newt death and confusion

[lilacdragon7]

so... one of my smaller newts died over night (I have/had 3). I fed them last night, blood worms as usual... I just put the worms in their water dish that I keep for their land side then I clean it out the next day.... but, yesterday and whenever I can (when I see them) I feed them with tweezers. I fed him yesterday like this and he ate two large scoop fulls. So did his comrades. today I found him and his other smaller partner sitting in the dish, I picked them out an set them on the side of the dish and tickled their tails to move. I accidentally pushed him over the edge, but didn't think anything of him not moving..... because I picked one of the smaller ones up a week ago... maybe the same one and he seemed very unwilling to move so he seemed dead in my hand; all contorted in his bent position, but he slowly came back to animation. I just thought he was way scared.

I DON'T pick them up very often, the temp is Always optimum, I NEVER use cleaner around the tank...
What could be wrong? should I quarantine the other two? Should I clean the tank???

I'm so very upset right now. . . I wish I knew more about pH balance... if it was my substrate, if it was the water in the dish... was it simply a failure to thrive? This little one has always been unwilling to eat or come out of hiding....

I've checked the other ones over and they are alert and fat. unlike the one that passed.

 

[ferret_corner]

Its really hard to say.

Ph probably had nothing to do with it.

You mentioned you had a land portion, I'm guessing you have water portion too? Rather than PH have you checked the ammonia levels?

How long have you had them?


I would put it down to failure to thrive if you never actually saw anything wrong beyond an unwillingness to come out of hiding and failure to put on weight despite ample food.

These things happen. I had a frog that never got much bigger than when I bought it. It got healthier over (seemingly) over the years but never attained the size of the others. One day he just started going down hill. Nothing outwardly wrong with him. He died.

These things puzzle us and confuse us and makes the loss worse. Pay close attention to the others. Be extra vigilant about cleaning & feeding fresh foods. Try a variety of foods.

I'm sorry for your loss. I wish you the best of luck with the remaining newts.

 

[lilacdragon7]

I've had them for almost a year. I have a land and water side, each populated with plants. Two pathos on the land side; thriving. Java fern and moss, dwarf anubias, which is flowering, and a patch of anonymous aquatic grass. I do regular filter and water changes. . .

Thanks for all the help.

 

[vistajpdf]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I've recently been battling water issues when my middle son's new small tank to house a Betta resulted in two quick deaths and puzzled me. The water was horrible. I couldn't understand it - it was filtered and treated, but I've learned more and more about these issues, and our tap water, since I have baby newts now and am very concerned about their water. W/ no fish in the newer small tank, I still had ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels at the worst levels. I cleaned, retreated, did a cycle starter, left it alone for weeks and now, all is well except the pH which was the only thing OK a month ago. I treated w/ a neutralizer and it's still way too high - bought a decreaser today.

As Sharon mentioned, it's probably not the pH as it's usually a number of factors that go into these losses. Perhaps the little one just wasn't thriving overall and I'm sure you gave him a far longer life than he would have had in other's care. Are your newts young - still terrestrial?

Again, my sympathy goes out to you,
Dana

 

[lilacdragon7]

HA! I find that hard to believe since Jennewt was the one who had bred these wonders. Plants will REALLY help you out with your water problems. There's also something called ammo-lock, that really helps, but nothin' like plants. Java fern and moss, the plants I have above, are easy to thrive in low to moderate light. A simple floresent light keeps them quite happy. Somthing to think about for your newts.

 

[vistajpdf]

It's weird w/ my water issues as it seems to be only the new tank (for the Betta), but now I'm concerned about the newt tanks though all seems to be well. I will give the live plants a try though they must be happy if they've reproduced.

Don't beat yourself up over the inexplicable death - something I always do to myself. We just don't always know what goes wrong and you seem so diligent as to their care, that I'm sure it wasn't preventable.

Dana

 

[lilacdragon7]

Thank you very much Dana!