N. Crocatus enclosure setup help please

[SKCrocatus]

Hi everyone,

I live in South Korea, and newts are quite rare here, so there's not much information available. I would really appreciate any advice based on the details below.

I’ve been keeping two juvenile Crocatus (about 7-8 cm) in a 60x45x45 cm tank with a fully aquatic setup. I set up the tank on the 21st Jan and have been adding a bacteria booster daily.

• Water temperature: 20°C
• Water height: 20 cm, planning to increase it to 30 cm as they grow
• Cleaning crew: 10 Neocaridina shrimp (common in Korea and Japan)

I’ve attached a photo of my enclosure setup and I have a few questions:

1. From what I’ve read, Crocatus are supposed to like hanging out on cork bark and floating plants, but I haven’t seen them do this at all (I’ve been monitoring with a pet cam throughout the day). They tend to stay underwater and only come to the surface to breathe. Do you think something in my setup might be preventing them from resting at the surface?
2. I want to make the setup as close to their natural habitat as possible. What kind of decorations can I add to achieve this? Would adding more rocks help?

Thank you in advance !

 

[Niels D]

You could use sand as a substrate. That way you can add more plants like most cryptocoryne species, which do well in unheated tanks. Especially wendtii works well for me. Same goes for a lot of Anubias species and Java fern. Don't put those two in substrate though, but glue them on pieces of wood or stone. Pieces of driftwood and other types of wood can be a nice addition as well. These aren't plants which come from the same area as where they come from of course, but they help you to create a natural surroundings for your animals. Neurergus lives in streams, but it does well in more heavily planted tanks.