Black skin???

[mandee]

We recently purchased two newts within a few weeks of each other. We are almost positive that they are both Rough skinned newts. Recently one has been developing blackness around the bottom of her tail and belly. At first we thought that it might be due to shedding but it was lasted for a week now and she is barely eating.

We have them in a ten gallon tank with a submersible filter. There is really only about 4 gallons of water in the tank and she is staying on the land most of the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or information that can help me figure out what is going on?? Thanks.

 

[paris]

a clear picture would help a lot, i cant think of anything like that off the top of my head. does the skin appear dead? is it black or dark brown? is it in spots or a growing patch?....please fill us in with more details and we'll see if we can help.

 

[mandee]

I will try to get pictures to you as soon as possible. Unfortunately at the moment I do not have access to a digital camera.

She (or he-not sure) seems to be getting darker as a whole. The only spots that are actually "Turning black" are the underside of her stomach and tail, where she is the brightest.

 

[paris]

is she shedding regularly?

 

[mandee]

Not 100% sure on that one. We saw pieces of skin floating around in the tank about a week perhaps a week and a half ago, but am a little unsure of who the skin came off of. Since we have two. How regularly should they shed? We are quite new to the world of newts.

Also, I wanted to note that we recently went back to the pet store that we bought them from and now the tank with the newts says "california newts." However, we are pretty sure that she is a rough skin. Again. wish I had pictures but we are working on that.

thanks for all of your help!

 

[mandee]

It seems that she is doing ok now. Must have just been a really long shedding process, because most of the blackness has gone away and we noticed a few chunks of skin in the water. I haven't been able to get much info on newt shedding most sites said that it could take a few hours...not a week!

Can you offer any wisdom about the shedding process?? Also how often to these type of newts shed??

again thank you.

 

[janice]

I'd like to know more about this too. Since I got my taricha he has shed only once. Now the skin looks loose and looser every day (for the past four days) but no shedding yet. Why does it take so long?