New habitat for baby newts...they hate it.

[newtbie]

I've got 3 baby newts and I've moved them to their grown-up aquarium. The habitat has large gravel so that they won't eat it as grownups. However, they are burrowing themselves into cracks between the gravel rocks. Is this a bad situation? Have I moved them too early? I'm thinking either they are doing this just because they are adjusting to their new homes, and they'll come out later, or they are going to bury themselves enough so that they just die there?

 

[lims]

Hello, what kind of newt species is it?
If it was me I would use soil instead of gravel.
When making the soil damp only spray water from one end of your terrarium, this will allow the babies to choose how moist they want to be, having a choice between the dry end and the damp end.
Give them some moss aswell maybe and stuff to hide under.
What are you going to feed them?

 

[Jennewt]

It doesn't sound right. If these are Chinese firebellies, then your choice of habitat (terrarium with soil or semi-aquatic) depends a lot on what you plan to feed them.

 

[newtbie]

I'm not sure what kind they are - I just inherited them from someone whose newts had an unplanned pregnancy. I think they are one of the red or firebelly types. They have been living in a small aquarium with aquatic moss, and they started out eating zooplankton. However, these three have gotten large and are bullying their two smaller brothers, so I had to separate them. All 5 have been eating bloodworms, so they are big enough to handle those. Anyways, I thought there was concern about raising them in a finer substrate because they would eat it accidentally. Also, they seem completely aquatic to me, so I don't think that a moist soil habitat would be good enough...they have their gills and whatnot. When transferring them to the bigger aquarium, they were squirming all "fish style". I could be wrong, but I think they are too young to be out of the water.
Their habitat is a 25 gallon aquarium with rocks piled up out of the water at one end, and a platform also out of the water at the other end. There are also some elodea plants in there, and some of their original aquarium moss for them to hide under. There is a waterfall style filter.

 

[JWERNER]

The best way to solve this problem is to send some PICS! Both of the animals and setup of course.

 

[Jennewt]

Ah, they are still larvae. When you said "baby newts" I assumed they had passed metamorphosis. I keep larvae with NO substrate, just a bare tank bottom and lots of floating plants. This is easier to clean and the food (and newts!) doesn't get hidden. At this age, you don't need to worry about them eating substrate.

 

[newtbie]

Ahh...thanks for clearing up my language error. It's good to know that I'm on the right track with keeping them in water. It was a huge ordeal to get them into the tank - will they be ok there (I would hate to stress them further by moving them again) or should I move them to another tank. I have a 1 gallon that I could use since they are quite small. Is that an ok size?
Sorry, I have so many questions! Thanks again for your help!

 

[Jennewt]

You could keep them in the 1-gallon, if you are careful about cleaning and water changes. But it won't be easy to catch them from the gravel tank.