C. orientalis coming in a few weeks and i have questions.... please

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deedee71

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hi

I am getting some C. orientalis a week on Thursday. 22nd October. I have read the caresheet, and I read that sometimes adult individuals wont want to eat and may want to be terrestrial, due to poor conditions prior to new owners obtaining them. if this happens, and they want to be terrestrial, can I offer them small mealworms? waxworms, fruitflies? will they be okay on an island of floating corkbark covered in java moss while they adjust?

also I am concerned about the filter. I thought I read they don't like moving water. I have an undergravel filter operated by an airpump. this wont move the water much. would this be an ideal way to filter the firebelly newt aquarium?

many thanks

dee major
 
Hi, that's great that you've read the caresheet. How many newts are you getting and have you cycled your aquarium or are you in the process of doing so?

With my newts, 2 were fully aquatic while one stayed terrestrial for a while after I got him. He stayed on floating corkbark during this time, and would sometimes change over to a piece of wood i have sticking up at the back of my tank. I fed him chopped up earthworms and thawed bloodworms with tweezers.

I can't speak to the filtration you have as I have a regular filter that is offset by large plants at the back of my aquarium, but i'm sure you'll get lots of good feedback here.

Good luck with your newts!!
 
CatSpit said:
Hi, that's great that you've read the caresheet. How many newts are you getting and have you cycled your aquarium or are you in the process of doing so?

thanks catspit :)
I want 3 newts.

they will live in the fishtank I have my shrimp in, been set up since april this year with an undergravel filter but may decide to change it to a sand substrate and would need to change my undergravel filter to an old fashioned box filter operated by airstone using a mature sponge (currently on another filter in the same tank).


With my newts, 2 were fully aquatic while one stayed terrestrial for a while after I got him. He stayed on floating corkbark during this time, and would sometimes change over to a piece of wood i have sticking up at the back of my tank. I fed him chopped up earthworms and thawed bloodworms with tweezers.

I wondered about that, using the corkbark. did he need a hide on the corkbark or did he hide in moss on it or anything? good to hear he ate frozen bloodworm and chopped worm :)

I can't speak to the filtration you have as I have a regular filter that is offset by large plants at the back of my aquarium, but i'm sure you'll get lots of good feedback here.

Good luck with your newts!!
Click to expand...

thanks catspit, I really want to keep a filter in there, just don't want it to drive the newts nuts with the noise of the bubbles. I don't reckon there will be much water movement with the undergravel filter if I keep that, although I think I would prefer sand as the akadama might get accidentally eaten and also uneaten bloodworms may sink in the gravel and pollute it. so I will probably go with the box filter using the mature filter sponge :):ufo:
 
My tank is pretty well planted and the elodea grew up and over the corkbark raft so he had some cover. He stayed up there for a few months before venturing into the tank and he hasn't used the raft since he went aquatic.

That's a good idea to change your substrate to sand. I don't know what akadama is (a type of gravel?), but if it could be mistakenly ingested then it's good to get rid of it.

Sounds like you know what you're doing filter-wise!
 
That sounds like a beautiful setup catspit. with the elodea for cover, did you have to spray the cork to keep it most or leave mr newt to it?

yes I think I will change to sand. I like the look of sand and the bloodworm wont disappear into it like gravel. I think it will be easy to vacuum with the siphon.

thank you very much for the help catspit. I do appreciate it lots.

do you have any pictures of your newt tanks? I am still looking at setups to do. :happy:
 
If they are Pet trade I would urge you to think again before buying them. Ethical issues aside, they are usually in very poor shape health wise and are often too far gone to save, even if they seem ok in the shop. Why not look for captive bred ones?
 
Here's a pic of my tank when i set it up last March. Since then the plants have all grown up and out and I spend a lot of time pruning! But the newts like hanging out in the plants.

aquarium March 2015.jpg

I didn't have to mist the corkbark, it stays wet and will eventually start to sink a bit.

Here it is now, you can see how the plants have grown up to it...they were pretty quick to do so!

newt raft.jpg
 
CatSpit said:
Here's a pic of my tank when i set it up last March. Since then the plants have all grown up and out and I spend a lot of time pruning! But the newts like hanging out in the plants.

