Fire-Belly Worries

[crystal]

Good Christmas morning to you all =)

I have had my Newt for many months now, possibly over 6. I originally had two, though unfortunately one passed away due to it's reluctance to eat anything.

My worries are that the Newt is not active enough, and that he's not getting enough nutrients or food.

I feed him every-other day with Blood worms and the occasional shrimp. I've tried meal worms but he doesn't seem too fond of them.

He's remained at about the same size for the last 6 months. The LFS that I purchased him at has much more active newts, that are twice his size.

He seems so small, and so weak. How can I build up his strength, and make his habbitat more Newt-friendly (the aquarium is a 10 gallon), while on a very strict budget?

This is what I would love to have for my Newt, with a rock or two in the center for resting..

http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/spinelli/img28.jpg

Would this be a preferred set-up for a fire-belly newt?

Thank you!

-Crystal

 

[danny]

Crystal,

I think one of your problems with the tank setup maybe that your filter is creating way to much current. Its really high and with all that water splashing down, making it hard to swim around for the little guy. Have you tried an internal filter such as a fluval 1? With such a small tank having lots of plants in there would be just as good as the fluval 1 filter. Im not a plant expert and Im sure others reading this will give you lots of advice about with plants are great! Hopefully just cutting down the current and adding plants will help to reduce his stress and make him comfortable in his home!

 

[crystal]

Heya Danny, thanks for the advice!

As far as the filter goes - guess what? The one you see hanging over the side doesn't even work. I can't fill the water over his basking area, as he'd have no place to rest upon, and while the input is under water about an inch..it still doesn't create enough preasure to actually filter the water. Unfortunately that over-head filter was quite a waste of money.

I have a small internal filter...:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/CrySanctuary/smallfilter2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/CrySanctuary/smallfilter.jpg

...but it's one that does not have any brand-made replacements for it's carbon, and so I occasionally open it up and DIM by adding carbon made for my Fluval 404 (I also have a 75 gal) into the internal filter.

It was a cheapie, and it's lack of quality shows. That's why we purchased the Whisper (a brand of filter I've learned to despise, though unfortunately we didn't have much option) over-head filter in the first place.

But as I said, the filter that is over-head doesn't even work - is no longer plugged in even - and so there is no current.

The internal filter is sputtering along as it is, and it's size prevents it from even circulating the water.

As for plants - I will try to add more. It's tough though as I am still living at home ( 16 ) and my mom doesn't quite share my enthusiasm for my animals. She's not too quick to purchase new decor for an amphibian she was hesitant to get in the first place.

Wish me luck =)) Thanks a lot!

-Crystal

(Message edited by Sanctuary on December 25, 2004)

(Message edited by Sanctuary on December 25, 2004)

 

[benjamin]

Fire bellies are small and relaxed newts, they tend to wonder slowly around their enclosures, unless they're breeding or feeding, and you shouldn't expect them to anything more. The ones at the store might not be the same species, the world of newts and salamanders is a very diverse one with animals of all shapes and sizes ranging from slightly less than an inch to just under 6 feet! If your firebelly is any size over 3 inches he's not small for his species at all. Blood worms are a good food source, but if you want anything better get small, live earth worms. I agree with Danny in that you should give them lots of plants, then the newt can hide, climb, and if you ever get it a friend and breed them, that's where they lay their eggs.

 

[crystal]

Hey Ben,

My newt is probably somewhere between 2-3.5" long. Let's hope he's safe!

It's reassuring to know that some species are not Olympic Athletes! As long as he's healthy and and not struggling along, then he can be as lazy as his little heart desires. I just wonder sometimes.

I made a mistake and got him before reading up on any lengthy care sheets for newts. I am reaping the consequences of not being prepared now, and unfortunately am not able to provide with a completely content home for him.

As I said in the first post, I'd love to make a very swampy, dark, quiet place like this for him:

But it takes money, and we're in the middle of updating our 75 gallon Cichlid tank now... so it's not quite an option. Like I told Danny, it will be a tough guilt-ridden trip to get more plants added into the tank, and I'd have to get extra gravel to hold them down (you can see in the above photos that the gravel is sparce)... so for now, I am just going to slowly build up to a newt-oasis.

Do you two have any suggestions on the filters? I can't find any worth while ones at Walmart, and the LFS's prices are outrageous.

I looked up this Fluval Plus 1 Danny mentioned, and wow! It seems great! $17 or so, too. I couldn't find the required water-depth needed for it though, do either of you know by chance?

Thanks again,

Crystal

 

[ken]

I use a Fluval 1 and it can be turned sideways and operate in the about two inches that the filter takes up. I used mine to run my waterfall and it was plenty powerful for that, but not so powerful that it creates an insane current in the tank. Currently I have it turned it off most of the time and have lots of plants in the water. I really only turn the filter on when I do water changes to catch the sediment that ends up floating around.

Wisteria and Java Moss are surprisingly cheap, at least at the pet store near me. I get two stems of Wisteria for about $4.00 and it grows like crazy. They also are more than happy to give me duckweed which has gone completely mental in my tank and needs to be thinned out once and a while.

The nice thing about Wisteria is that it can be used either as a floating plant or as a ground planted plant and the newts love to crawl around in the hanging roots and branches when it floats. As a matter of fact that's where my newts spend most of there time.

The large mass of roots is a vine I took out of my garden that loooooves being aquatic, but you can see the wisteria in the top left corner.

More of the vine, with some Java Moss in the lower left and Lenny on top of his rock cave.

Good luck with your little guy Crystal!

 

[crystal]

Thanks Ken =D

Question for ya: Are the plants (Wisteria and the former garden vine) the only 'land area' for your newt? I see that you have rocks that are submerged, but none above the water. Would leaving only plants and vines out for the land area be alright, do you think?

Currently, I only have that one big rock in the center, and no plants in the water. I think this may be part of the problem. Frankly, I wouldn't want to swim around in a big boring space of nothing either!

Thanks for the photos and plant recommendations

-Crystal

 

[ken]

Actually, I have a turtle dock in one corner with Java Moss and a couple of rocks on it as well as a floating log that the newts can climb out on to. They don't seem to go up on to them that I've seen as of yet (The turtle dock is a fairly new addition), but I have a portion of it under the water and they sit on the edge of it and at least look at the island.

You should look at the section on tank setups on Caudata Culture http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/setups.shtml it's full of great ideas for both aquatic and semi-aquatic setups.

 

[crystal]

Awesome - Going there right now.

A humble bow to you, my glowing red-eyed friend