1 kinds · tap one for a closer look
Eats any fish it can catch and is sensitive to heat.
This one is best kept on its own, or with its own kind.
Eats any fish it can catch and is sensitive to heat. Keep alone in a cold, dark tank.
Check your local laws. Not on the US Lacey Act Bsal injurious list (genus Necturus not listed). State status varies: listed as endangered in Iowa and special concern in Maryland and North Carolina; many states regulate wild collection. Check the rules where you live before you buy one, and never release it into the wild.
Earthworms, shrimp, small fish and sinking pellets.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Sexes look alike; the male cloaca has two backward-pointing papillae and swells in the breeding season, while the female cloaca is slit-like and often edged with light colour.
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Egg-guarder ·
Mates in autumn; the female stores sperm until spring, then lays eggs attached to the roof of a nest cavity under a rock or log and guards them until they hatch.
Keep a pair in a large cold tank.
300 L cold tank with caves.
Cold winter then slightly warmer spring.
18-180 eggs (5-11 mm) hung from the nest roof; hatch after 1-2 months (about 40 days); hatchlings 2-2.5 cm.
Larvae eat daphnia and baby brine shrimp.
A large, fully aquatic North American salamander that keeps its feathery maroon-red external gills for life. Mostly nocturnal and active all year, even in winter.
Constantine Rafinesque described the mudpuppy in 1818. It keeps its gills for life and never leaves the water. It is active even in cold winter waters.
First described by Constantine S. Rafinesque in 1818.
12 facts checked with sources
Amphibian (fully aquatic salamander), not a fish. Since Chabarria et al. 2018 the former subspecies N. m. louisianensis (Red River mudpuppy / Louisiana waterdog) and much of the southern range are treated as Necturus louisianensis by ASW; animals from the southern US may be that species.
Amphibian Species of the World (AMNH): Necturus maculosusNew value.
Wikipedia: Common mudpuppyTotal length 20-33 cm; legacy 30 fits.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosus · Wikipedia: Common mudpuppySolitary in the wild, consistent with keeping one.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusLegacy 'a' (will eat tankmates). ADW: opportunistic predator of crayfish, small fish, fish eggs, amphibians. Not aggressive to humans ('completely harmless').
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusBottom-dweller; legacy 'b' agrees.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusNew value. Older accounts (ADW) extend south to northern Georgia; those southern populations are now N. louisianensis (ASW).
Amphibian Species of the World (AMNH): Necturus maculosus · Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusLegacy (swollen vent in breeding season; hard to tell otherwise) agrees; papillae detail added.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusLegacy agrees. Sexual maturity at 4-6 years (~20 cm).
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusLegacy 50-100 is within but narrower.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosus · Wikipedia: Common mudpuppyLegacy 'needs cold water' is not directly quoted; ADW notes cold, oxygen-rich water gives shorter gills and the species is active in winter.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosusLegacy text implied the Lacey Act Bsal ban covers this species; it does not (Necturus is not among the 20 genera of 2016; the 2025 summary did not mention it among the 16 added). State statuses from ADW may be dated; check current state rules.
Animal Diversity Web (Univ. of Michigan): Necturus maculosus · USFWS: List of Salamander Species Designated as Injurious (effective 2016) · USFWS final rule + second interim rule, Federal Register 10 Jan 2025 (FR Doc. 2024-31203): Listing Salamanders Due to Risk of Salamander Chytrid Fungus