Illness/Sickness: Newts haven't eaten in such a long time. Really Need Help

[Jbradybvb]

I have 2 other threads about this and didn't get much help. Now that im actually on a computer it might be easier to type and be more detailed.

I got my 2 fire belly newts from petco, I'm guessing around 4 months ago. They are in a 10 gallon tank. When I first got them, I had about 7 gallons of water in it with plants and a log for them to hide. I also had a floating turtle thing so they could go on land. The first couple of days they ate crickets and would spend time in the water. After that, they spend all of their time on land and it was really hard for me to feed them. they barely ate the bloodworms that I would dangle in front of them, and then they completely stopped. I tried waxworms; same thing happened. They ate it at first then stopped. It was hard feeding them live food because it would just go in the water and drown, so it was useless.

I changed their setup, because maybe they weren't old enough to totally be in water yet and it would be easier to feed live food. Now the bottom is dirt with logs and hiding places, but its not filled with water. However, I do have a large bowl that they can go in that has water, deep enough if they wanted to completely be underwater. Yes they can easily get in and out of it if they wanted to. After this change, I put in an earthworm and the little newt that was the one that never ate at all ate the worm right away. It made me really happy and I thought that everything was fixed. I continued feeding them worms but they stopped eating them, again. Right now I have earthworms, meal worms, and waxworms that kinda live in the tank with them because they don't eat them. Theyre getting skinny and I hate seeing them like this because I love animals. I have so many other pets that I spoil and do everything for but I just have no clue what else I can do for these newts.

I was thinking to try and make a tank that's half water, half land and put in some live plants on the water side and make sure that their are plenty of hiding spots.

Also, I don't bother the tank that much so I couldn't imagine them still being stressed out. Thanks for any help, I really need it. I'll answer any other questions that you might need to know

 

[froggy]

If you got these from Petco, they are likely to be wild caught, adult Hypselotriton (used to be Cynops) orientalis, the Chinese fire belly newt. How big are the newts? Do you have photographs? If they are adult, this means that you should be able to get them to become aquatic. If you set up an aquarium with lots of plants (you want it ram packed with growth) and provide them with a small bit of cork bark, they should become aquatic after a few days. You need to have enough plants that the tank is full of weed and newts can sit on them with their head out of the water, rather than just a few stems of plant. It is important that water quality is high. If possible, start the aquarium with some water from an existing, healthy aquarium and keep any eye on nitrite and ammonia levels at first. If you can get plants from a source where they are growing vigorously, rather than the half dead pieces you get from aquarium shops, that would be ideal. Also make sure the water is cool, ideally below 18C. If you use a filter, make sure it generates little or no current in the tank, as orientalis like still water. Sponge filters fitted to an airpump work very well, particularly in conjunction with vigorous plant growth, which will mop up nitrates from the water.
Make sure the piece of cork/turtle dock is small and remains constantly damp (you can even allow a mm or so of water to be over the top of it) as this will encourage the newts to become aquatic.

Ideally, set this tank up separately, so that you can transfer them to it once it is settled, rather than re-doing their existing tank and adding them straight away to the aquatic setup. You can keep them in much smaller tanks on land, so you could always use some small tubs as terrestrial tanks if you only have one larger aquarium.

In the meantime, while you set a tank up (or if they are indeed juveniles) keep the newts cool and keep trying with chopped earthworm. Try feeding in the evening when it is darker. Provide the newts with just a couple of hides so you know where to find them. Lift a hide, put the wriggling piece of worm in front of the newt and replace the hide, so the newt is left undisturbed with the worm. Check after a while to see if the newt has eaten it. Try to resist the temptation to see how they are doing between feeds, so that they are as undisturbed as possible when you try to feed them.

Check out these two articles:

1. general care for this species: Caudata Culture Species Entry - Cynops orientalis - Chinese firebelly

2. article about raising H. orientalis juveniles, the terrestrial feeding parts of which will pertain to terrestrial adults, too : Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Juvenile Newts

Hope that helps. Some photos of the newts and their setups will help, as well as measurements of max and min temperatures in the tank.

Let us know how you get on

C

 

[Jbradybvb]

Thanks for the info.

I can't get any pictures but I'd say that theyre about 2 to 21/2 inches long. I do have another 10 gallon tank so I could set it up without disturbing them until the tank is completely ready. I also have a couple freshwater tanks so I can use the water from those to fill it up. The temperature is in the low 70's which I know is a little warm for them so i'll try to cool it down. Unfortunately the only place for me to buy plants is from petsmart but im going there tonight. They seem to have some hardy plants in stock so im going to try those out.

Is sand an okay substrate to use at the bottom in the water?

 

[froggy]

If you can set up a second tank that would be ideal, so you reduce the stress of moving the newts. Try to go for vigorous growing species, like Elodea/Egeria and avoid slow-growing plants like Anubias for the moment to make sure you get the plants growing quickly. Make sure to avoid plants where the bottoms of the stems have gone yellow or where leaves are dropping as these will either die or take much longer to grow. Try to get plants as soon after delivery as possible. If you can find a healthy pond with Canadian pondweed or similar, you could also use some of this.

If you keep the tanks as close to the floor as possible and use a mesh top to aid evaporation, you can probably drop the temperature a degree or two. If you want to light it directly, suspend the fluorescent tube above the tank rather than putting it directly on top and don't use an integrated hood/lid, which will just trap a lot of the heat from the lamp inside the tank. Don't use ice bottles unless you can keep changing them throughout the day, otherwise you will end up with rapidly changing temperatures, which are worse than a constant slightly high one.

Sand is an excellent substrate, but make sure you keep the layer thin, 1 or 2 cm, to avoid the development of anoxic patches underneath it. You can also use bare-bottom tanks if you want. Just avoid gravel or other 'lumpy' substrates that could cause impaction or which will trap food between pieces.

Have you had any luck getting the newts to feed yet?

C