Pond material and design

[Alistair]

I have always used plastic or rubber. This can cause problems:
1. Newts and salamanders inevitably creep underneath and as it can get very dry under this material, they can dehydrate and die - I have lost some in this way, as they do not always leave to get into the pool as one would expect.
2. It is difficult to achieve the right shape.
3. it is difficult to provide a rim to stop water from the surrounding ground seeping in to discolour the water and enrich it with nutrients promoting algal growth.
4. The black material hampers one's view of black frog and toad tadpoles.
I have recently made a pond in an outdoor vivarium out of cement. There is a deeper area linked by a channel to a shallow strip, so that water will enter when it rains (there is usually plenty here in the north west of Ireland) This shallow area contains liverwort, moss and some large pieces of bark for cover.
The vivarium contains two pairs of marbled salamanders, put in recently. Pieces of wood provide cover and there is plenty of moss. It is kept damp with watering if necessary.
Marbled salamanders lay their eggs in the Autumn in depressions and the female keeps guard. When the rain comes to fill the depression the eggs are supposed to hatch, so I am hoping that they will lay the eggs in the shallow strip at the edge of the main pond. If not this year, perhaps next.
It was easy to make a rim all round and under the deeper part under the soil I put a piece of rubber lining, just in case a crack ever develops, to stop the pond entirely emptying. A possible drawback with cement is that the water will tend to be alkaline especially at first, but this should lessen after some weeks.
Does anyone else have experience with cement ponds?

[Killian]

Hi Alistair,

There is a paint available in various colours for waterproofing concrete ponds. it would also stop cemet leaking into the water. Try Garys petworld in Letterkenny he had some last time I was in.

[willj]

Hi Alistair,

i notice you mentioned ambystoma opacum, i was wondering if you can tell me what time of year they start to breed, i've got a pair i separate tanks, and i was wondering when i should put them together

cheers

[Alistair]

The Ambystoma are supposed to mate in the Autumn, unlike other salamanders. I think that they choose a night when conditions are right, but what the trigger is I do not know. I would expect them only to mate in an outdoor vivarium, but as far as I know there are few reports if any of successful captive breeding. The female guards the eggs as described in my note about cement ponds. Most likely USA owners will know more about the conditions for breeding. Mine are not at all tame and only come out late at night. In this they differ from their relations the Tiger salamanders - mine quickly became tame and learned to come out in the day time for feeding.

[phil]

hi alistair, concrete ponds are simple to build and extremely versatile. they can be painted afterwards, but in my experience(and i have built several ponds) it is unnecesary. sealing them to stop the release of potentially harmfull chemicals can be achieved several ways. firstly and simplist is merely to keep filling and emptying the pond over the course of several months until the concrete has properly cured and no longer leaches chemicals into the water. The other and much quicker method is to use a substance called silglaze which is cheaply available from many garden centres which have a pond department. The silglaze is in the form of crystals which are mixed with water to form a paste which is painted onto the dry concrete pond, it is left to dry for a few minutes and then rinsed off thoroughly. This has the dual effect of sealing the porous surface and neutralising the poisonous chemicals. hope this is of some help. i will post some basic construction details soon.