P. waltls and salmon pellets

[kenwallac]

Hi,

I have a 40 gal tank with external filter (ZooMed) and 4 P.waltls. They love frozen bloodworms, but I have also tried feeding them the salmon pellets. After the salmon pellets (which they didn't eat), the water got cloudy and an oily film surfaced. The pellets themselves are kind of greasy. Then I found several of the red cherry shrimp in the tank dead, I'm assuming from ammonia??? I figured it wouldn't be a big deal since most of the info on the site says P. waltls eat anything, and I had shrimp and small snails in there to scavenge... I had to clean the tank and replace some of the water.

Do you know if these salmon pellets lead to ammonia issues if left in the tank? Is there a health disadvantage to keeping the newts on frozen bloodworms only? They also like the frozen brine shrimp. I would feed live bloodworms also but they would burrow into the substrate (larger smooth rocks).

 

[Azhael]

Pellets, as well as any other organic matter in the tnak will be decomposed by bacteria, which as a byproduct of their methabolism will produce ammonia. Pellets do foul the water quickly, as do uneaten bloodworms.

Bloodworms are a good food when used as part of a varied, healthy diet. As an staple, they are insuficient, and will lead on the long run to severe nutritional deficits (which are seriously dangerous thing). The ideal caudate food are earthworms! These should be the base of the diet, which you can complete with the bloodworms, the pellets and many more options.

 

[michael]

I feed my ribbed newts lots of salmon pellets and a little bit of frozen blood worms. If I feed them to many bloodworms they won't go for the pellets. Uneaten pellets do foul the water quickly. They can cause ammonia spikes I try to remove extras in 1 to 2 days. For a display tank the pellets might not be the best food.

 

[Jennewt]

A tiny bit of leftover food in a well-established tank is not likely to cause a problem. Any amount more than that should always be removed within a day. All uneaten foods will turn into ammonia. Do you have a turkey baster? It's very handy for quick pick-ups.

 

[kenwallac]

Thank you for your help. I use a gravel siphon weekly but will try turkey baster the day after.

What kind of nutritional deficiencies are we talking about? I had Japanese fire bellied newts before and they lived almost entirely on frozen bloodworms for many many years. The idea of varying the diet makes sense to me but are the pellets any more complete nutritionally than frozen bloodworms? At this point using frozen bloodworms as the staple and mixing in chopped up earthworms would be more convenient for me. The pellets are not only messier but the newts aren't very excited by them.