How well prepared are you for sudden heat?

[petro]

I have Tylototriton Shanjing and they can stand a short heattime(about three day's or something) very good.
Also the larvae are okay when it's warmer then normal(about 20 to 23c degrees)But with the heat
of the last two day's I lost four of them(larvae)and I hat to increase the watertemparature with
yscubes.(what worked out)
Petro

 

[Darkmaverick]

I have a spare marine chiller and portable air-conditioner. Also ice bottles in the freezer. If the heat wave is over an extended period, i would just fridge my axies.

 

[sharelkaye]

I have a chiller that keeps the water at whatever temp. i set it on, because it is always hot where I live so one was needed when I first got them.

 

[bobberly1]

I'm probably going to have to put my notos in the fridge, but I could make something more advanced if I found cheap parts.

 

[SludgeMunkey]

I lost a most of my axolotl colony to an extended power outage last year (Bad storm in June followed by searing, unseasonable heat and humidity). Even though all of my caudates are in the basement, it still was 85 F down there. I ran out of frozen bottles and chill packs quick, and was unable to get ice anywhere by day three. I have since purchased and installed a NG powered generator, and several emergency battery packs. This allows me to keep the central air running, a fridge and freezer going, and an electric cooler rigged to operate as a chiller off of the battery packs if natural gas service is interrupted.

 

[Jennewt]

I lost a most of my axolotl colony to an extended power outage last year (Bad storm in June followed by searing, unseasonable heat and humidity). Even though all of my caudates are in the basement, it still was 85 F down there. I ran out of frozen bottles and chill packs quick, and was unable to get ice anywhere by day three. I have since purchased and installed a NG powered generator, and several emergency battery packs. This allows me to keep the central air running, a fridge and freezer going, and an electric cooler rigged to operate as a chiller off of the battery packs if natural gas service is interrupted.

Thanks for posting this. I suspect that a lot of people think they are better prepared than they really are, so this is an instructive story. We all take electricity for granted a bit too much. Power outages that last for days are uncommon, but they certainly do happen, and no part of the country/world is safe from this.

 

[SludgeMunkey]

That is true Jen.
I thought I was well prepared untill that horror of horrors happened. Sadly, living in the part of the Midwest I do, long power outages are not uncommon here at all. I had to learn the hard way. That one storm cost us almost 1100 dollars in dead fish and caudates. We still haven't recovered.

The Battery packs I refer to are the same ones used for emergency automobile starting. The ones I picked up have a 155V outlet on them that keeps the electric cooler at about 45F (with no ice) for about 12 Hours, depending on ambient temperature. After reading the "Chilling" information on here, I modified the cooler with a 35 foot coil of 1/2 tubing, inlet and outlet valves, and a small fountain pump. By using it to circulate tank water through the tubes, which are also packed in ice, I am able to keep a 20 gallon tank at 60F water temp in ambient 85F temperatures for 20 hours. Downside is I have to use one battery pack for the pump and another for the cooler. I tested it with dry ice, but that in fact was overkill...

 

[stephengoff]

As Lemonberry mentioned we rarely see sun in our country lol, i haven't yet faced heat stress with my fire salamanders, but if it does get to hot i'll put them in my garage where it is coolier.

Also i've heard some where that you can keep them in the frigde if need be, but i don't think i'd try this.

 

[fishkeeper]

One thing I've come across in my reading is that it may be better to keep the newts a little warmer during the times of year when things are potentially going to warm up. Acclimation to a higher temperature can lead to a lethal temperature several degrees higher than it would be for animals acclimated to living at a lower temperature.(based on experiments in lethal temperature on some unfortunate Notos/other amphibians). This is definetly something to keep in mind if you are doing your best to keep your newts very cold(if they are a sp. that needs this, than ignore this advice).

My plan in the case of a heat wave is to put everyone into small containers and place into fridge/cooler/wherever. If it is truly serious it may be easier to keep the animals cool than cooling their entire setups.

 

[slowfoot]

I keep ice bottles in the freezer just in case, but in the event of me losing my ac for a long time, I have permission to take them to work (university campus with it's own coal plant). If their power went out too there's really not much I can do for the newts :sad:

 

[taherman]

This is a good discussion, and I think it is very important to point out the heat wave+power outage scenario. Of course A/C is great, it's how a lot of people keep their animals alive, but power outages are the bane of many hobbyists. I also keep coral reef aquaria, which are even more dependent for electricity for their survival (and way more expensive than newts...). I sprung for a generator very early on when I started reefkeeping again. I depend quite a bit on my basement for its cooling capacity, as the majority of the reef's water is in a sump in my basement and the majority of my caudates are down there too. Those that aren't have geothermal cooling, so if I lose electricity I can throw them in deli cups or shoeboxes and move them to the basement. I also have some thermoelectric coolers with temperature controls which run off of an automobile cigarette lighter if I have to drive them to a friend who still has electricity when I don't.

