Newt newbie - firebelly ill or stressed?

[dani]

hey there, im a new owner - have raised fish before but am new to newts. came home with a pair of chinese firebellies this week. one seems happy as a lark, eating like crazy and constantly exploring every crevice in the tank and stays mostly in the water. the other, though, has taken to staying out upon the rocks and driftwood almost constantly. he started shedding a transparent film [skin im guessing] in pieces almost as soon as being put in the tank. now, he has a small light greyish spot over half of his face. it looks to me like its part of the skin that hasnt full shed [it's covering half the face starting at the mouth and covering one eye]. when he does go into the water, he goes into a corner and rubs his face into the corner of the glass tank almost frantically, and then returns to his place of sitting nearly motionless on the rock/wood.

everything i have read about these guys is that they take time to show illness... and the other one seems to be flourishing... which leaves me to think that this isnt an environment issue. is it possible that he is just stressed from the move or could he be sick?

thoughts?

ps, i have them in room temp water in a basement, in a tank with gravel, stacked rocks and driftwood for surface, one live plant and a few plastic. i had an underwater filter, but was afraid it was disturbing the surface of the water too much for him.

 

[carly]

I would really recommend separating the two of them for now. Just in case that spot on his face is an infection, you wouldn't want it to spread to the healthy one. But that's just me..

 

[dani]

nevermind. came home from work and newt was dead. doing a water change [thanks chatroom people] to prevent spread of whatever it was.

(Message edited by daaqa on February 11, 2005)

 

[dani]

well, pet store replaced the newt. thankfully, the staff member we got this time actually new what he was talking about [his reactions to what i said, and his answers to my questions matched up to what i have been reading on caudata.org]. after i described what happened, he didnt even bother testing my water, which they usually do before being willing to replace stuff, to make sure it wasnt the customer's fault.

the new c.o. seems to be totally fine. is very inquistive [frequently comes to the front of the tank when i am watching them and tilts his head sideways to observe me], stays in the water most of the time, seems to regulate his time between exploring and hiding and sitting still in the open, eats well, etc.

anyway, thanks for the help [on here and in chat] regarding the deceased.

ciao