Help Paddletail injuries?

[ricecake]

I have had my Paddletails for just over three weeks now. The newt I am having problems with spent alot of time wrapped around the filter wire. After I noticed what looked like a blister on it's back so I moved the filter wire out of the way, but i'm not sure if they are bites or not as they didnt get on to start with but ok now. Shortly after i noticed it having trouble moving it's back right leg. I noticed it had a similer blister under the leg. I have tried adding stress coat into the water as I know this is good for repairing damaged tails and stuff. Now the two wounds have gone pinky with dark red around the outside. Is there anything anyone could suggest doing and am I doing the right thing with the stress coat?

 

[Abrahm]

I would suggest against adding any more stress coat to your newts enclosure. The additional ingredients in stress coat (aloe vera I believe) are not known to be helpful to healing in your newt.

The first thing I would recommend is moving the newt to a quarantine container while the animal is healing. Use frequent water changes and be careful to monitor the water quality often. Even if you don't see any aggression currently there may indeed be problems as you can't watch the tank all the time. Also the newt may be avoiding aggression but may be stressed despite this, hence why it may be hiding all the time on the filter wire.

There are some helpful questions you could answer also. How many paddletail newts are in this enclosure? How large is the enclosure? What are your water parameters as in levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? What are you feeding the animals and how often?

 

[Jennewt]

Around 3 weeks is really the "danger zone" in terms of the cycling period for a new aquarium. As Abrahm suggested, you need to know if your tank water has significant ammonia and nitrite. The aloe in the Stress Coat could make things worse, as it adds to the organic material in the tank. If you don't know what I mean by cycling, ask at a good aquarium shop, and this might help:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

 

[ricecake]

Thank you so much for your help, I will try what you have suggested and let you know how things go. As for my tank, it has been fully cycled for some time now and my levels are currently perfect. My tank is 40 litres, with loads of hiding places and areas to come out of the water. I have two paddletails which I am feeding with frozen bloodworm cubes. However the injured one is currently off it's food.
Many thanks
Ryan

 

[Abrahm]

A 10 gallon aquarium is on the small side as far as two paddle-tail newts go. This species has a tendency to be highly aggressive to conspecifics and the hiding behavior combined with the animal going off his feed leads me to believe that this may be a problem for your animal. I would consider getting a larger aquarium for the newts or entertaining the possibility that these two animals may never be successfully housed together.

Was the tank cycled before you added the newts? Is there any other animals with the newts?

 

[ricecake]

My tank was fully cycled before I put my newts in. They are on there own as i have read on the forum that keeping other species is a big no no. I was asked the size of my tank when I purchased my newts from the local specialist and was told my tank size was fine. The injured newt seems to be improving and both seem to be getting on better.