At the zoo, which depends almost entirely on electricity for maintaining temperatures (including most of a species when it comes to Kihansi Spray Toads), they have automated backup generators for most critical buildings. To further safeguard many caudates in our new exhibit I utilize carbon filtered tap water on a flow-through system for cooling. This both provides cool conditions even in the case of power outages, and season fluctuation in temperatures between ~38-70F as the incoming tap water temp changes throughout the year. Though the system uses quite a bit of water (nothing compared to daily dump and fill elephant and hippo pools), it does provide a pretty solid method of cooling many of the animals.

-Tim

 

[SnakeDancer]

Last summer I was adding ice cubes to the water for my Alpine newts. But they spent most of the winter in my snake room, where it's quite warm, and did fine, so I don't think they're that super-sensitive to heat. In the wild they presumably experience a couple of months of warm temperatures in the summer, even in the Alps....

For the coming summer, I've got ice bottles ready to go, for the Alpines and Japanese firebellies - just in case it does get particularly hot. I don't use air conditioning, myself, and most of my menagerie likes it hot, so I have to check on the newts a lot during the warm time of year.

 

[josh1990]

All my salamanders are in a basement were the temps. stay in the 60`s in the summer and in the 50`s and 40`s in the winter. There is a unfinished part as well that stays much cooler, that is where most are put for over-wintering.

 

[Critter Mom]

I keep them in the living room of my first floor one bedroom apartment. It has the dark colored curtains closed all the time. The air conditioning unit is located there. If that should fail, then I would get maintenance in there right away! In the meantime, I would drip filtered ice cubes from the locked screen top (I have done this before). I would aim a fan on their 10 gallon tank. If that didn't work, I would have to convert it back to a 3/4 filtered water to 1/3 land environment (with pump) even though they are still terrestrial, so I could add some frozen water bottles in there. If I didn't have the time, I would have to move the little Chinese Firebelly Newts (C. Orientalis) to the fridge in their carry case with some damp paper towels in it and check on them. If it was going to be for an extended period of time, or I was going to be without electricity, I would take them to my parents' house and keep them in their basement, where it is nice and cool and dark in the air conditioning.

 

[SnakeDancer]

This thread got me to thinking of what to do if the power goes out for an extended period of time. Not long ago I remember reading about a solar-powered easy-to-make system that cools very well. A Google search didn't find the exact article that I'd read, but there's similar info out there. Check out these no-electricity refrigeration systems:

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2004/september/refrigeration.htm

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/04/14/cool_fridge_without_using_electricity.htm

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=solar-refrigeration

These ideas could possibly be adapted to a cooling system for amphibians. What's needed is plenty of sun and plenty of water - so it probably wouldn't work so well in a cool, cloudy climate, or an area where water is scarce.

 

[Denikar]

Wow I feel for all of you and all the extra efforts you go through to keep them cool. Definitely makes me thankful to have a basement for my noto's.

 

[winfredcharlie]

one method i have been using to keep my axies cool (until my water cooler arrives as its ordered and on its way...YAY!) anyways the way ive been keeping my little fellas cool was filling a 2L coke bottle 2/3 with warm water out of the tap and filling the other 1/3 with rock salt dissolving it. give it a shake, wait for the water n salt to cool a bit then put it in the freezer. after 5-6 hrs the water-rock salt mix turns to a kind of slushie frozen consistency... be patient and wait for it to go rock hard. put the bottle in the tank without opening the cap of course so the salt doesnt leak into the tank and it will stay frozen for hours alot more effective than just using plain frozen water! this has got me through the heatwave this summer and even made it through the bushfires down here in victoria. not that my house was burnt fortunately but my area was badly effected and it did get bloody HOT! anyone with cooling problems give it a try and you will be suprised in the results.

another permament solution i have seeked off ebay was a water cooler very similar to a tank heater wand that goes in the tank. i have also got a bio-filter on the way which houses the cooling element where it sucks in water to ensure there are no cold or warm spots in the tank. the cooling theremostat has a digital thermometer to display water temp and digital display to set the temp from as low as 0 c right up to 35 c...PERFECT. i cannot really give either products the thumbs up as of yet as they are still being couried down from qld but im hoping they solve my problems and i no longer have to change these dreaded ice-blocks. Together these two items cost me $100 off of ebay brand new and as i have paid $75 for a rather useless sponge filter from my local pet shop that i currently have i think it is quite good value for money.

 

[sharelkaye]

I have a chiller working right now because here it is almost always hot! If the electricity goes out then I also have some frozen bottles and other things that will keep them cool for a while. So I think Im good for my Axolotls.

 

[doktordoris]

I dont have a chiller but I live opposite a pet shop and as I own lots of animals I always have 100 pounds stashed in my flat as a pet emergency fund.
One never knows what could happen, they could get sick and a vet would need paying, or a tank could explode and need replacing.

In fact it makes me mad when people have pets but don't plan for the worst happenng, then they act sad when their animals die.

As I always say to the school kids when I visit them with my talking birds, animals are a great responsibilty and their needs should always be considered before their owners.

rant over.

 

[bradley]

ive never thought about the affects heat can hve on my axalotl .what happens if it gets to hot