Hi, All!
Well, as you can see this is my first post to this site. I have been lurking for a little while and have learned A LOT, but I have done a search under "emperor" and "shanjing" and have not come up with what I need yet. Maybe I'm not doing it right, but there does not seem to be much posted on these guys (other than the excellent care sheet and a few other references).
What I would like to know is this: do they do best singly/in pairs/ in trios/ in groups? I was at a pet shop and they had 8 of these guys in a small (10 gallon) tank. I have always wanted Emperor newts and may have gotten in over my head, but I did not want to see them in such small quarters. To be fair, this shop does a huge retail business, so I doubt they would have been residing in those conditions for too long. Ultimately I got 6 of them, what I believe to be a 2.4 grouping. They currently are in a 55 gallon tank with a covered lid to retain humidity and I am preparing a second 55 gallon tank to split them into two trios. The pet shop had 2 more which appeared to be males and I could go back and get those guys and set up four tanks of pairs. Does anyone know how best these guys should be grouped? I suspect that they would only come together casually in the wild for purposes of mating and pair up randomly, so maybe I should divide the tanks and house them individually except during the breeding season, but that is an assumption and I would hate to stress them by isolation if their behavior is more of a gregarious/interactive nature. Most of my snakes need to be housed individually, but some I keep in groups where they all choose to sleep together in one hide despite multiple hides/enclosure levels being available and I think their well-being would suffer if they lived separately. I have not disturbed the newts over these last few days other than to feed them and two are out frequently. They appear to be the males (I am keeping it dark while they acclimate) and I don't know if they are more naturally curious or if one is trying to chase off the other. I want to do right by these guys and this site is the newt/salamander brain trust, so any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Other info.
I have set up the tank with an interior plastic storage container which acts as an island. The island is constructed with 1 inch of Hydroballs overlain with plastic netting upon which is a substrate of Eco-Earth. There is a slope with a wet area with a water bowl (in case they do not want to venture from the hide area) and a food bowl. The slope is such that at one end there is about 1 inch of Eco-Earth and at the other end it is about 7 inches deep to provide wetter and drier areas. The substrate is covered with a layer of green moss which I mist once a day. The hide consists of a plastic shoebox lid tilted to make a lean-to that runs from the wet to the dry areas. I thought this would be the best way to provide a means for the animals to choose what level of moisture they want, but it does not allow them to hide from each other. They can dig into the moss for privacy, but it is a trade-off between privacy and moisture gradient as I can’t put in enough hides to satisfy both concerns. There is a ramp from the high point of the island to the surrounding water (3 inches of spring water) which contains lots of Java moss and a few rocks. The females may be gravid and if so, is there a better choice than Java moss to give them for depositing eggs on? The room temp is 74oF as mid 70s is what has been recommended for breeding season and I will move them to a room in the low 60s at the end of August. They are being fed wax worms and red wigglers at the moment (there was one article that said they could consume compost worms, so I think this should be OK.) I have not isolated them to feed them individually as I thought this might add extra stress, so I do not know if all of them are eating or in what quantities they are consuming the prey items as some of the wigglers have managed to escape the food bowl and have gotten into the substrate. I have tried ½ inch crickets to no avail and am in the process of raising slugs to ensure they are free from poisons from the yard. I can get night crawlers and isopods, but any additional suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advanced for everyone’s help. This (and Frog Forum) are two of the most amazing amphibian sites on the internet! It is astounding to see the progress which has been made over the last few decades to the point where almost anyone can keep these animals, but we all want our charges to thrive and not just survive and I am hoping to be able to tap into the T. shanjing wealth of knowledge that resides here. Thanks!
Virginia
P.S. Sorry this was so long.
Well, as you can see this is my first post to this site. I have been lurking for a little while and have learned A LOT, but I have done a search under "emperor" and "shanjing" and have not come up with what I need yet. Maybe I'm not doing it right, but there does not seem to be much posted on these guys (other than the excellent care sheet and a few other references).
What I would like to know is this: do they do best singly/in pairs/ in trios/ in groups? I was at a pet shop and they had 8 of these guys in a small (10 gallon) tank. I have always wanted Emperor newts and may have gotten in over my head, but I did not want to see them in such small quarters. To be fair, this shop does a huge retail business, so I doubt they would have been residing in those conditions for too long. Ultimately I got 6 of them, what I believe to be a 2.4 grouping. They currently are in a 55 gallon tank with a covered lid to retain humidity and I am preparing a second 55 gallon tank to split them into two trios. The pet shop had 2 more which appeared to be males and I could go back and get those guys and set up four tanks of pairs. Does anyone know how best these guys should be grouped? I suspect that they would only come together casually in the wild for purposes of mating and pair up randomly, so maybe I should divide the tanks and house them individually except during the breeding season, but that is an assumption and I would hate to stress them by isolation if their behavior is more of a gregarious/interactive nature. Most of my snakes need to be housed individually, but some I keep in groups where they all choose to sleep together in one hide despite multiple hides/enclosure levels being available and I think their well-being would suffer if they lived separately. I have not disturbed the newts over these last few days other than to feed them and two are out frequently. They appear to be the males (I am keeping it dark while they acclimate) and I don't know if they are more naturally curious or if one is trying to chase off the other. I want to do right by these guys and this site is the newt/salamander brain trust, so any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Other info.
I have set up the tank with an interior plastic storage container which acts as an island. The island is constructed with 1 inch of Hydroballs overlain with plastic netting upon which is a substrate of Eco-Earth. There is a slope with a wet area with a water bowl (in case they do not want to venture from the hide area) and a food bowl. The slope is such that at one end there is about 1 inch of Eco-Earth and at the other end it is about 7 inches deep to provide wetter and drier areas. The substrate is covered with a layer of green moss which I mist once a day. The hide consists of a plastic shoebox lid tilted to make a lean-to that runs from the wet to the dry areas. I thought this would be the best way to provide a means for the animals to choose what level of moisture they want, but it does not allow them to hide from each other. They can dig into the moss for privacy, but it is a trade-off between privacy and moisture gradient as I can’t put in enough hides to satisfy both concerns. There is a ramp from the high point of the island to the surrounding water (3 inches of spring water) which contains lots of Java moss and a few rocks. The females may be gravid and if so, is there a better choice than Java moss to give them for depositing eggs on? The room temp is 74oF as mid 70s is what has been recommended for breeding season and I will move them to a room in the low 60s at the end of August. They are being fed wax worms and red wigglers at the moment (there was one article that said they could consume compost worms, so I think this should be OK.) I have not isolated them to feed them individually as I thought this might add extra stress, so I do not know if all of them are eating or in what quantities they are consuming the prey items as some of the wigglers have managed to escape the food bowl and have gotten into the substrate. I have tried ½ inch crickets to no avail and am in the process of raising slugs to ensure they are free from poisons from the yard. I can get night crawlers and isopods, but any additional suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advanced for everyone’s help. This (and Frog Forum) are two of the most amazing amphibian sites on the internet! It is astounding to see the progress which has been made over the last few decades to the point where almost anyone can keep these animals, but we all want our charges to thrive and not just survive and I am hoping to be able to tap into the T. shanjing wealth of knowledge that resides here. Thanks!
Virginia
P.S. Sorry this was so long.