New Cynops Orientalis

[woopaul5]

Here are my fire belly newts. I believe they are Cynops Orientalis. Had these when I was a child an just had to get them again as a adult. They have been doing very well so far. I am fairly certain they are very very young. Only one out of 5 has taken to the water.

Been on a daily diet of frozen bloodworms (Hand Fed). Do I have to dust them with calcium? Been trying to move them to earth worms but it's a no go so far.

Aquarium is a 20 gallon long

 

[Chinadog]

They are very thin and fragile at the moment, so feeding them bloodworms in the short term is better than nothing, moving them on to earthworms should be a priority though.

Here is a care sheet if you haven't seen it already. http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml

 

[Asevernnnn]

Is that a dwarf frog in the tank with them? If so I would remove it as soon as possible. They both have different requirements temperature wise (the frogs prefer warmer temps and the Hypselotriton orientalis like cool water) and transfer of pathogens and disease can be a big issue.
As for the tank, I would personally ditch the gravel unless you want to clean it out super often as it traps a lot of waste. Fine sand, bare bottom or a siliconed down substrate works fine.
They are most likely refusing the water due to stress from being wild caught/imported and being under inadequate petshop care. To get them to go aquatic you can put them in a very shallow aquatic setup with lots of live plants and no dry land mass, and start increasing the water level every few weeks. Though, it would probably be a better idea for when they put on some weight.

 

[woopaul5]

Thank you for the comments. Dwarf frog has been removed. It came with the newts when I got them. They were quite the nuisance to the newts. I've only had one newt that stays underwater. It was the one that refused to eat. Since it's been underwater it eats twice as much as the rest and accepting BW, FDBW, and earth worms

 

[woopaul5]

Just realized I posted in the wrong section. Well anyways... 1 newt really seems to enjoy the water. This one I thought wasn't going to make it. Really thin and didn't want to eat. Became waterborne and eats at every given moment. Liveliest of the 5 I have.

Took advice of switching back to sand and a few newts enjoy earthworms. Just prefer blood worms.

 

[Asevernnnn]

This is the right section, these types of questions don't really belong in the advance section.
Have you tried to make the rest to aquatic? Or are you tying to fatten them up first, a couple of bloodworms won't do a whole lot, but it's better than nothing. I could continue trying the earthworm, maybe try smaller pieces, do you know what type of worm you have? Often red wigglers will be refused due to secretions they make when cut. It may also be that they don't want to eat them from tweezers, you could try putting the newts in a separate container, with a lid that had holes drilled into it for air, and leave the container in the dark for awhile.

 

[woopaul5]

I'm just going to let everything be for now. I've had them for a little over a month and they've been in 2 separate aquariums and several substrate changes, decor change, etc. They all eat good (been sticking to small daily feedings). They're slowing moving on to the earthworms but still go crazy for the bloodworms. I've been using tweezers since I've gotten them so it's more of they need to learn to like earthworms.

For the future... is there any other way to get them used to the water other than lowering the level and removing dry land spots? Couldn't I just submerge them randomly? Or would this just cause more stress?