My First Tank

[suirenfairy180]

So this is my first tank, I hope it's suitable for two Fire Belly Newts?
I'm in the process of Cycling the tank and I need to adjusted some of the gravel and sand but it's pretty much set up. I'll eventually change the terrestrial area to soil instead of gravel and add some plants (Just not in my budget atm)

Also any advice on what I could do to cover the top of the filter (Tetra Whisper 10i), I'm worried a newt will crawl into it

Front View:

Back View:

Close-Up:

The filter is set up so the water is falling onto the plant, so there's very little water disturbance.

 

[evut]

Wow! What a psychedelic tank! It looks great but the gravel might be dangerous if the newts ingest some of it. They hoover their food from the floor so this can easily happen. Sand is much safer.

You should definitely cover the filter. I wonder if you could make something out of polystyrene perhaps. If you had live plants, you wouldn't really need a filter.

Have you read the articles here?

 

[Molch]

also, do you have a tight-fitting lid for the tank? Newts can and will crawl straight up the glass. Is this a 10 ga? They make nice solid metal mesh lids for those. You can buy them at PetCo and most other aquarium stores. A lid for a 10 ga will cost around 10-15 $ I think

nice color scheme lol. I wonder - are newts color blind?

 

[suirenfairy180]

Not yet, I've blown all my money on my tank :uhoh: I was actually planning on making one out of plastic canvas (it's like wire mesh but plastic and used for needle work) I have some hiding somewhere The plastic canvas will be all right in a tank since it's not technically in the living space?

Hopefully it'll turn out well, if not I'll go buy a lid when I have a bit more money.

 

[suirenfairy180]

Thank you! I was planning to feed them from a food bowl on land or in a separate feeding container, would I still need to get rid of the gravel?

 

[evut]

Fire bellied newts (I assume you are planning to get H. orientalis) will spend almost all time in water unless they are very small juveniles or unhappy with their conditions and stressed. They will eat in water too - and even if you try to restrict the feeding area, there is still a risk. My newts have a dish where I put bloodworms for them. They always manage to throw a lot of the food out of the dish before they even start eating and then hoover the floor for leftovers. The gravel really isn't very safe.

Regarding the animals themselves - where will you be getting them from? I would recommend avoiding pet shops, which sell wild caught animals. These newts suffer terribly in the process of importation and then in the pet shop, and by the time you buy them, many will be so ill they'll just die. If you can, try to obtain captive bred animals.

The lid can be made from plastic mesh. The important thing is that there are no gaps. You could also use mesh fabric and velcro to attach it to the tank

 

[AngieD]

Speaking from personal observations, our 2 fire belly groups tend to 'snap' forward for food rather than 'hoovering', but switching to soil or sand is generally better from a hygiene perspective - bits of food get wedged in the gravel very easily.

 

[Azhael]

Firebellies, specially adults, have different techniques for differemt foods, amnd there´s also variation among individuals. I find that only adults hoover food (very efficiently too), while juveniles prefer to just open their mouths and charge.
Anyway, whatever the food or technique, there is risk of impaction. Sand really is a far safer and much more easy to clean substrate, and even though you probably hate the idea of changing your tank right now, in the long run, believe me, it will be worth it.

If the tank is a 10 gallon, i would personally advicde you to reconsider the terrestrial area. 10 gallons is generally considered the minimum volume of water that is adequate for even a single newt because when the volume of water is smaller it offers terrible stability and buffering. So, the way your tank is configured right now, it significantly reduces the volume of water. As Eva says, adults are fully aquatic and in principle will only leave the water if there is something wrong (bad water quality, high temps, illness...) so it would really be advisable to sacrifice the aesthetics of the terrestrial area and increase the volume of water to take advantage of the available space. The more water you have the easier it will be to maintain good conditions, the less suscdeptible to changes it will be, and the better for you and the animals. You can substitute the fixed terrestrial area with a piece of cork bark or something of the sort that doesn´t limit the volume of water.

Also, i couldn´t possibly agree more with Eva about the origin of pet-shop newts. All adult (larger than 5cm) newts you´ll find in pet-shops are wild-caught, even if they tell you otherwise. Captive bred may be difficult to find for this species, though, so you might want to consider other, similar species which may be easier to find captive bred and are equally wonderful to keep.