New Newt Tank-UPDATE Sept 7. another new tank

[Hockeyrooster]

So these two little guys finally lost their external gills and have been spending a lot of time out of the water. We moved them into this tank a couple of weeks ago. I moved some rocks, the two filter sponges I had floating in the old tank and all of the water into the new tank.
At first the newts hung out on the rocks and even on the water lettuce. Now, they pretty much stick to the same spots and don’t seem to move. The big guy, Fuego, sits on the filter sponge and the little guy, Nudey Dudey, crams himself into the wood.

I think they are eating but I am concerned they seem to stay in the same spot all the time.
Parameters are good with almost no ammonia and no nitrite/nitrate.

Is this filter causing too much flow? I’m going to remove the airline from the filter and just put on an air stone.

Any other thoughts? Am I worrying for nothing?

 

[JaceW/Lifer-Log]

I’m not certain what species of newt you have, but some go through three stages not just two like other salamanders do. The three are larvae, than a terrestrial eft for sometimes years, and finally aquatic adults. Look up if your newt type has an terrestrial eft stage. If it does just put them in a terrestrial setup like you would a mole salamander or lungless salamander. Good luck!

 

[Hockeyrooster]

They are firebelly newts. I will go do some research-thanks.
The reason I posted is they moved around the old tank more and would be up on different plants. I had the filter sponges in the old tank to seed some bacteria for a while and they enjoyed being them so maybe things aren’t as off as I think.

any thoughts on the water flow from the filter? I’d like to use at least a sponge filter in there.

 

[E. Sylvanus]

I’m not terribly familiar with firebellies (so if someone more experienced sees this and has better information, please correct me), but it sounds like they are efts, so they will want to spend time living terrestrially for a while before going back to the water as adults. I would consider lowering the water level and giving them more land to use for now. Later, when they start looking like they want to return to the water, you can fill the tank back up.

As far as a sponge filter goes, I think it would be very beneficial once they’re aquatic again, I highly doubt the current from it would be too strong.

 

[Hockeyrooster]

Thanks for the info and advice. I’ll get some water out tonight and hopefully these little guys will be happy!

 

[kwarzym]

After they morph, they become "hydrophobic" and will stick to land (unless you give them no choice). They are very prone to drowning at this phase too. You can either move them to a terrestrial environment for a few years until they become adults, or you can modify the tank to only have shallow water with plenty of plants (so they are forced to stay in the water, but don't drown) which will cause then to skip their terrestrial phase. I have always done a terrestrial phase, but other on this forum have done the shallow aquatic-only successfully

 

[Hockeyrooster]

kwarzym
Thanks. I learned a lot. Here is what I have now and am thinking I will take more water out.
How do I feed them since they don’t want to go in the water? I have blood worms and zoomed aquatic newt food.

 

[Binditheaxolotl]

kwarzym
Thanks. I learned a lot. Here is what I have now and am thinking I will take more water out.
How do I feed them since they don’t want to go in the water? I have blood worms and zoomed aquatic newt food.

Hmmm, if they stick to a newt diet, they can eat night crawlers. At least, axolotls can and I assume newts can as well.

 

[JaceW/Lifer-Log]

Newts can eat chopped nightcrawler

 

[kwarzym]

kwarzym
Thanks. I learned a lot. Here is what I have now and am thinking I will take more water out.
How do I feed them since they don’t want to go in the water? I have blood worms and zoomed aquatic newt food.

That looks better - you could remove more water to be safe, but the idea is to prevent them from drowning if they do decide to enter the water. I would still expect them to mostly stick to the rocks and other "dry land" for now.

As for feeding them, there are a few choices at your disposal. Your best choice is tweezer feeding, as it allows you to have peace of mind knowing that they are eating, and guarantees they ARE eating. Bloodworms and blackworms are both great, preferably live, but frozen is ok too. Usually if you call fish stores around your area, a few of them will carry live blackworms or bloodworms (most likely blackworms in the US). You will have to dangle them in front of the newts to get their attention the first few times (especially with dethawed frozen worms). The other option would be fruit flies or springtails. However, fruit flies tend to escape (they climb glass easily) and springtails thrive in more soil. I had some efts last year in a small 10 gallon terrestrial tank where the springtails multiplied, providing self-sufficient tank of food.

Lastly, the other posters mentioned nightcrawlers - I have found that most nightcrawlers you can buy in the store are too big for little efts, but if you have smaller ones, they should work too. But I haven't really had any luck with normal worms - they were always either too big or my newts showed no interest

 

[Hockeyrooster]

I have another update. And another new tank. Well, same tank, new habitat.
They seem to be doing well after 2 days.

My new problem is food. No California black worms in Canada and it doesn’t seem like I can get them shipped across the border right now. I got wingless fruit flies at LFS and have put some in the tank. I found Grindal worms on kijiji and will try to culture them in hopes they are a good food source. I’m going to continue frozen blood worms as well. Any other food suggestions are welcomed.

thanks for all the help!

 

[JaceW/Lifer-Log]

I have another update. And another new tank. Well, same tank, new habitat.
They seem to be doing well after 2 days.

My new problem is food. No California black worms in Canada and it doesn’t seem like I can get them shipped across the border right now. I got wingless fruit flies at LFS and have put some in the tank. I found Grindal worms on kijiji and will try to culture them in hopes they are a good food source. I’m going to continue frozen blood worms as well. Any other food suggestions are welcomed.

thanks for all the help!

Tank looks amazing, my Tiger would love something like that. Can help you with food sorry.