Is Triturus dobrogicus right for me?

[cro117]

my primary concern is temperature. it has been around 80 lately. soon it will be winter so that's not an issue, i can wait a little bit to get them, and next summer i will have an evaporative cooling system for this room. i'm quite sure i can do mid 70s, maybe as lower the 70, but i think it would be best to plan on mid 70s just incase. from the preliminary reading that i have been doing on them, it sounds like Triturus dobrogicus would be ok with this, at least more so then other species. i didn't word a specific question here, but impute on this subject would be great.

feeding is my secondary concern, and once again it sounds like Triturus dobrogicus will accept prepared foods, spectrum pellets, frozen bloodworms, etc. again, at least more so then other spicies i have read about. input on that statement would be great too.

next concern is size. i always look for the smallest species as possible. it makes care so much easier. the tank i have will be a 20 long about half filled which i have read can house 4 Triturus dobrogicus. in addition to this, however, i will have the system running through a 10 gallon sump so it will count as extra water volume. this could even be increased if necessary. the point being, from the reading i have done, this should be adequate housing for Triturus dobrogicus, but if i could find a smaller species it would be even easier to care for. is there a smaller species with similar qualities?

i would like to get Triturus alpestris because of its smaller size, but does it eat prepared foods as well? also, i believe i have read the can't handle water as warm as Triturus dobrogicus can. Triturus alpestris also seems to look nicer then dobrogicus, but that is very low on my concerns. i pretty much just care about temp and feeding.

well, i told myself i wasn't going to do a long post this time. sorry about that. thank you to all those who are still reading at this point, and to those who give suggestions.

 

[coendeurloo]

If you want my opinion - don't start with newts if you can't provide live food and have other concerns on top of that. Make sure you are well prepared and things will be fine, T. dobrogicus is a wonderful, interesting and hardy specie. I'm sure you have read the caresheet?

 

[caleb]

I keep dobrogicus and alpestris under pretty much identical conditions- both will readily accept pellet food (though I also use livefood).

I'd recommend alpestris rather than dobrogicus for a beginner- they are hardier, have bigger appetites than dobrogicus, and are easier and cheaper to obtain.

 

[Jennewt]

I would suggest looking at Cynops cyanurus as an option. CB are available from time to time. They are more heat tolerant than either species you are considering. And they stay small, stay aquatic, and take non-live food readily.

 

[cro117]

ok those were great posts, exactly what i was looking for. from my reading on the care sheet http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Triturus/Triturus_sp.shtml it sounded like Danube is the easier species, and doesn't need as low of a cooling temperature in the winter, but now alpestris is back in the running. could you elaborate on the conditions you keep it at? i'm still very concerned about alpestris temperature needs. this was the species that got me interested in getting newts, but i soon discarded them as a possibility because i read they like it around 60.

as far as cynops cyanurus, thank you for bringing it to my attention. up until a week ago i was thinking that cynops would probably be my only option, probably orientalis, but i was reading a thread about how active newts should be, and that is were i first heard of T. dobrogicus. after reading it's care sheet it sounded like a good option. the reading i did on the cynopes said that temps should not exeed 74, were the care sheet for dobrogicus said it can tolerate 77. however, cynops cyanurusis defiantly an option if it can tolerate higher temps. there is too much misinformation out there, so i've been limiting the sources that i will take information from to mostly the caudata.org care sheets and the forum. unfortunately, there wasn't much on the care sheet http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_cyanurus.shtml for cynops cyanurus.

to throw one more into the mix- Lissotriton vulgaris. any thoughts on how it compares to the other species mentioned here. again, the care sheet was limited on this one. does it tolerate higher temps?

thanks, those were great replies, gives me more to think about. i'll try to keep the next post shorter.

 

[fishkeeper]

I understand dobros are like normal newts in regards to temperature tolerance. I kept Triturus karelinii and they seem to be the toughest of the cresteds. They were definetly stressed at one point when the water got up to over 76 degrees.

If size is not an issue Cynops ensicauda popei is an excellent choice.

 

[Jake]

to throw one more into the mix- Lissotriton vulgaris. any thoughts on how it compares to the other species mentioned here. again, the care sheet was limited on this one. does it tolerate higher temps?

I keep a few L.vulgaris subspecies and they seem like pretty hardy newts. They probably don't tolerate high temps any better than Triturus species would considering they're found in the same geographic region, but I haven't exposed mine to high temps to find out. They don't seem very popular in the US, but I feel there will be a dramatic increace in captive vulgaris population this spring/summer in the states

 

[caleb]

L. (=T.) vulgaris will almost always need to leave the water in the summer- I wouldn't suggest trying to keep them permanently aquatic.

The room I keep my alpines in had a maximum air temperature of 26C (79F) this summer. This was unusually high, and did stress the newts, but only lasted a couple of days.

I'm not sure what the water temperature was- it was probably a bit lower, as the nights were quite a bit colder.

 

[cro117]

it seems to me that from the reading dobrogicus is the most heat tolerant species of triturus, or former triturus, but that other species might be an option if i can get the temp just a little lower. not wanting to risk a disaster though, perhaps i should just go with the most heat tolerant newt i can find. that seems like it might be a cynops. although i believe i read that t. dobrogicus is more heat tolerant then Cynops orientalis, i'm using this species as a generalization of cynops, which is why i started this thread in the first place.

jennewt suggested that Cynops Cynops was more heat tolerant then the other species mentioned. thank you for that suggestion by the way. could i maybe get a little more info on cyanurus as the care sheet only shows pictures. are the relatively small? are they active? most importantly, can anyone elaborate on their temperature tolerance.

i don't want to make it sound like i'll be keeping them directly under the california sun, but i do like to insure that the animals i choose to care for are as happy as can be. and though i will be prepared next summer and foresee no problem keeping temps at min seventies or lower, i don't want to have a disaster if temps clime to 80. sometimes california sucks.

 

[Jennewt]

Part of the reason we don't have a caresheet for C. cyanurus is that they appear to be a complex of several species or subspecies. People have a lot of rather different animals that are named cyanurus (or chenggongensis), but the groups of animals look rather different and seem to have somewhat different traits. Thus, I can only speak for the specific group of cyanurus that I have. My cyanurus actually seem to be cold-intolerant, but quite OK into the mid and upper 70s F. I haven't kept them at upper 70s for any extended period of time. In size, they are roughly the same as C. orientalis.

 

[caudatadude28]

Hey I currently have three Danube crested newts. I have them in a twenty gallon long aquarium, that is filled up to 7-8.5 inches. It has a floating island and a submersible filter with the spout shooting near the corner. They range from 4.25 to 5.25 inches long. They get to be 4-6.5 inches at adult length, so they are not very small newts. I have mine around 73-77(Usually 74-76) in the summer and about 60-68 in the winter and they dont show any sign of stress. I also have it heavily planted with artificial plants. They rest on the island a lot at night.

 

[oregon newt]

74-76 degrees is pretty high. I think you should try to start cooling your tank down.

 

[cro117]

i can't seem to start a post with pics, so i'm going to try a reply with pics here.

 

[Kaysie]

You did start a thread with that attachment on it. But it wasn't yet moderated. Then you spammed it repeatedly, and it was deleted. You must be patient when posting moderated threads.

 

[cro117]

oops, sorry about that. thank you for letting me know.