New morph problems

[robin]

I've had a batch of baby JFBs hatch out & have had 4 morph so far (lost their gills & I moved them to 1/2 water/ 1/2 land setup). So far, 2 out of 4 have died. One died about a month after morphing, after clearly losing weight & now another seems to be heading that way. He/she has been out on land for about a month & is fed live black worms & fruit flies. He is getting thinner, he doesn't appear to be eating. The other one that died, died just 2 days after morphing.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm really struggling to keep new morphs alive.

 

[jennifer]

First, are you absolutely sure they are JFB, not CFB? The major problems I have with JFB morphs are that they won't go into water deeper than wading depth, and they don't eat well. I have given up on keeping them in 50/50 land/water setups and now just keep them terrestrial. The one you lost just days after morphing... could it have drowned?

I feed fruit flies, springtails, and worms. I just finished writing up my observations from the past couple of years here:
http://www.caudata.org/people/JM/Cp_juv.html

One other thing... what do they eat before they morph? Try to feed them as much as possible when they are still larvae, so they will morph as large as possible. I find that JFB larvae eat more if they are kept in a heavily-planted tank - in a bare tank they are too nervous to eat well.

 

[robin]

I am 99% certain they are JFBs as I've kept CFBs & 1 male JFB together for many years. After adding a female JFB to the tank, babies started to appear.
The one that died shortly after morphing, died on the land side. I've seen them both swim, but they spend most of their time on land.
They eat Blackworms before morphing & are morphing out at large, fat sizes. The one that's not eating now, I have actually seen him snapping up fruit flies just a few weeks ago, but not now...
I don't see them eating the black worms anymore, even when the newts are in the water section. I don't know where to get earthworms that are small enough (even when cut up) to feed to these little guys.
I'll read your observations, thanks.
Any other help is also appreciated...

 

[jennifer]

Well, I'm stumped. If they aren't drowning and they are eating, it's hard to know why they would stop eating and die. Do you dust the fruit flies with vitamin/calcium powder? Any problems with decaying blackworms?

 

[robin]

I changed the setup today to cocoafiber with 2 small water dishes. I dusted the fruit flies today for the first time. I've not had any decaying blackworm problems yet. I also put in some hide places. Maybe the new setup & hides will make him more comfy & coax him to start eating again. Thanks for the help. I'll see how it goes.

 

[alan]

Temperature spike? Have you measured the temperature of the water in the tank?

 

[robin]

The water was room temp.
The skinny one died this morning.

I do think the new setup is better, though. It just came too late for that one. They were climbing the walls a lot in the old set up, but I didn't know that was a bad thing. They seem more comfortable in the new set up. Both were hanging out under the shelters & neither has climbed the walls since I changed things.
Hopefully this will be the right set up for the surviving newt & his yet-to-morph siblings...

 

[alan]

Climbing the walls implies the temperature is too high. What is "room temperature" - your room or mine?

 

[jennifer]

If it's climbing less, then you are probably on the right track. For JFB, I wouldn't worry much about the temperature unless the room is over 78F, or has a sudden spike, as Alan suggested. At warmer temps, they need to eat more, so be sure they have food available every day.