Eurcea lucifuga

[Kurt]

Sad news to report, I have lost one of my Eurycea lucifuga, AKA cave salamanders. No clue why. He/she looked fine right up to death and even in death looked fine. I did notice a little redness near the cloaca, but it didn't appear to be significant at all.

The surviving two appear just fine, took off like a bat out of hell when I tried to examine each one.

[John]

Sorry to hear that Kurt. It's tough to diagnose just by looking at it .

[Kerry1968]

I'm passing on my condolences too Kurt.

[Kurt]

Thanks all. Came home tonight from Zoo Creatures and discovered another one on its back. I went to take it out and realized its heart was still beating (thanks to their translucent skin I could see it), so I righted it and put it back. Its probably dead by now, as I have not checked on it in a few hours.
I don't have a clue as to what is going on. This one looked better than the last one. Do these creatures all of a sudden become terratorial and kill each other? (I forgot to mention, that each time I find one its outside the hide. When I found the first one dead, there was a live one right next to him. It almost seemed as they were chased out of the hide, but that could be just my imagination.)

[John]

In the wild I've found them in groups together under rocks so they can't be too territorial. To me it sounds like you've got a disease going on or a disease induced from a stress problem. How warm is your house? Lungless salamanders rarely tolerate temperatures past 70 for too long - there's a reason this species is known as the "Cave Salamander".

[Ebony]

Im so sorry for you Kurt.

[Kurt]

I lost all three. Now that I think of it, maybe it was temperature. The room is on the warm side.