New Marms

[richard]

How do you guys keep your little marms? Mine are very small, maybe 2 inches long and are currently in a 50/50 terrestrial setup. Can you post pics of your setups please? I would like to know if I'm going about this right. Any comments about preferences regarding substrate or plants for these newts? I just got them today! Im ecstatic! thanks everyone - thanks erwin

 

[richard]

anyone? I have no previous experience with marms, so any info is gladly appreciated, and yes I have read the caresheet.

 

[mark]

I kept mine on damp topsoil with cork bark hides. It’s unlikely they’ll use the water area. I’d go for a 100% terrestrial set-up with a small, shallow water bowl. Plants aren’t necessary. With very young newts I tend to keep things as simple as possible to help with feeding and monitoring.

 

[ryan]

You've probably seen this but here you go. http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/setups5.shtml the 4th one down is a Triturus marmoratus setup.

 

[mark]

Ryan, that set-up is totally inappropriate for juvenile T. marmoratus. Juveniles are terrestrial. The set-up you have referenced is fine for aquatic adults.

 

[ian]

I agree with Mark..keep it simple.I breed these every year and keep the juves on damp kitchen roll with a very shallow water dish and some hides.this way you can monitor the feeding...if there is poop they are eating, i tend to feed very small crickets and drop live blood worm onto the damp paper.I raised 115 this way last year no probs.Young marms can drown even in shallow water so be careful..ian

 

[ryan]

Sorry I forgot didn't see that he had juvies, I think it is also good for Richard to know what to setup once they are adults in the future.

 

[richard]

No problem Ryan - thanks for the link anyways, as i found some other terrariums under the terrestrial section(I can't believe I forgot about them!).

Ian - I already made the tank nice and not simple already - what a drag huh. Does it really matter if its complex? What if i fed them in a separate sterile setup? would that work or are they too much of an eat whatever whenever they are hungry species? Do they eat and bulk up when they can? or are they more relaxed in terms of getting fed?
Here is my setup

 

[ryan]

That looks pretty good to me.

 

[richard]

thanks. I like the oak leaves as a nice light cover.

 

[dawn]

Here's my marbled newt setup. I just changed it from 5 gallon (they were so tiny and I wanted
to monitor their eating) to a ten gallon with more plants because I'm confident they know where there food is now (and the
empty jar this morning proves it). I let them tell me how much land or
water they want. One is usually on land, one almost always in the
water, and the other one goes in and out, half and half. There's an air bubbler in there for a bit of current.

 

[ian]

the only problem with such a set up is if you are feeding ,say, crickets or worms is ,too many places for them to hide.Unless you are going to tweezer feed them but they might take time to get used to this. I had far too many to tweezer feed ,with 115 i would'nt have had time to do anything else....ian

 

[rodrigo]

I did what Ian said with the marms he sent me and it works great. I´ve learned that marm juvies love to be hiden...and they will be invisible in a complex tank. Paper towels are the easiest to maintain. I´d recommend it too....it worked for me, but you may have a great success with your actual tank.
I´m actually starting to think about changing them to a more natural looking tank, since they are already 8cm long and most of them eat right from the tweezers.

 

[dawn]

I kept them in a 5 gallon tank with hardly anything (no plants) until I "trained" them to eat from tweezers and from the jar method. I leave them cut up worms in a jar for a few hours and whatever they don't eat can easily be cleaned. Now that they have it down, I made their tank more fun for them.
See the jar thing here, scroll down to the bottom

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/7/81121.html?1175393140

 

[richard]

I found an easy way to feed them. I put the crix food by the water dish and the crickets go over to eat and they fall in. they get stuck and they are trapped on the surface - water is only 5mm deep so the marms can stand in it. Both actively eat the crix this way.