Definately a mud puppy. I haven't seen one for years. I still think they are cool!
 
Count the back toes to be sure, but I would guess that since your pond was dry two years ago and now has these that they are neotenic tiger salamanders (retain juvenile/larval stage as adults). Mudpuppies (Necturus) are much more reliant on water since they are 100% gill breathers, but during a good period of rain, they can travel shorter distances so it is possible for it to be a mudpuppy. Not all tiger salamanders morph into "adult" form tiger salamanders (Ambystoma) and can still reproduce in the neotenic form. I used to work with an endangered tiger salamander in SE Arizona and we saw more reproductive adults that retained the larval life form simply because there was enough water in the stock tanks they live in that they never had to morph and go seek new places. So count the back toes to be sure. One picture looks like 5 toes to me, but its hard to tell from the pics. I saw them both all the time as a kid in central Iowa, but then I was going out of my way to look for things like that...and my dad ran a bait shop so we were seining creeks constantly.

And to show you a GIANT adult tiger salamander (endangered species) that retained the larval form into reproductive adulthood:

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O yeah this is awesome used to catch these all the time at grandmas brings back good memories. When I had new pets and grandpa would steal them to go fishing with :grin:
 
riplip said:
May want to figure out what it is exactly since Mudpuppies are a threatened species and illegal to collect, possess, or kill. Here is a website to check out...

http://www.herpnet.net/Iowa-Herpetology/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=49
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A good link that actually has the other give away I should have picked up on. Necturus (mudpuppy) eyes are small and barely visible. The eyes that are shown in your second photo post suggest tiger salamanders, as does the head shape.
 
180class said:
We used to catch and keep these as pets when we were kids. Definately a mud puppy. I haven't seen one for years. I still think they are cool!
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DITTO.

Consider yourself fortunate that you live near a body of water in Iowa that actually supports life for these critters. They (reptiles and amphibians) are the true "indicator" species of the wild. If you have muddpuppies calling your pond or stream home, it's a very clean piece of water with minimal runoff.

Thanks for sharing.
 
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