Question: New to the Newt world. All advice welcomed

[GrumpaDirt]

Hello everyone, my name is Graham, and I have a pet obsession. It started with cats, moved onto fish, then crayfish, then aquatic frogs, then fire belly frogs, now I am on fire belly newts (I still have them all and love them all). I started off a month ago watching an individuals videos on youtube who I have come to learn from you fine people not to listen to. I eventually through searching on google for more information found myself on this great forum. 3 weeks ago I set up a 10 gallon, and 2 weeks ago I bought and reset up in a 20 gallon long aquarium. I finally signed up for this site, and made a noob mistake and posted to the wrong sub, and the people there were kind enough to look past it and help me out. I took all of their advice and here I am now with you guys, sharing what I have ended up with (for now) and still, looking for more feedback and advice. I have been reading care sheets, and I still have questions (more like I need reassurances). So, here is my aquarium right now, and my 2 new newts, which I am not sure will even make it at this point (I will explain that after ).

This is my aquarium from the front, and closer up to the left and right. I have lots of plants (will get more if you think I should), and I have 2 6500K LED flood lights on the way for the plants (expected delivery is tuesday).

Next are the 2 newts. I was planning on getting 4, but the shipment of newts the store recieved was not looking good, well, I mean, they looked good at first glance, but the girl who picked mine out for me was nudging them and gently picking them up to see if they would move about, and they looked like statues I guess is the best way to put it. They would not move, they were stiff almost. You could of flipped them over and I bet they would have stayed that way. We ended up getting me 2 that would swim around to get away when nudged. For now, they are just sitting on the turtle dock I put in there. One has moved and the other one I have seen yawn? Well, it opened its mouth real wide and then closed it, moved its head a bit. They have not been in there long, 30 minutes maybe.

Ok, so, now you see what I have, and where I am at. I have a plexi glass lid with holes drilled in it. Im sure their heads are bigger than the holes, and the holes are not really near the edges. It fights tight to the frame, so no squeezing out. I could get a mesh top if needed. Again, 2 LED floods are ordered and on the way. I have frozen blood worms, pellets, pinhead and 2 week crickets (also 4 weeks for my toads), and I plan on ordering flightless fruit flies, and small wax worms. I live in pretty much a BC rainforest, and I have an abundance of nightcrawlers around my house. No fertilizers are used on my property, in fact no maintenance is done or needed, forest, remember lol, so my question is, as I have read in the care sheets, these are safe to collect and feed to my newts right? Is there a rick of parasites in worms collected from your yard? I ant to do anything I need to for these little guys! If you want to point out anything I am doing wrong, please feel free to, I need all the help I can!!!

TL;DR I bought newts, I read a bunch of things and I still want your help. Tell me what I am doing wrong! (I did read lots, please dont assume I just came asking you to tell me what to do!)

Also, sorry this was so long! Hope its ok.

 

[GrumpaDirt]

Sorry for the mixed up words near the end there haha. Hopefully you can all make sense of it. Goodnight.

 

[Asevernnnn]

Heres a good thread about wild caught newts like yours: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-new-chinese-fire-belly-newts-not-eating.html

If you have any specific questions, a list would be helpful too, and I can try to answer them as best as I can.
And with newts, theres really no such things as too many plants.
Worms collected from a yard are okay if the area you collect from doesn't use like pesticides or anything like that.

 

[GrumpaDirt]

I had just finished reading that thread not too long ago. I wiggled some thawed blood worms in their face before the lights went out but they werent ready. Ill try the fresh nightcrawler I caught tonight tomorrow. I am going to give them til tomorrow to get off of the turtle dock, then Im going to remove it. I have lots of plants on the surface for them to chill on. I dont want them to get too comfy on full land.

 

[GrumpaDirt]

I went and picked up live black worms as well. They wiggle really nicely. The newts dont seem interested in eating right now. I guess they are still stressed and what not. I will try again tomorrow. I tried a nightcrawler end and black worms today. They both seem to just want to chill out. I gently moved them into the water today, one had rested on some plants at the surface, and one has ended up on top of a piece of driftwood siting at the top of the water as well. I went back to the pet store today to see how the rest of the new stock was doing, they have 2 left, out of roughly 10, the rest died last night. Mine swim when in full on water and I can see movement in their necks (I guess breathing?) almost like a flutter. Hopefully they are ok. The store wouldnt let me take the last 2 live ones. I really wanted to save them more than anything. The aquarium at the store only has 1 plant, not thick at all, and a large piece of driftwood in their aquarium. I bet its not too nice to live in. I also imagine the water is warmer than it should be at their shop. Right now my water is sitting at about 69/70F.

How do you guys keep your water temps down in the summer? I have an A/C next to my aquariums so hopefully that will help when it gets warm out again.

 

[Asevernnnn]

In the summer, I put little desk fans pointed at the water on the screen lid, and that usually cools it down a few degrees, though for some reason, it tends to sometimes create a film on the duckweed. Though, even when my room temp (ceiling temp) is like 90, the tank will still be around 70F, so then a fan makes a decent impact.
And I wouldn't be too bummed that they wouldn't let you take the others, the more you "rescue", the more newts they get imported with the same or worse conditions, helping 1 or 2 newts isn't really that beneficial in the long run, which is why buying from a breeder is always best. Just a thought, though.

 

[GrumpaDirt]

I have several little desk fans so thats perfect. I will have them ready to be used on my aquariums.

I managed to get one of my newts to eat for the first time last night using black worms on the end of some tweezers. The other one still isnt eating. But when I went to feed him he took off and it now resting on a bed of java moss so hopefully he is warming up to the environment and will eat soon. Im waiting for the one that ate to come back up near the surface so I can attempt to feed it again. Cant wait to sex them and see if I need any males or females.

 

[Asevernnnn]

Since they're WC newts they're most likely adults and can be sexed. I've noticed that with H. orientalis, cloaca sexing isn't very reliable so I sex by looking at tail length and height. Males have a shorter in length and taller in height tail, and females have a loner in length and taller in height tail.
As for getting more, I would highly recommend to buy from a breeder, meaning directly from a breeder and not from a chain store or business, though finding CB of this specie can take some time since they are not often sold even though they are easy to breed. Also, I wouldn't really recommend breeding this specie for beginners either, the larvae and morphs are very small and can be hard to take care of

 

[GrumpaDirt]

I had a hard time finding even a pet store that sold newts. I will have a look around. I would love 2 more in that 20 long. Theres ample space for them all, and Im still adding plants. I got the same newt to eat bloodworms today, the other one is swimming around now but still not eating. One of them does seem to have a longer thinner tail at first glance, but I will have to get them side by side somehow to get a better look. I will let them settle in more before I do anything like that. I will continue my google search for breeders.