View attachment 44295

I didn't have to mist the corkbark, it stays wet and will eventually start to sink a bit.

Here it is now, you can see how the plants have grown up to it...they were pretty quick to do so!

View attachment 44296
Click to expand...
That looks so beautiful. Relaxing and natural. Awesome. I love it. I also see now your cork island is wet enough :) I like the floating plant on it, looks soft for newts to lie on :) thanks again catspit xxxx
 
Chinadog said:
If they are Pet trade I would urge you to think again before buying them. Ethical issues aside, they are usually in very poor shape health wise and are often too far gone to save, even if they seem ok in the shop. Why not look for captive bred ones?
Click to expand...

Hi china dog.

Ok now I feel guilty. I have emailed the shop and asked them not to order the newts, not heard back from them so not sure if they have already ordered them in or not...if they have ordered them then I guess I should really collect them.

I looked on the fs thread here but no chinese fire belly newts. Dartfrog only has terrestrial youngsters but I want to start with aquatic easy adults. Do you know of anybody that have fully aquatic newts? I like the firebellys.
 
Japanese firebellies are beautiful. I used to have two and they lived for a long time and had quite the personalities! :happy:

old newt.jpg
 
I can suggest japanese firebellies, too! They can handle a little bit higher temperatures (not much, of course) and look awesome! Newts from Chinadog would be a great choice :)
If I compare my japanese and chinese firebellies, both are interesting to keep but with japanese, the difference in looks between sexes makes them more attractive (CFBN don't have the same colour changes and those funny feet that are special to JFN). If there'd be a health problem, I'd think they would be easier to handle, too, due to their bigger size - I think situations like adding some medicine to a sore or so on; chinese firebellies are so small!
 
Chinadog said:
It depends on your circumstances and where you are based, but if it has to be firebellies, I can probably sort you out some captive bred aquatic Japanese firebellies (Cynops pyrrhogaster).

You can get a good idea what they look like in this thread.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...ideo-gallery/79697-pyrrho-pride-parade-2.html
Click to expand...

Thankyou China dog that is very nice of you. The problem is I only have a 18" x 12x12" which is 40 litre so I thought the smaller species would be happier? Would that size be ok? Do you have a filter with yours? Or are you doing the Diana walstad method. Earth. Plants and water changes?
 
40 litres is a little on the small side for aquatic newts, is there any way you could stretch to a 50 litre (10 gallons)? I say that because water quality and temperature can be very unstable in small tanks which can be quite stressful for the newts.
 
Hi china dog,

Sadly no, that is the longest tank I can have in my home, maybe the smaller newts will be a better choice?
 
Chinadog said:
40 litres is a little on the small side for aquatic newts, is there any way you could stretch to a 50 litre (10 gallons)? I say that because water quality and temperature can be very unstable in small tanks which can be quite stressful for the newts.
Click to expand...

Isn't 37-ish liters the equivalent to 10 gallons?
 
40 liters is 10.5 gallons, so basically the minimum size for aquatic Caudates.
 
As long as the tank is nearly filled with water, a 10 gallon tank is perfectly fine for one or two smaller aquatic newts. You could also look into Cynops cyrannus, the blue-tailed firebelly. A bit bigger than the Chinese but smaller then the Japanese, very hardy and fun to watch as well, and easier to obtain captive-bred ones as well.
 
That's great that my tank will be okay. The blue tail firebelly sounds great as it is in between the two species I am thinking about and it seems tolerant of temperatures but I have been in touch with my pet shop and he said his supplier doesn't deal in wild caught They Breed Them so I Will Be Getting The Smaller Species orientalis

Thanks guys x
 
ThoseNewtsTho said:
Isn't 37-ish liters the equivalent to 10 gallons?
Click to expand...

I didn't realize that US and UK gallons were so different. When I worked it out it came out as 8ish UK gallons, but as you say, that's 10ish US gallons, so yes, the tank would be fine for a single pair of aquatic newts. :)
 
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