Health Help

[tavis]

I bought two fire bellied newts, japanese I believe, at a pet store about four days ago.

The guy there was a complete idiot and entirely useless but at least he didn't pretend to know what he was talking about. Needless to say I have a tank with alot of tropical species and a good amount of current because it simulates a river ecosystem.

After doing a little research, and everyone has different and widely varing opinions, I turned off my heater and let my tank go to room temperature, at least I assume its at room temperature. Its not in a sunny place to get heated up and I keep my house about 72-73 degrees. I also raised the water level greatly to reduse the amount of current generated by the waterfall effect of my tiered tank.

I bought live mealworms to feed them but they have not eaten them whole or chopped up. I feed them in the floating plastic cone thing recommended by the pet store, but have also tried feeding them directly and just putting it in front of them on land. They have yet to eat anything.

They also do not spend much time in the water. rarely one will be hanging out in a plant underwater but most of the time they are out of the water perched on something. Or at least half outta the water. I know newt are not the most active of creatures but these are real sluggish.

I was going to wait a week to get them to eat before I started getting worried but one of the newts has a wierd swollenness to its mouth that I noticed today. The smaller one's lower jaw seems to be quite bloated and it looks like small bubbles are forming on his mouth.

Some one help plz
Tavis

 

[TJ]

Hi Tavis

* they shouldn't be kept with tropical fish
* they shouldn't be kept in a tank with a good amount of current
* they shouldn't be fed mealworms
* if they are spending most of the time out of the water and they're getting sick, there's something very wrong with the water

Please read the information posted at Caudate Culture:

Articles:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml

Caresheet for Chinese fire belly newt:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml

Caresheet for Japanese fire belly newt:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_pyrrhogaster.shtml

Also, questions about basic care should be posted to the Newt and Salamander Help section:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/cgi-bin/board-auth.cgi?file=/7/7.html&lm=1087698559

Best of luck.

(Message edited by TJ on June 20, 2004)

 

[tavis]

Thanks Tim.

I have allready read over most of that stuff and today before I went into work I purchased a 10 gallon set up for them. Its currently very bare since I was limited on funds and time but it's clean water too. PH 7, no clorine/cloramide, no ammonia. Didnt get a chance to test for nitrates yet though.

Have them by themselves with a floating ramp for them and nothing else, no filter no plants etc. This is fine for a little while as long as I change the water every couple weeks right 20% every two weeks?

Also I used ice to bring the temp before I went to work down to 65 deg before I put them in. When I got home from work bout 8 hours later the temp was 70 deg. I read somehwere on the forums that some guy was using a frozen water bottle at night to lower the temp so earlier I froze one and a few minutes after I put it in it brought the temp back down to 65, but its melting kinda fast.

ANY ONE HAVE ANY IDEAS/HINTS/TRICKS HOW TO KEEP A TANK COOLED? W/o buying a wicked expensive cooler?

This morning when I woke up before switching the setups the swollenness from the smaller newt seemed to have gone away. While in the new setup the larger one has been staying in the water but the smaller one still is staying out of it. He keeps gulping also like hes trying to swallow something or is having difficulty breathing, I dont know just guesses, but hes puffin his throat out and in.

I got bloodworms for them also. Unfortunatly I cannot get a hold of anything but frozen ones at the local pet store and not very knowledgable about others. Orlando city proper is filled with petcos, pet supermarkets etc. But I dont know about anyone specializing in aquatics, never mind amphibians.

Anyone have any hints as to good stores in Orlando Florida, or how to find some good ones?

I left the bloodworms in the new enclosure before I left for work and it appears they ate some of them although they might have just stepped in it and its my imagination thinking some is gone.

Any hints as to how to feed them, especially when recovering (hopefully0 from being sick?

Thanx,
Tavis

 

[joeri]

I don't know if you have considered it, but make sure your tank has a lid. Both Japanese and Chinese firebellies are great climbers and even an Alcazar newt setup couldn't hold them in if there is a small opening.

About your temperature: 65-70 degrees doesn't seem to bad to me. My cynops orientalis are in that same range and they do fine, they have bred.

Frozen food isn't that bad. My newts don't get much else. However things you might want to consider:
* dust your frozen foods with extra vitamines and calcium
* get some nightcrawlers now and then
* try little bugs you can find in/around your place
* try other frozen foods like daphnia, artemia

*!* clean up any uneaten food leftovers

good luck

 

[jennifer]

Hi Tavis, the puffing of the throat during breathing is normal. The issue of how to keep the temperature cool is discussed a lot. See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/faq.shtml (see Housing FAQ)
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/7618/17000.html?1087575605
..or search the forum archives

 

[jessica]

The newt I have now was half in and half out of the water before I eliminated the really shallow areas and got a bigger tank. Now when he wants to breathe air he kind of stands on his tail, so it sounds like there's hope for the one of yours. Unfortunately I don't know of pet shops in Orlando. I am in AZ with very little natural water ways so I thought my options for bait shops for earth worms were limited but Jen helped me. 1st a search on bait shops, secondly Walmart. I found I was too squeamish to chop worms so I hit the yellow pages for pet shops and looked for places that carry or specialize in reptiles and that is how I found a place that carries live blackworms. Even though some of their knowledge is still off, they're way better than the pet chain stores. They call the worms tubifex/black worms. They also now carry c.orientalis but mislabel them as c. pyrrhogaster, but the tank set up they have is beautiful, so they seem to have half a clue. Basically my point is you have to have patience and find like maybe something in general of what you need. Good luck, I hope your amphibs survive.

(Message edited by foltsjr315 on June 23, 2004)

 

[tavis]

Well the little one that had a bloated throat before died last night. He seemed to have been getting better and was in the water for awhile and then when I checked on him later he was dead

. Hopefully the larger one will make it. I still cannot get 'em to eat though. I am using thawed frozen bloodworms on a tweezer, holding it right in from of them. tapping thier mouths with it even and no responce. Is there a better time of day to feed them or should I force feed em somehow? Its been at least a week maybe closer to two since hes eaten I think.

 

[tavis]

Oh yeah and using three 1.5 liter bottles of ice by rotating them I am keeping the temperature between 63-70 or so. Is it ok if the temperature is always fluctuating for them? I put the bottle in and it sinks from close to 70 to near 60 in about 30-45 minutes, holds that temp for about 2 hours or so and then climbs to near 70 over then next 3 hours or so. Is that temp fluctuation too much/ too fast? Should I just let it stay at 70 during the day and put in an ice bottle only at night?

 

[TJ]

<font color="ff0000">This thread has been moved here from the Fire-bellied Newts discussion area.</font>