Fire bellied newt larvae food

[Duncan13]

I recently switched foods for my FBN larvae that are approaching metamorphosis. They have been eating baby brine shrimp from birth till now, and now I've switched to frozen blood worms. One of them ate a lot of the blood worms, but the rest haven't even touched them. Should I switch back to brine shrimp? Or should I observe for a while longer and see what happens? I don't want them to starve to death, since their already looking alittle skinny.

 

[Joost]

They can eat bloodworms very well, but you should choose for the living ones. I'm sure they will be eaten. Also you can give them live tubifexworms, chopped earthworms.

 

[Duncan13]

Thanks two of them are eating now, but the smallest one still isnt. Since they don't sell live blood worms in China where I live right now, will frozen ones work?

 

[evut]

Some of my very small larvae (the oldest is about a month) have just eaten frozen bloodworms so it's definitely worth trying. Some people had success with mashed newt pellets.

 

[Azhael]

Mmmm...mashed newt pellets will fould the water very quickly and are unlikely to work. They are bit of a desperate choice.

Frozen bloodworms are ok, and as Joost said, earthworms are great. You could also try whiteworms or Daphnia.

 

[Duncan13]

One of them has exited the water now, but it still has gill nubs. It is mostly terrestrial. I've transfered it to a more suitable habitat, and it is doing fine. But it still hasn't eaten anything I offered yet? Should I be concerned?

 

[Greatwtehunter]

Now that it has morphed it will need living food items. baby pill bugs, white worms, blackworms, and even chopped nightcrawlers will suffice. Morphing is stressful on the newts so it may take a few days for it to get its appetite back.

 

[vistajpdf]

My new morphs seemed to take weeks to eat. It may be that they just didn't eat in front of me. However, I agree that the food definitely changed as they moved to a terrestrial life. I had no luck with white worms or blackworms once they morphed. I used springtails and flightless fruit flies. Do you have any hopes of getting these? Pinhead crickets have also been a staple in their diets.

Goof luck,
Dana

 

[Duncan13]

Two of them have metamorphosed now, but sadly, today I found the third one, dead under a small piece of aquarium foam. Do any of you guys no what could have caused the death of my newt?

 

[Jennewt]

If it was fully morphed, I would guess drowning. It sounds crazy, but it's common. The morphs are bad swimmers. If it was still larval, or in-transition, then it's harder to explain, but the usual causes would apply:
Caudata Culture Articles - Why Larvae Die

 

[Duncan13]

yeah, I guess he/she drowned . He/she was very close to metamorphosis when he/she died. The rest of them are doing fine though, and their eating tiny tiny chopped earthworms. The juveniles are very small, only about 2.5 cm.

 

[Duncan13]

wow, its been a long time. The newts are growing fast but I have a problem now. A couple days ago, one of them stopped eating. I tried hand feeding it, but it wont eat anything. Nothing in its habitat has changed and the food has been the same. When I give it its food it just turns its head away. Please give me some tips on what might be wrong. Thanks in advance!

 

[bichogrilo]

Fire bellies can really suck for around a year after morphing they tend to become very terrestrial and at the end of that time go back into the water and happily eat all the foods they originally ate, daphnia, whiteworms, mosquito, just hold out, and hope for the best, try things like aphids they worked for me just put a small branch in and they wre steadily eaten. mosqutos were great as they were eaten from the sides of the tank when they landed, fruitfly especially wingless were also good. Just dont over stock the food better to have some live things crawling but not a writhing tankload of bugs.

 

[Jennewt]

wow, its been a long time. The newts are growing fast but I have a problem now. A couple days ago, one of them stopped eating. I tried hand feeding it, but it wont eat anything. Nothing in its habitat has changed and the food has been the same. When I give it its food it just turns its head away. Please give me some tips on what might be wrong. Thanks in advance!

How sure are you that this one was previously eating? And what was the type of food that it WAS eating? Getting new morphs to eat is tricky, so I'm wondering if this one has not eaten anything since it morphed (they can live for a couple of months like this).

 

[Duncan13]

I'm sure that it was eating because I hand feed my newts most of the time, and I've watched them eat, so I'm sure that they're eating. Since live food is very hard to get in Shanghai, where I live, I feed all the morphs chopped earthworms and they seem to like them.

 

[Jennewt]

Excellent. Has there been any change, such as new setup or a big change in the weather? I wouldn't worry about it too much, it will probably start eating again. If it is smaller than the others, isolating it might help.

 

[Duncan13]

Ok thanks. The one that stopped eating is one of the bigger ones.