Illness/Sickness: URGENT Paddletail n

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Druzzi

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I'm new to keeping newts, but I have a paddletail who is spending all his time out of water. I have tried water temperatures from 17 - 25 degrees C, but still he refuses to go in the water. When I first bought him, he didn't eat for 11 days, but eventually I got him to eat a waxworm (that was 4 days ago)
He doesn't move much, and is wayyy too thin for my liking..

Can anyone offer any help?
 
Hello, well first of all, paddle-tail newts don't come out of the water. I think you may have a diffrent species. Secondly whatever species it is, you'll need to adjust the water to, find what food it eats, and other information about it. So, find out what species it is as soon as possible.
 
Re: URGENT Paddletail newt

That's a shock..
I'll see if I can get a pic or two up soon.
 
Just a few seconds ago, I managed to get him to eat another waxworm - that's 2 in 15 days - but still he's staying in the same place..
I've got some pictures here:

153.jpg


152.jpg


He also has orange spots on his belly, just reaching the tail.
Is it a firebelly?
 
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That looks like some kind of warty newt. Maybe Paramesotriton hongkongensis or Paramesotriton chinensis? Twenty-seven degrees is too high. Once it reaches 22 or 23 degrees, you should probably start trying to cool it down. Here's an article on that http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml. It also sounds like your aquarium isn't cycled. If it isn't then you should be doing water changes daily. What are your water parameters? Here is an article on cycling http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml.
 
Two waxworms in 15 days isn't really too bad for a newly-imported wild caught newt. I agree, it's a warty newt, not paddletail. And agree that you need to keep it cool. The 17C that you had would be just fine, maintain that. Try it out with just shallow water for starters, with plenty of rocks to hide among. Read the FAQ linked in my sig line.
 
Thanks for that, and the FAQ's are great!
Just one more thing: from my pictures, can you tell if he's too skinny?
 
He is slightly underweight but nothing to worry about too much yet. The way you can tell with most newts if they are under weight is the "hip bones" start to show as is the case with yours. I would say yours is P chinensis going by the yellow spots on his legs and should be 95% aquatic so if your newt is spending a lot of time out of the water this would point to poor water conditions due to the tank not being cycled.
 
I've got him into eating, and he's eaten two more worms since then. He also now, like you said, spends 90% of his time in the water ( I cooled the water down)
 
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